Saturday Night – Tomato Extravaganza – Part 2

Click here for Part 1

 

The main course of the evening was Pizza Margherita and Mick paired this with a 2006 Rocca delle Macie Chianti Classico.

 

The nose on the Chianti was dominated by a rich eucalyptus aroma with black pepper, forest floor and cherry notes.  Tasting the wine, sour cherry with a splash of strawberry were the main flavours.  The wine had a thin precise mouth feel as the tannin was very soft to non-existent, lots of acidity and fruit on the wine and even though the wine was 14.5% alcohol it never came across as hot.  This was a very good pairing with the pizza.

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick –89, Mark - 89, Kathy – 87, Amy – 86, Overall – 87.75.

Here is the LCBO Information on the wine –

ROCCA DELLE MACÌE CHIANTI CLASSICO RISERVA 2006

VINTAGES 930966
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 21.95
Made in: Tuscany, Italy
By: Rocca Delle Macie S.P.A.
Release Date: Jul 21, 2012
Wine, Red Wine
14.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Sangiovese (Chianti)
Sugar Content: 5 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry

Tasting Note - The 2006 Chianti Classico Riserva is a big, super-ripe wine loaded with black cherries, blueberries, French oak and spices. Stylistically, this is a concentrated, voluminous Riserva with terrific persistence and balance. It is one of the finest wines I have tasted here in some time. The Riserva spent 24 months in French oak. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2018. Score - 90. (Antonio Galloni, erobertparker.com, Aug. 2010)

 

For dessert Amy picked up a decadent Chocolate cake which was enjoyed by all and made a lovely finish to the evening.

 

I’d like to thank Mick and Amy for hosting and Mick for all of hard work with the food.

 

Cheers!

 

Mark

Saturday Night – Tomato Extravaganza – Part 1

Mick and Amy were hosting this past Saturday night’s dinner.  Mick decided on a Tomato based theme for the night as every dish contained fresh tomatoes from his garden.  Mick mentioned that most items in his garden haven’t been growing as well as they did last year except for tomatoes as he got a bumper crop of them this year.

 

The first course was brie barbequed on a cedar plank with bruschetta and toasted sliced baguette.  Mick paired this with a Bollinger’s Brut Rose Champagne (Non-vintage).  We have had this before - http://zippysauce.blogspot.ca/2012/07/friday-night-yet-another-champagne.html so I won’t be reviewing it again.  The Brie was excellent but the wine pairing was just OK.  There was a little too much lime on the flavour of the Champagne which made it seem sharp against the Brie.  Kathy thought a Merlot would be a good pairing for this dish and I think she is on the right track with that idea.

For the second course, Mick did a soup made from grilled tomatoes, onion and garlic.  Mick paired this with a Cape Point Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa. 

The nose on the Cape Point was big for a Sauvignon Blanc with aromas of Irish Spring soap, gooseberry, cat’s pee and some floral notes in the background.  Tasting the wine, vivid flavours of gooseberry and grapefruit with a touch of black licorice run the length of the wine.  The structure was good with fresh acidity, plenty of fruit but the alcohol of the wine peaked through at times making it a little hot.  The finish was a bit shorter than I would have liked but all in all a very easy drinking wine.  I liked it as a pairing with the soup as it stood up to all the different flavours of the soup without an issue.  I really enjoyed this wine, the nose and the flavours to it had me coming back for more very quickly.

 

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick –89, Mark - 90, Kathy – 87, Amy – 87, Overall – 88.25.

 

Here is the LCBO Information on the wine –

CAPE POINT VINEYARDS SAUVIGNON BLANC 2010

 

VINTAGES 285221
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 18.95
Made in: South Africa
By: Cape Point Vineyards
Release Date: Aug 4, 2012
Wine, White Wine
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Sauvignon Blanc
Sugar Content: 2 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry

 

Tasting Note - Very pale, clear color. Refined aromas of grapefruit pith, menthol, mint and flowers. At once rich and brisk, with intense lime and mineral flavors giving energy to the mid-palate. A distinctly Loire-like sauvignon blanc with a dense core of fruit and terrific acidity. Really rises slowly on the graceful back end. Outstanding sauvignon blanc. Score - 92. (Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar, March/April 2011)

 

The soup recipe was a new one for Mick and it was pretty decent.  It was a bit thin and we all thought a quick two to three second burst with a hand blender would thicken it up and make the consistency better.

 

Click here for Part 2

Saturday Night – Great Expectations – Part 2

Click here for Part 1

 

The 2007 Robert Mondavi “Private Reserve” Cabernet Sauvignon also caught me off guard but for different reasons.  The nose on it was also huge with black licorice, ripe tomato, green pepper and dark chocolate.  Tasting the wine on its own I was floored by how chalky/tannic it was; I found it almost undrinkable on its own.  Tasting the wine with the food, especially with the rare to medium rare beef, wow was it good.  Raspberry and rich dark chocolate flavours with a big, bold mouth feel and a finish that lingered forever.  The alcohol was listed at 16% which is very high for a cab but it certainly didn’t come across as hot.  This wine is still very young but with 5 years or more of cellaring this wine will be stunning.  I have two more bottles of it on the rack and am looking forward to trying them in 5 and 10 years down the road.

