Rudipalooza 2010

Tribeca Grill is again the host of Rudipalooza, the wine event for German wine importer Rudi Wiest. Along with Therry Thiese, they are the two top importers of German wine in my opinon. What's different about Rudi’s portfolio and intensions is that he emphasizes the dry quality of German wines like no other does. Most consumers relate to German wines as being sweet. But I had discovered during a group trip I was a part of led by Rudi in the summer of 2008, how dry wines are really the German style and how little they are understood.

Rudi on the right at the home of Manfred Prum (left)

of J.J. Prum taken from a 2008 tour of his winemakers.

In attendance at the tasting were many of the winemakers that I had visited. Even though the samples were smaller than the past and there were a few less people in attendance than in the past, it was another successful showing of the featured 2009 vintage.

Going a bit off dry is the sumptuous wines from Monchhof. Some of my other favorites were Kunstler, Zilliken, von Hovel, Karthauserhof and von Buhl.

After the tasting I ventured over to Daniel Boulud’s DBGB, his one year old bistro that specializes in various sausages and stellar selection of draft beers. I had a starter of pork rillettes accompanied by pickled onions and cornichons. I also had a Boudin Basque, a patty of mildly seasoned blood sausage on top of a too small dab of scallion mashed potatoes. The last course was The Berliner, a thicker version of a frankfurter that had a soft, squishy texture and seemed lacking of seasoning. It came with a less than exciting summer radish slaw.

I believe I've been to DBGB four times now and while I enjoy my time there, the sausages are rarely exceptional. Just goes to show you how far good hospitality with take you.