Saturday Night – a Sparkling Night with the In-laws – Part 3

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For the second course Mick did up his blackened scallops with avocado corn salsa. Most of us still had one of the two sparkling wines leftover but I decide to add a third sparkling wine – Tott’s Brut from California.

The nose on the Tott’s was a mix of licorice, peach and lychee aromas. Tasting the wine, gooseberry and lime were the two main flavours to it. The structure to the wine was ok but it was a touch too sweet. It was easy drinking and was good with the scallops but not enough to make me go out and buy more of it.

Here is the group rating for the wine – Mick - 87, Mark - 87, Kathy – 87, Amy – 87, Overall – 87.

"Drip pan on fire... things not going according to plan"

There was no LCBO information on this wine and like the Astoria had been on the rack for a while so I didn’t know the price. This may have been a gift which would be why I can’t remember the price. After looking it up on the web, it looks like this would be in the $11 to 15 CDN price point if it was carried by the LCBO.

For the main course I did my corn, steak and potato dish that I did earlier this month as it was something Mick, Amy, Kathy and I enjoyed and thought it would be a good main course for the evening.

"Steak, Corn and Potato dish"

I did have a small fire issue with this dish as the steaks need to hit the grill for about 6-8 minutes to paint some grill lines on them and then I slice them up add them to the dish. I tossed the steaks on the grill on high heat and meant to come back out and check on them after about 3 minutes. I got comfortable and was enjoying my wine and then suddenly remembered the steaks probably about 6-8 minutes after I put them on. As the NY Strips have a good amount of fat/marbling to them and they had been marinating in olive oil all afternoon, by the time I popped back out, there was thick black smoke pouring out of the BBQ. I lifted the lid and was greeted by very high flames. I killed the gas to the grill and quickly removed the steaks. The drip pan to the BBQ was completely engulfed in flames. It probably took about ten minutes for the fire to die out but everything worked out ok in the end. The steaks were actually cooked to about rare which was fine.
 

"The Dessert part of the evening"

We had a couple of bottles of the 2003 Joseph Phelps “Innisfree” Merlot with the dish. I have reviewed this wine before so I won’t be reviewing it again but will add that it was a terrific pairing with the dish.

For dessert we continued with the Merlot and had a selection of cheeses and dark chocolate.

Other than the fire, it was a great evening and it was fun having Kathy’s parents attend our usual Saturday dinner. I’d like to thank Mick for making the scallops as they were a great addition to the evening.

Cheers!

Mark