For the main course I did pine nut and basil crusted salmon with a lemon butter and basil sauce with mashed potatoes and sugar snap peas as the sides. To pair with the course I went with a 2008 Luigi Bosca Reserva Chardonnay.
"Pine nut Salmon and sides"
The nose on the Chardonnay was a pleasant mix of lime, grapefruit, vanilla and tropical fruit notes in the background. Tasting the wine you initially get a crisp lime flavour but then from the mid-palette to finish this wine make a very wrong turn and the flavours become a mix of coffee and grapefruit. The finish on this wine is terrible, Mick describe it as if you were biting in to orange peel. The wine got even worse with the food. After having some salmon I reached for the wine and took a mouthful and exclaimed to the table "Oh my god this wine is f&^king awful!". There were no noticeable defective aromas to the wine so it wasn’t off so I have no idea why this wine was as bad as it was.
Here is the group rating for the wine – Mick - 78, Mark - 75, Kathy – 75, Amy - 74, Overall – 75.5.
"If you don't have anything nice to say..."
Here are the LCBO details for the wine -
LUIGI BOSCA RESERVA CHARDONNAY 2008
VINTAGES 142836
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 17.95
Wine, White Wine
14.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : XD
Made in: Argentina, Argentina
By: Leoncio Arizu S.A.
Release Date: Dec 5, 2009
Tasting Note - Straw-gold. Pineapple, peach, spicy oak and a whiff of honey on the nose. Ripe acidity gives shape to the supple flavors of pineapple, mango and spice, with a hint of toasty oak adding nuance to this essentially round wine. Finishes firm, with good length and verve. Score - 88. (Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, Jan./Feb. 2009)
"Lemon Tart"
You might be wondering how this wine even got a 75.5 rating (i.e. if it was so bad why not rate it much less than a 75?). Basically if a beverage is made from grapes, has alcohol/is fermented and looks like wine it will get a 70. As the nose on the wine was nice I didn’t think a 70 was fair so that how I got to my 75 rating. A wine around an 80 rating is decent but nothing special, an 85 rating means the wine is solid and may have a bit of character to it, a 90 rating mean this wine is something special and a 95 rating puts this wine in a class on it own (nectar of the gods area).
Well the Chardonnay was disappointing, on the upside the salmon rocked so the night wasn’t a total bust. We finished the night with a triple lemon tart that was also very good.
Next Saturday I’m hosting again and we’ll have some addition guests besides Mick and Amy so that should be a fun time.
Cheers!
Mark
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