Saturday Night – Old Favourites – Part 1

This past Saturday night it was my turn to host our usual Saturday night dinner. I was in the mood to do something different and picked French Onion Soup (or in Amy’s case, Croutons with a touch of soup) and Island Pork. Both these recipes I have done before but I hadn’t done them in a long time.

"French Onion Soup"

We started with the French Onion Soup, which with the cold weather was a nice way for Mick and Amy to warm up after their trek down to our house. I paired this with a 2009 Tokara Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa, which I’d picked up from the LCBO earlier in the week.

"Freshly Baked Croutons"

The nose on the wine was surprising different for a Sauvignon Blanc as it was dominated by Peach and Green Apple with a touch of Gooseberry in the background. Tasting the wine, you’ll notice a white grapefruit flavour with a hint of vanilla. The acidity to the wine was crisp, though at time leaned towards tart. With the French Onion it was OK; the tart grapefruit flavour softened a bit but the wine got a little funky at times with the food. One odd thing I noticed, was that if you had the wine with just a crouton, the taste reminded me of French Champagne (without the bubbles of course).

Here is the group rating for the wine – Mick - 89, Mark - 89, Kathy – 88, Amy – 88, Overall – 88.5 

"Great Value"

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

TOKARA SAUVIGNON BLANC 2009

VINTAGES 183954
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 14.95
Wine, White Wine
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : D
Made in: South Africa, South Africa
By: Tokara Winery
Release Date: Oct 16, 2010

Description - Packed with tropical fruit, melon and floral notes, this crisp, clean Sauvignon Blanc is such a delightful sipper that you may not have any left by the time the main course is served. If you can hold out that long, though, savour it with herbed tuna steaks, or chicken in a coconut and herb sauce.

At $15 a bottle this wine is a very good value. There is still a decent amount of stock left at the LCBO so if you are in the market for a value priced Sauvignon Blanc I strongly suggest picking a bottle or two up.

Click here for Part 2