Saturday Night – a Surprise, a Request, and an Old Friend (part 1)

Mick was gracious enough to volunteer to make Pasta Puttanesca for the main course for Saturday night’s dinner. I felt this would be great pairing for the 2003 Salcheto Vino Nobile di Montepulcia.

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-is-vino-nobile-di-montepulciano.html

"A Surprise"

He also wanted to try something else new, so for the appetizer, he broke out a new dish and a new wine. Beef taquitos was his choice as the new starter. The taquitos were made from steak marinated in lime juice and Tequila (grilled and sliced) and topped with a mixture of diced tomatoes, onions, jalapeño peppers and cilantro, with an option of feta, sour cream and mild taco sauce. All of these tasty ingredients were bundled in flat bread wraps.

"Distinct!"

Mick’s choice of wine pairing was a 2005 Selby Zinfandel which he picked up last November on a wine run to NY state. The wine was around $19 US ($32-33 Cdn.).

For the wine tasting tonight, we decided to get a bit more formal with the process and all four people contributed opinions and thoughts on the wine..

2005 Selby “Sonoma County” Zinfadel ($19 US)

Nose : aromas of cedar, cherry and a lovely warm earthy scent to it.

Taste : candied sour cherry on opening and follow quickly by deep smokey flavor and smooth finish. Mouth-feel is slightly out of balance as the tannin seems to slightly lacking. With the taquitos you would occasionly get a odd off flavour from the wine but it was still a decent match. More spice in the dish probably would have help this pairing.

Ratings – Mick – 88, Mark – 86, Kathy – 83, Amy 75, Overall – 83

Mick didn’t think the 83 rating was fair and was upset at Amy being the ‘Russian judge’ with her 75 rating. He made the comment “You guys are crazy, this Zinfandel is so distinct!”. To which I responded, “Yeah, Quebec is also distinct, that doesn’t make it good…”

To be fair, I liked the wine and as Mick suggested it was distinct and “distinct” in a good way.

Stay tuned for Part II