Saturday Night – Kim cooks up a storm – Part 3

For the main course, Kim (and John working on the BBQ) did BBQ salmon filets with sundried tomatoes, tomatoes and feta, with skewers of spiced shrimp and scallops, with asparagus, potatoes and Béarnaise sauce.

"Awesome Salmon"

For this course I thought a California Merlot would be a good pairing with the salmon. I picked a bottle of Joseph Phelps 2001 “Napa Valley” Merlot as it a personal favourite and we hadn’t had any Joseph Phelps wines in a bit.

The dinner looked awesome as it was all plated up and I couldn’t wait to try it but did manage to hold of long enough to pour out the wine and makes some notes.

"Grilled Shrimp and Scallops"

The cork on the wine side had this stunningly dark purple hue as I inspected it after opening. The nose is a combination of plum, spice and cedar or as Mick puts it “smells like California Merlot”.

"...Now with 15% more c^%k flavour!"

Looking over my tasting notes for this wine I had written – Like heaven in a glass, perfectly balanced, inviting taste, blackberry, plum… and to my surprise when reading over the notes the next day, Amy tacked on to the end of the notes “, tastes like Joseph Phelps has his cock in Mark’s mouth”.

She must have added that after we did the ratings when I went out for a smoke. Speaking of ratings…

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 89, Mark - 94, Kathy – 88, Amy – 88, Overall – 89.75

As you can see my rating was quite a bit higher than everyone else’s ratings and Amy’s little addition to my notes is her subtle way of telling me that she thinks I’m out to lunch with my rating. I will justify my rating as this, in my humble opinion, is my ideal of a perfect Merlot and I have never had one better. I will say that the wine and food pairing wasn’t perfect, at times it was very good but certain foods did throw the pairing.

There is no LCBO rating for this wine as it was purchased down in the US for $44 ($71 CDN after duty, taxes and exchange).

The main course was really good. Mick mentioned that salmon with sundried tomatoes, tomatoes and feta was not a combination he would have thought of but was impressed how well all the flavours work together.

Click here for Part 4