Saturday night – Enjoy the rain in Montreal Edition

Mick and Amy are on vacation this week so Kathy and I are on our own for the next couple of weekends. They are motorcycling out to the East coast and passing through Montreal on the way.

Every time they go away I apologize in advance for all the rain they are going to get due to my rain dance / wishing that they have awful weather on their vacation so in future they’ll decide not to go away and we won’t be deprived of their company. To any of my readers on the East coast of Canada, start building an Ark now as there is so much rain in your future for the next week you’ll need it.

Since we were on our own Saturday, I decided we might as well make the best of it. I picked up a couple of marinated Salmon filets, a kebab of scallops and vegetables and three kebabs of shrimp and vegetables and a side potato salad. I grabbed a Dufflet (http://www.dufflet.com/home.asp) Carmelita Cakelet which is a small 5.5” x 3.5” cake with layers of chocolate sponge and caramel mousse topped with toasted almond meringue; drizzled with creamy caramel.

"Flame on... Flame out"

I had a chilled bottle of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay in the fridge and decided that it would be a nice match for the Salmon. I have covered this wine a number of times on the Blog as it is pretty much a staple of my wine drinking for years. The wine is good $20 Chardonnay which tends to be consistent year after year. Recently though my tastes have been changing and I’m probably now leaning more towards the Louis Jadot “Bourgogne” as my “go to” Chardonnay. The Jadot is slightly cheaper and seems to pair with more things than the KJ.

LCBO Information – Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay 2005

Vintages 369686
750 mL bottle

Price: $ 19.95

Wine, White Wine,

13.0% Alcohol/Vol.

Sugar Content : D

Made in: California, United States

By: Kendall-Jackson

Release Date: May 24, 2008

Tasting Note - Eighty-nine percent of the 2005 Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay Jackson Estates is aged 6 months in barrel with malolactic fermentation, which is pretty amazing considering the quantity and the sources. It is all coastal vineyards owned by Jess Jackson, with Monterey and Santa Barbara fruit composing three-fourths of the blend, and the rest from Mendocino. 2005 continues their streak of top-notch wines. Loads of tropical fruit, surprisingly deep texture, medium body, and wonderful purity results in a crisp, elegant, dry Chardonnay. It is ideal for drinking over the next 1-2 years. Score - 89. (Robert Parker Jr., www.erobertparker.com, Dec. 2006)

I mentioned to Mick the other day that the propane tank on my BBQ seemed to be bottomless, well I shouldn’t have said anything. In the middle of grilling my seafood fest, it ran dry. Thankfully I had a backup tank on hand and quickly switched it out.

The salmon turned out very good, my wife had the scallops and said they were good as well, the shrimp weren’t the greatest. The problem was trying to do shrimp and vegetables on the same skewer. The outside of edges of the shrimp were over cooked and the shrimp parts closest to the center of skewer were under done.

The KJ paired nicely with all the food and was terrific with the salmon. The biggest aroma I was getting off of the KJ was pineapple. The KJ is a good full bodied Chardonnay with a creaminess to it with large fruit notes.

The dessert wasn’t bad, it was nice and fresh but the flavor combinations of it didn’t blow me away.

Cheers!

Mark