1. We always have wine with the food and since this is Wine and Food blog...
2. This way I have a diary of Saturday nights and which wines and foods we matched, so if I decide to do a dish I haven't done in awhile, it will hopefully be listed on the blog and I can use it for reference.
This Saturday was Mick's turn to cook and he was busy. He did three courses and two of them were brand new. All three courses had one thing in common - spice.The picture here is of the possible wine line-up for the evening. The red on the left is a Rodney Strong Zinfandel, the three white are (from left to right - EJ Gallo Single Vineyard Chardonnay, Robert Mondavi Riesling, and a Beringer's Alluvium.
Mick was planning on using a Zinfandel on the first and third courses but wasn't sure which white would pair with the second, and wanted to hold off until trying the second course to pick the wine. <--- Wuss... a real man is willing to take a shot at the pairing just by knowing the ingredients :).
First course was Diablo Meatballs and the Rodney Strong "Knotty Vines" Zinfandel.
Diablo Meatball were ground beef, onions, cumin, Chipotle peppers and a few other ingredients.
These were quite spicy, but were funny as you didn't notice the spice on first bite but it really hit you on the aftertaste. We were all sweating after a few of these meatballs.
We tried all sorts of different sauces with the meatballs - honey mustard, salsa, Zippy Sauce, garlic mayo, Bull's eye Honey BBQ sauce. Zippy and the garlic mayo were probably the most interesting. My wife made the suggestion that the meatballs had a nice flavor but would be really good as burger. At that point we all drooled at the thought of Diablo burgers with aged Cheddar, Bacon, lettuce, tomato and a good hit of Zippy Sauce. Mick has promised to do the burgers on his next Saturday.
"Waiter, there's a cat in my wine..."
Mick and Amy's cat "OJ" helping with wine duties.
The Rodney Strong 2001 "Knotty Vines" Zinfandel was a bit of a disappointment to me. I like a big bold Zinfandel and the Rodney Strong reminded me more of a softer, peppery Shiraz than a Zinfandel. Mick really liked it though so I guess it is more of what you are looking for in a red Zinfindel.
The second course was BBQ grilled shrimp in a brown sugar, orange and chipotle marinade.These suckers were brutally hot and almost too much after my taste buds were still burning from spice of the meatballs. These were good but Mick has other shrimp recipes that I like more than this one.
After trying the shrimp, Amy, Kathy and myself wanted the Mondavi Riesling and Mick wanted the Beringers Aluvium. Out voted 3 to 1 Mick gave in and we went with the Riesling.
The Robert Mondavi 2005 Riesling is a great food wine and pairs well with alot of foods that normally are hard to pair with. I've had this wine with Chinese, Curried foods, and other spicy dishes and really liked it. This pairing was good but not great, and I couldn't help but wonder how the Alluvium would have gone with the shrimp instead.
The third course was spicy Chicken Quesadillas. These normally have a bit of a kick to them but after the first two courses, seemed very tame.Mick broke out a Francis Ford Coppola's "Director's Cut" Zinfandel (since we killed the first Zinfandel with the meatballs!).
This was more like a Zinfandel I know and love - Big, bold and very fruit-forward. Out of the two Zinfandels we tried this was my favorite, but I'm sure Mick would go with the Rodney Strong.
The Zinfandel was a pretty good pairing but I was bugging Mick before this course to try the Chardonnay with it but he held his ground so Zinfandel it was. I would have been curious to see how the Chardonnay went with this...
For dessert, Amy and Kathy had bought a Chocolate and Peanut Butter based cake. It was OK but by that time I was filled to the gills and heady from all the wine so I didn't pay much attention to it.
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