What do you do with German Riesling Auslese?

[Isaac_James_Baker]

@David M. Bueker

@Isaac James Baker

@Howard Cooper

What to do with German Auslesen? I drink them!!!

my sentiments exactly. if i’ve got a good deutsche auslese, all i need is a glass.

You need a glass?

ha. yeah, i do. you can’t get those amazing auslese aromatics when you drink straight from the bottle

[JG_Salazar]

The fried chicken at Momofuku, or any fried chicken for that matter, works well with aged auslese.

[Howard_Cooper]

@Isaac James Baker

@David M. Bueker

@Isaac James Baker

my sentiments exactly. if i’ve got a good deutsche auslese, all i need is a glass.

You need a glass?

ha. yeah, i do. you can’t get those amazing auslese aromatics when you drink straight from the bottle

Great point.

[Rick_Murphy]

Fried chicken? I never considered that but I’m willing to give it a whirl.

Rick

[salilb]

@JG Salazar

The fried chicken at Momofuku, or any fried chicken for that matter, works well with aged auslese.

Haven’t yet been to Momofuku (do they allow BYO?), but the fried chicken at Soul Flavors in Jersey City has always gone well with Riesling.

[johngonzales]

@John Morris

@Jane Crabill

Maybe with a fruit dessert such as peach pie or peach cobbler.

I would avoid that because you don’t want to have the two sweet things competing. There’s a real danger the wine will taste lousy. Maybe with unsweetened fruit, but conventional desserts are dangerous with sweet wines. A relatively unsweet almond or walnut cake is a good foil, though.

As Auslese dry out, they can work wonderfully with smoked fish of any sort. Or as an aperitif.

Really? I think a sweet wine and sweet dessert go fine together. In fact if a dessert is sweet, I think it’s preferable to make sure the wine has an ample amount of sweetness to match. Otherwise the wine can come off as acidic/astringent/tart. The two sweet things are heavy on the palate, but the flavors match.
The problem with Auslese is that there can be varying levels of sweetness and in general it is not sweet enough to go with most desserts. The unsweet cake is a good idea, even to the extent of an apple dessert that is not very sweet. For the less sweet, aged Auslese poultry, pates, lighter pork dishes work. My favorites would be asian food with some heat, or cheeses (esp. blue).

[Howard_Camhi]

@Olivier Landry

I serve them with the cheese plate, I’ve found that it went incredibly well with many cheeses.

Exactly right. . .

[Brent_Houk]

Spicy Asian, yes; also rich dishes like pates, and grilled pork with fruit glazes or chutneys (a peach compote works great). Same for richer Spatlesen – with some bottle age they are remarkably good with these foods.

[Bill_Klapp_deactivated]

First choice Thai food, and I agree with Jane that dessert does the trick, too. All I need say is Lotus of Siam in Vegas, and I believe also in NYC (or on its way). They have (or had) the greatest German Riesling cellar that I have ever experienced, and very little else in it. The greatest pairing trick in the entire world of wine is pitting sweetness in a dish against sweetness in a wine such as an Auslese, Sauternes, etc. You get it right (and it is not very hard to do-foie gras with a fresh fig (mango, cherries, many fruits will do) compote or with said fruit in a reduction, for example), and the sweetness in the food neutralizes the sweetness in the wine, and not only does not spoil the wine, it transforms it into an off-dry-to-dry wine that reveals tastes (aromas are aromas, that does not change, of course) and nuances that the sweet wine alone cannot deliver otherwise. Regarding dessert, you would not want, say, something sugary-sweet like pecan pie, but rather, something subtly sweet. (A little-seen late-spring Piemontese specialty comes to mind: fried acacia blossoms drizzled with acacia honey, as antipasto or dessert!) This theory also gives us combos like strawberries and aged balsamic vinegar. A greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts experience, if ever there was one…

[Bill_Tex_Landreth]

This: Recipe: Thai Yellow Curry Shrimp With Jasmine Rice - Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes - WineBerserkers

[John_Morris]

@johngonzales

@John Morris

@Jane Crabill

Maybe with a fruit dessert such as peach pie or peach cobbler.

I would avoid that because you don’t want to have the two sweet things competing. There’s a real danger the wine will taste lousy. Maybe with unsweetened fruit, but conventional desserts are dangerous with sweet wines. A relatively unsweet almond or walnut cake is a good foil, though.

As Auslese dry out, they can work wonderfully with smoked fish of any sort. Or as an aperitif.

Really? I think a sweet wine and sweet dessert go fine together. In fact if a dessert is sweet, I think it’s preferable to make sure the wine has an ample amount of sweetness to match. Otherwise the wine can come off as acidic/astringent/tart. The two sweet things are heavy on the palate, but the flavors match.

