Sunday, March 18, 2012

Saturday Night – Return of the Spice Weasel – Part 1

Mick volunteered to host dinner this Saturday as next week is Kathy’s birthday dinner which is at my house so the rotation was going to get messed up either way.  Mick had three new dishes on tap for the night with common theme – Spicy.

The first course was spicy bean dip served with grilled pitas and tortillas.  Mick paired this with a 2005 Seghesio Zinfandel.


The nose the Seghesio was a rich mixture of cedar/pine, dark chocolate, cherry tobacco, licorice with hints of blackberry in the background.  The flavour to the wine was interesting as it started pure black cherry but at the mid-palate there was some orange zest there too but then it finished pure black cherry.  There wasn’t much tannin to be found on the wine so it gave the wine a thinner mouth feel than it had back a few year ago.  I really liked this wine and it was a good pairing with the bean dip as well.  My only complaint with it was it felt like it has lost something as it wasn’t a lush and vibrant as it was when we tried it a few years ago, still very good Zinfandel though.


Here is the group rating for the wine – Mick - 89, Mark - 89, Kathy – 87, Amy – 88, Overall – 88.25.

Mick bought this down in the US at about $20 so it would have been about $33 CDN with duty, exchange, taxes, etc.


The second course was beer-battered shrimp with a spicy Thai mayo dipping sauce.  Mick also put some Chipotle Mayo and Cocktail Sauce on the side for us to try as well. 


Mick paired this with a 2008 Bouchard Pére & Fils Mâcon-Lugny Saint-Pierre.  We have reviewed this wine before so I won’t be going into it again. 


It was a decent pairing for the shrimp.  The shrimp were very good and Mick deep fried them perfectly.  I found the cocktail sauce was my favourite sauce to have with them.

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