Saturday, May 31, 2014

un croissant, un chien, et deux cuisiniers

59 rds

now that visits to paris are dominated by a burgeoning research project on natural wine tacit knowledge networks, it is tough to find time to give laminated dough products the detailed examination they deserve—unless the opportunity for a drive-by shooting presents itself. after coffee, emperor norton and their over-affectionate but touchably soft mutt brought me to 59 RdS (at 59 rue de saintonge), whose croissant was Extremely Good. savoury but not salty, it did not self-eviscerate when pulled apart and was appropriately bronzed. however, the crust was neither crisp nor tender (instead, fairly workmanlike), and the crumb—while open and uniform—was custardy and bready in places due to many collapsed laminations. very creditable, one of the best in years, and with a unique savour, but not at the level of the croissants from the obsessives at the tokyo manufactory of eric kayser, at least a few years ago. (the same kayser whose paris shops are now, to put it charitably, not worthwhile.)

Monday, May 19, 2014

weinland

ALT TEXT

a special edition weinland gummi pack for the homeland of haribo. the mosel, rightly, is pale and transparent, while the rhein is appropriately yellow. but the landwein of main are nothing like the pure wines of the saar, yet the saar gummi and the main gummi look and taste identical. this special edition gummi pack raises more questions than it answers.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

a book by its cover

le grolle 2011/12

read the label, know the wine. it is hard to acquire the skill and wisdom necessary to work with the material while resisting the temptation to do or add more—and still make good, good-humoured wine. in a different domain, james krenov comes to mind.

"Produced without harming man or the land. I develop my wine with the grapes, by observing and understanding nature."

this is what the industrial wine complex does with such a winemaker.