After awakening to an inch of fresh snow on Saturday morning, the weather did clear up and the temperature rose to a meager 56 degrees. Ironically just as the hardwood charcoal was igniting, another weather anomaly of snow pellets which sort of resembled hail started to come down and bounce off of the deck, but the sun soon returned.

I had been marinating giant Russian scallops from Trader Joe's in a citrus and Asian spiced concoction for several hours, and assembled the kabobs with onion and red pepper onto the water soaked bamboo skewers. I opened 1994 Selbach Oster Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Kabinett. It performed better than the last bottle that I opened a couple of years ago. The aroma had classic scents of petrol, slate and graham cracker, along with the healthy gold color of maturity. This is a true Kabinett with a dry profile and ample acidity to balance the slightly sweet finish. The flavor profile was mainly of lime, and it reminded me of Culley Reisling from New Zealand in the mouth. This was a fine Kabinett that is ready for maximum enjoyment now and was well worth the $12 purchase price. More and more I am convincing myself that most of my budget for 2005 European wines will be going toward Germans.