Saturday Night – Curse you Blackened Scallops! – Part 2

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For the second course, Mick did skillet grilled Mussels and Clams with parsley and Chorizo sausage. Mick went with a 2006 Domaine Joseph Voillot Vieilles Vignes Volnay as the pairing for this course.

"Someone forgot to take a picture of the Calms and Mussels before they got eaten *cough* Amy *cough*"

The nose on this Burgundy Pinot was huge strawberry with some pepper and pine needles in the background. The flavour to the wine was a combination of strawberry and cranberry. The wine had lots of acidity but a thin mouth-feel and a short finish. I thought it was OK on its but really like it with the Clams and Mussels as a pairing.

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 87, Mark - 86, Kathy – 87, Amy – 86, Overall – 86.5.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine -

DOMAINE JOSEPH VOILLOT VIEILLES VIGNES VOLNAY 2007


VINTAGES 91884
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 37.95
Wine, Red Wine
13.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : XD
Made in: Burgundy, France
By: Domaine Joseph Voillot
Release Date: Sep 4, 2010


Tasting Note - Better aromatic ripeness and more complexity come at the price of less elegance on the earthier red pinot fruit nose that leads to delicious, rich and relatively full-bodied flavors that are supple and culminate in a youthfully austere finish. In sum, there is just more depth here. Drink [from] 2011+. Score - 88. (Allen Meadows, burghound.com, April 2009)

The clams and mussel dish were a new recipe as well and while it was good and I finished every bit of it, Mick has set the bar pretty damn high for mussel recipes and he has a couple of other recipes that I enjoyed more than this one.

This gets us to Mick’s Blackened Scallops as the next course with the Willy Gisselbrecht Gewürztraminer pairing. The scallops were their usual excellent standard but unfortunately the pairing was not. It was a decent to good pairing but it just was ‘the pairing’; like where you take a sip and smile and go ‘That’s it!’ so the quest continues. Curse you Blackened Scallops! Why must be so excellent yet some darn tricky to pair with. On the upside, Mick will just have to keep making them until we do find that perfect pairing so maybe this isn’t the worst fate out there.

For dessert, Mick picked up a decadent double chocolate cake which looked amazing but I was too full at this point to try. I can add that judging by the three clean plates around me that it must have been pretty good.

Thanks to Mick for his hard work and to both Mick and Amy for hosting.

Cheers!

Mark