Our good friends, Kim and John, hosted a dinner party last Saturday night for Mick, Amy, Kathy and I. I offered to provide the wines for the night and Kim e-mailed me the menu before the dinner so I could figure out the pairings.
Here is the menu :
Baked Crab and Cheese dip with Nachos
Zucchini stuffed with quinoa, cherry tomatoes and garlic
Avocado and cucumber salad with cilantro
Oven roasted Chicken breast with walnuts and quinoa with sides of mash potatoes and baby carrots
Cheesecake
So what wines would you have paired with these dishes?
For the Baked Crab and Cheese dip with Nachos, I went with a 2008 Edgebaston Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa. I like South African Sauvignon Blanc as I find it a nice middle ground between the crisp mineral style of the Loire Valley in France and the lush fruit-forward New Zealand styled ones. It turned out to be a very good pairing. Mick enjoyed the pairing but thought a French Sauvignon Blanc would have been better as its higher acidity would have cut through the richness of the dip better. We have reviewed the Edgebaston before -
http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2010/05/saturday-night-were-back-part-1.html so I won’t be reviewing it again here.
The second course was the Zucchini stuffed with quinoa, cherry tomatoes and garlic. I went with a 2001 Joseph Phelps ‘Napa Valley’ Merlot as my pairing here as I thought a nice fruit-forward California Merlot would be a good match. This was probably my weakest pairing of the night as age has unfortunately begun to catch up to this wine as the fruit is no longer as dominate as it once. On the upside the wine was still very good and it while it wasn’t a perfect pairing it was still a very good pairing. We have also had this wine before -
http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2009/06/saturday-night-kim-cooks-up-storm-part_7866.html (strangely enough, it was at Kim and John’s place when we had it before) so we didn’t rate it again.
The third course of the night was the one wine of the night we hadn’t had before so I will review this one. As soon as Kim mentioned Avocado as an ingredient, I started to sweat a bit on this pairing. Mick’s Blackened Scallop recipe that we all love so much uses Avocado as a main ingredient and this is a pairing that Mick and I have struggled to get right. I believe it is the Avocado that throws us the curve ball. As Avocado has a slight sweetness to it, it really messes with a dry wine. So I needed something off dry for my pairing. I remembered that I just picked up a case of Willy Gisselbrecht Gewürztraminer for an upcoming Wine Club and it was made in an off dry style. I decided to roll the dice and go with it as the pairing.
The nose on the wine had the lychee aroma which I was expecting from a Gewürztraminer with some green apple, rose and little vanilla in the background. Tasting the wine before the meal it was a touch syrupy or cloying with mango, lime and honeydew flavours to it. It was interesting mix of flavours that I wasn’t sold on but didn’t mind. With the food however completely different story; it was an amazing pairing. The oiliness and sweetness of the Avocado completely neutralized that cloying element that bothered me earlier and the mango and lime popped out big time as this wine really came to life. Mick mentioned that it may be time to do his Blacked Scallop recipe again and try it with this wine as he liked the pairing as well.
Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 88, Mark - 90, Kathy – 90, Amy – 87, Overall – 88.75
Here is the LCBO Information on the wine –
WILLY GISSELBRECHT TRADITION GEWURZTRAMINER 2008
VINTAGES 928390
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 18.95
Wine, White Wine
13.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : MD
Made in: Alsace, France
By: Willy Gisselbrecht & Fils
Release Date: Jul 23, 2011
Tasting Note - Pleasant notes of peach, ginger and lychee greet the nose here. A touch off-dry, well balanced and lovely with citrus, peach and spice tones in the mouth. Ideal for spicy Indian curry dishes featuring chicken or lamb. (VINTAGES panel, Sept. 2010)
The main course of the evening was oven roasted Chicken breast with walnuts and quinoa with sides of mash potatoes and baby carrots. The dish was excellent but by this point I was beginning to fill up. I went with an old favourite as a pairing for this one and had two bottles of 2006 Kendall Jackson Chardonnay on hand. I really like this pairing and wasn’t the only one who did as we had no problem killing both bottles.
Kim had a very tasting Cheesecake on tap for dessert which was amazing but I had to fight a bit to get through it as by this time I was stuffed to the gills. I didn’t bring anything to pair with this course as I figured after five bottles of wine for six people we would have had enough wine for the night.
It was a fun night and words cannot express how truly grateful I am to Kim for all her hard work she put into crafting some truly wonderful dishes. Thanks to Kim and John for hosting the night and hopefully the six of us will get together more often.
Cheers!
Mark
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