I’m not sure we disagree in theory: It all depends on how sweet the dessert is. But I find that most desserts are far too sweet to match up with Auslese or other sweet wines. They either compete or make the wine seem undersweet. And it’s risky unless you know the match from experience, because it’s hard to gauge the sweetness of a riesling and it’s hard to gauge in advance how it will match with a particular sweet.

I’ve had good luck making nut cakes where I cut the sugar in the recipe substantially.

[J_Diven]

@JG Salazar

The fried chicken at Momofuku, or any fried chicken for that matter, works well with aged auslese.

you know where i’m going with this - even the dreaded… Colonel??? Or Popeye’s maybe?

[Bill_Tex_Landreth]

@J Diven

@JG Salazar

The fried chicken at Momofuku, or any fried chicken for that matter, works well with aged auslese.

you know where i’m going with this - even the dreaded… Colonel??? Or Popeye’s maybe?

Spicy Popeye’s calls for bubbles and/or German Riesling.

[richardhod]

@John Morris

@Jane Crabill

Maybe with a fruit dessert such as peach pie or peach cobbler.

I would avoid that because you don’t want to have the two sweet things competing. There’s a real danger the wine will taste lousy. Maybe with unsweetened fruit, but conventional desserts are dangerous with sweet wines. A relatively unsweet almond or walnut cake is a good foil, though.

As Auslese dry out, they can work wonderfully with smoked fish of any sort. Or as an aperitif.

I agree with that. I don’t like to drink a great late harvest noble rot wine with sweet things, as the interplay of sweet with tart/mineralbotrytis that I look for in those wines can be flattened by the lack of sweet perception when paired with sweet food. I’m guessing the same would go for Auslese which I haven’t yet tried (shock, horror! if anyone has any good entry-to-medium-level Auslese to recommend, be my guest, please!!!).

[John_Morris]

@Bill Klapp

The greatest pairing trick in the entire world of wine is pitting sweetness in a dish against sweetness in a wine such as an Auslese, Sauternes, etc. You get it right (and it is not very hard to do-foie gras with a fresh fig (mango, cherries, many fruits will do) compote or with said fruit in a reduction, for example), and the sweetness in the food neutralizes the sweetness in the wine, and not only does not spoil the wine, it transforms it into an off-dry-to-dry wine that reveals tastes (aromas are aromas, that does not change, of course) and nuances that the sweet wine alone cannot deliver otherwise. Regarding dessert, you would not want, say, something sugary-sweet like pecan pie, but rather, something subtly sweet.

When I was served foie gras with Japanese apple pear and an old JJ Prum years ago, it was a revelation. The secret is that that the dish isn’t that sweet.

Most American desserts are so way sweet that they are a problem for sweet wines. Almost all fruit pies would be disastrous, for example.

[Bill_Klapp_deactivated]

Every word of that true. I would not bring chocolate anywhere near a Riesling, and think of how we Americans love our rich, overdone, triple and quadruple chocolate desserts. With perfectly ripe fruit, I’ll bet that I could fashion you a fruit pie, or, more likely, a fruit tart with an almond crust or some such, that would get the job done, but as you observed, it would not be any sweeter than it needed to be. A fresh plum tart with minimal sugar added. Or maybe I will just throw the plums in with the foie gras! The Japanese apple pear is a fine example of the point that I am trying to make. Also, I am used to Italian desserts, which are rarely sweet by our standards, and often driven by peak-of-season fresh fruit or nuts, as you mentioned…

[Ian_Fitzsimmons]

My two cents, I like still-sweetish Auslesen cool as an apertif. As the sugar integrates with age, as John says, they can be remarkably versatile, and the key is to match acidity and weight with the food. I find Auslesen often more delicate than Kabinets and Spaelesen, which I’m more likely to eat with spicy main courses. Cheeses are good; smoked trout is a sure thing.

[Paul_Seah]

Just had a bottle of 1994 Gunderloch NG Auslese wiht dim sum today - it was beautiful with a whole variety of little dishes.

[Bill_Klapp_deactivated]

@Paul Seah

Just had a bottle of 1994 Gunderloch NG Auslese wiht dim sum today - it was beautiful with a whole variety of little dishes.

That has real potential, as there is a touch of sweetness here and there in dim sum, and if not sweetness per se, certainly umami. That seems to me better than all the Chateauneuf-du-Pape that gets downed with dim sum at Mark’s Duck House by…well, you-know-who!

[NickWittman]

Like to age good Auslese, and generally find it a nice alternative to a Sauternes as an end of meal wine, ideally paired with cheese. That aside, will drink one with Cajun food!