Saturday Night – Guess who’s coming to dinner? Part 3

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The main course was pine-nut Salmon with mashed potatoes and caramelized onions and sugar snap peas. I haven’t done this recipe in a long time and had been drooling over the thought of it all week long.

"My signature dish"

As a pairing to the Salmon, I picked a bottle of 2006 Jocelyn Lonen Carneros Chardonnay. I picked this up recently and was interested in trying soon than later so it worked out well.

"Worth $35 a bottle?"

Pouring it out you first notice that dark yellow colour that is typical for Chardonnay. The nose was a mix of vanilla, lemon and apple juice. The wine had more oak then I wanted but thankfully had a good strong lemon flavour to it that help balance it out more. Mick, Kathy and Amy, did not like this wine on its own, so much so that they made me open a bottle of Bouchard Pere & Fils Petit Chablis as they had no faith that this would be good with the food. I’m happy to report that the Jocelyn Lonen paired nicely with the food.

Here is the group rating for the wine – Mick - 86, Mark - 86, Kathy – 84, Amy - 85, Overall – 85.25

Here is the LCBO information for this wine -

JOCELYN LONEN CHARDONNAY 2006

VINTAGES 90076

750 mL bottle

Price: $ 34.95

Wine, White Wine,

14.4% Alcohol/Vol.

Sugar Content : D

Made in: California/Californie, United States

By: Jocelyn Wines

Release Date: Apr 11, 2009

Description - 'It may be blasphemy, but when wine tastes fantastic even in a plastic glass ... that, my friends, is my true test of a great wine.' (www.yelp.com, Aug. 14, 2007). Even the bloggers are singing the praises of this tiny, wonderful little winery in Carneros. The 2006 Chardonnay (they made about 1000 cases) was not yet reviewed, but you can expect a rich, minerally, pure-styled Chardonnay that delights right from the get-go with its scents of pear, brioche and citrus. Designed to be enjoyed within the first six years of its life, this Chard is now hitting its prime. Match it to lobster or king crab legs.

"Sheian's Cheesecake"

I will say I was disappointed with this wine as it was a $35 bottle so I was looking for a little more from it. It did pair well with the salmon but on its own the oak stuck out too much for my liking. I would recommend looking else where if you have $35 to spend on a Chardonnay.

"By the slice"

Sheian did a homemade Cheesecake and bought couple bottles of Strewn 2 Vines Cab/Merlot blend. We didn’t review this wine as by the time we got to it, we were all pretty much toast. Amy, who was nice enough to keep notes for the evening, under the section for the 2 Vines she just wrote “drunk” and I think there was drool on the page after that.

"Lighter than you'd expect!"

The Cheesecake was really yummy and the wine from what I can recall wasn’t a bad pairing as it was fairly light and fruitier than I would have expected from a Cab/Merlot blend.

It was a fun night and we all enjoyed getting caught up on what Sheian had been up to since we last saw her and hope to do this again soon.

Cheers!

Mark