Saturday Night – Shrimpageddon – Part 1

Mick was doing the cooking this part Saturday and had three new shrimp recipes on tap for the evening.

"One of the best new dishes we've tried in awhile!"

The first recipe for the evening was a skillet of Creole shrimp and scallops. The shrimps and scallops were blended with green and yellow peppers, onions and celery in a lightly spiced tomato and herb sauce. Mick hadn’t picked a wine to go with this yet and handed me a small spoon of the sauce to try so I could suggest a pairing. I tried it and found that the tomatoes and herbs were the predominate flavours in the sauce and "Merlot" jumped into my thoughts at this points. We discussed it and Mick came back from the basement cellar with a bottle of 2005 Chateau Pey La Tour which has 89% merlot in its blend.

"$20 price point = good deal"

Nosing the wine you get a odd but pleasing mixture of Christmas fruit cake (cherry, All Spice, nutmeg) and smoke. Tasting the wine, you’ll have no doubt this is French as the fruit was subtle and it had an unmistakable earthiness to it. The balance on the wine was very good but the acidity was a touch higher then it should be. Sour cherry and thyme was the flavour profile for this wine. I enjoyed the wine on its own but this wine shined with the food and was an exceptionally solid pairing with it.

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

I did really like this wine but it was just shy of having that ‘wow’ factor I need to give it a 90+ rating. I was ‘wowed’ however by the wines $20 price point.

Here is the LCBO information on this wine

Château Pey La Tour (V)
Vintages 925859
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 19.95
Wine, Red Wine
13.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : XD
Made in: Bordeaux, France
By: Dourthe Freres
Release Date: May 15, 2010

Description - Modern-styled, but definitely rooted in Bordeaux, this rich and elegant red features cassis, ripe black cherry, cedar and vanilla flavours, leading to a chewy and medium finish that suggests plenty of succulent sweet cassis. Primed for prime rib or veal tenderloin, it will continue to reward with 2-5 years of cellaring time. Formerly Château Clos de la Tour.

*Note as this is a Vintages Essential (as indicated by the "V") they do not list year so this might be a 2006 or even 2007 rather than the 2005 review here.

I would recommended picking up a couple bottles of this as it was a very good wine for the money.

Click here for Part 2