Saturday Night – Recipe on a box – Part 1

Mick and Amy were over for dinner this past Saturday night. For the evenings menu, my wife found a recipe on the back of a pasta box (Creamy smoked salmon rotini) that she wanted me to try so I went with that as the main course.

For the starter I went with Poached Pear salad and a bottle of 2006 Dr. Pauly- Bergweiler Spätlese.

"Blue Cheese, Poached Pears and Spiced Pecans"

The nose on the wine was very mild with petrol and roses with a bit of peach in the background. Mick’s first comment after tasting the wine was "So you’re serving Ice wine with the salad?" as the wine was very sweet. It wasn’t quite Ice wine in sweetness but it wasn’t far off. The wine also had a bit of a bitter/metallic taste on the finish. At this point I wasn’t overly enamored with the wine. With the salad though completely different story; it was a great pairing. The Poached Pear salad it a tricky dish to pair with due to the sweetness of the pears and the raspberry dressing combined with the tanginess of the Blue cheese and the spiced Pecans. The Dr. Pauly Spätlese stood up well to all of the different flavours and blended nicely as a complimentary paring.

"Too sweet?"

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 86, Mark – 87, Kathy – 87, Amy – 86, Overall – 86.5.
　
Here is the LCBO information for this wine -
　
DR. PAULY-BERGWEILER RIESLING SPÄTLESE 2006

VINTAGES 71142
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 32.95
Wine, White Wine
8.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : MS
Made in: Moselle, Germany
By: Dr. Pauly-Bergmeiler
Release Date: Oct 25, 2008
　
Tasting Note - Pale straw yellow in colour, the nose reveals notes of peach, apple blossom, clover honey and mineral. It shows lovely sweetness on the palate, with flavours reminescent of peach, apple and honey. Enjoy this medium-bodied white with an apple and creamy cheese tart or with a fresh fruit and cheese platter. (VINTAGES panel, Aug. 2008)

At $33 a bottle, I probably won’t be rushing out to buy another bottle of this but we easily killed the bottle we did have with the Poached Pear salad and probably could have drained a second one with not much effort.

Click here for Part 2