For several weeks now, thanks to this recent article in the Stranger, I have been craving fried duck eggs. I go though egg-craving phases every so often so this isn’t anything unusual. Duck eggs, with their ultra-rich flavor, are the best for satisfying these cravings. Today, I headed down to Pike Place Creamery and picked up a half dozen of their duck eggs. I also bought some asparagus, intending to roast it and use it as a bed upon which to serve the fried eggs. I only had one small problem. Today was winesday, and eggs are notorious for being difficult to pair with wine. Wait a second, so is asparagus! Uh oh. Would this be a winesday disaster?

Well, that’s what wine shops are for. I simply walked into Pike & Western, explained what I was planning for dinner and asked for a recommendation. The gentleman that I talked to told me that he thinks the egg-asparagus wine pairing problem is typically overblown. While you will probably never find a great pairing with these foods, there are plenty of wines out there that will be okay. Sweet or oaky wines generally clash with asparagus, but most light, dry whites will work. His first impulse was actually to recommend Champagne or any dry sparkling wine since the acidity and bubbles help to mask the problematic qualities in difficult-to-pair foods. If I wanted a still wine, however, he suggested that I go with Gruner Veltliner.

Gruner Veltliner is the national grape of Austria. Very little is grown anywhere else. Wines made from Gruner Veltliner are usually light to medium-bodied, have grassy, citrus, pepper and mineral flavors and are high in acidity making them very food-friendly. In fact, I later learned that this food-friendliness makes Gruner Veltliner one of the most commonly recommended wines to serve with asparagus dishes. According to the man at the wine shop, Gruner Veltliner is really popular among wine geeks right now. If you want to be hip this summer, start drinking Gruner Veltliner. I picked up the one bottle that they had in stock: Hirsch 2004 Veltliner #1. One glance at the bottle and I knew this was a fun, completely unpretentious wine. The photo on the label is of a deer drinking out of a Dixie cup which someone is holding out a car window. It’s very surreal. The wine experts say that you should never buy a wine because it has a cute animal on it but, if I saw this wine in a shop, without knowing anything else about it, I think I would probably buy it.

The Hirsch Veltliner seemed to be a pretty good example of a Gruner Veltliner. It was light and tart with flavors of lime and green apple. Very zippy and easy to drink. I’m not going to lie and say that the wine went perfectly with asparagus and duck eggs, but it was okay. The acidity and slightly tingly texture of the wine was able to cut through the richness of the yolks nicely, but the wine’s flavor was dulled a bit by the asparagus and eggs. It went very well with the herbed new potatoes and crab crostini that I served alongside the asparagus, however, so it ended up being a good winesday after all. Plus, since this wine is so drinkable, I can screw the cap back on and enjoy the rest of it anytime I want this weekend!

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