Saturday Night – Lobster, oysters, shrimp & Champagne... and that's just the first course – Part 1

This Saturday Night we were supposed to have Sheian join us for dinner but due to a late flight home and an early morning shift at work she couldn’t make so it was just the four of us for dinner.

When Sheian is coming for dinner, I usually like to ‘step up my game’ on the food front and tonight was no exception. The first course was a Lobster, oysters and shrimp on a bed of ice with seafood sauce and lemon. I wanted to make the platter memorable so I used two different sized plastic containers to make a bowl out of pure ice for the center of the platter. I was sure how this would turn out but it ended up looking really good and the platter looked amazing.

I paired this with a bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne (which has been reviewed recently so I won’t be doing it here). I will say that the seafood and Champagne starter did go down very well together.

For the second course I did an Italian Anti-Pasto with Mozzarella di Bufala , Tomatoes, Basil and a side of cold cuts and olives and roasted red peppers. I paired this with a 2007 Cigliano Chianti Classico.

The nose on the wine was big as it filled the room just after being poured out into the glasses. Aromas of cherry, raspberry, cigar box and eucalyptus made up the rich nose. Tasting the wine you get cherry and black licorice flavours to start with and herbaceous notes on the finish. Mick liked the wine as it was versatile with all the different flavours of the dishes and not once did he find an awkward pairing and I can’t argue that as I found the same thing. It was a nicely balanced, easy to drink wine.


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

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

CIGLIANO CHIANTI CLASSICO 2007

VINTAGES 189803
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 18.95
Wine, Red Wine
13.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : XD
Made in: Tuscany, Italy
By: Villa Del Cigliano
Release Date: Jan 8, 2011

Tasting Note - The Chianti Classico '07 is very natural in its expression and precision of flavour. It's classy, land-focused and shows the winery is on its way. Score - 2 Glasses (out of 3). (Gambero Rosso Italian Wines, 2010).

Click here for Part 2