 

Here is the group rating for the wine – Mark -94, Chris -90, Kathy -88, Jan -89, Overall – 90.25.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

ROBERT MONDAVI RESERVE CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2007

VINTAGES 670463
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 139.95
Made in: California, USA
By: Icon Estates
Release Date: Feb 4, 2012
Wine, Red Wine
14.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry

Description - James Laube of the Wine Spectator gave this wine a rating of 95, and designated it as a Collectible. (Sept. 30, 2010) .

Tasting Note - The full-bodied, powerful, pure 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is another outstanding effort revealing notes of spring flowers, toasty oak, creme de cassis, licorice, and graphite. One would have to go back to the 1990, 1991, 2001, or 2002 to find a Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve this impressive. The 2007 should evolve for 20-25 years. Score - 95+. (Robert Parker Jr., erobertparker.com, Dec. 2009)

As you can see there is a big difference between Kathy and my ratings (88 vs. 94).  Kathy is judging the wine on its merits right now, whereas mine is taking in how good I think this wine will be in five to ten years.

For dessert I picked up a New York style cheesecake cake.  I assumed that this was a cheesecake but it was actually a dark chocolate cake with layers of chocolate cheese cake between layers of cake.  This was a bit disappointing but the cake itself was very good as it was incredibly rich and moist.  The Insignia actually ended up being the better pairing with the dessert whereas the Mondavi was the better one with the meal.

It was a real shame that Mick and Amy couldn’t make it as I really believe Mick would have fallen in love with the 2007 Mondavi.  On the upside, I know Mick and Amy have 2 bottles of it in there cellar like I do and will get to try it eventually.  I would like to thank Chris and Jan for their great company and I enjoyed the evening very much.  I would also like to thank Chris for taking photos for this blog and Jan for taking notes on the wines.

Cheers!

Mark

Saturday Night – Great Expectations – Part 1

This past Saturday night dinner was supposed to be Chris and Jan joining the four of us for dinner.  Unfortunately, Mick and Amy had to cancel at the last moment due to a family medical emergency so dinner for six became dinner for four. 

 

This put me a bit of a dilemma as I had ton of food prepped and was planning on doing to higher end reds with dinner.  I didn’t want Mick and Amy to miss out on the ‘good stuff’ but it also didn’t feel right going ‘well Mick and Amy aren’t making it, so put away the expensive reds and breakout  the cheaper stuff’ as if to imply that Jan and Chris weren’t somehow worthy of the wines.   Ideally it would have been great to postpone for a day but I didn’t know Chris and Jan’s schedule and depending on how things went this evening, Mick and Amy might not be available anyways.  In the end I decide to ‘stick to the plan’.

 

For the first course I did Gorgonzola dip with crackers and paired it with a 2009 “To Kalon” Fume Blanc from Robert Mondavi.  This is one of my favourite wines for this year and I really wanted Chris and Jan to try it.  The “To Kalon” was really good with the Gorgonzola dip.  It was decent to start with but as the wine warmed up it became even better with the dip.

A small side story before I get to the main course.  For the Gorgonzola dip, two key ingredients that I needed were Gorgonzola and fresh basil.  My two closest supermarkets never carry Gorgonzola and while they carry fresh basil I have found their stock dicey at best; either they are sold out or the basil should have the word fresh in quotations marks as it is usually starting to brown/ is wilting. 

There is a supermarket chain locally that carries Gorgonzola but it is more out of the way for me and I hate shopping there as they are always very busy.  On Friday I decided to hit this supermarket to get the Gorgonzola.  I grabbed a shopping cart from outside the store and thought to myself, “I hope they have some freaking basil…”  I turned the cart around then stopped dead and my jaw fell open in disbelief.  Outside the store they had a huge display of potted basil plants.  There must have been over a hundred basil plants on display and each plant was huge and looked great.  I put one in the cart and went shopping.  As I was shopping I kept admiring my basil plant as the leaves were nice and full.  In the end I actually bought a second one as they were only $6.99 each.  I just thought it was funny that I was worried about finding basil and run into the world’s largest basil display.

And now back to our regularly schedule program…

The main course was Beef Tenderloin with Grilled Shrimp, Béarnaise, baby potatoes and sugar snap peas.  I had two red wines to pair with this course that I hadn’t tried before – a 2005 Insignia by Joseph Phelps and a 2007 Robert Mondavi “Private Reserve” Cabernet Sauvignon. 
I’m going to review the Insignia here and do the Mondavi in part 2.

The nose on the Insignia was big and powerful with cocoa, evergreen and cedar aromas.  Tasting the wine I was caught a little off guard as it had a much smaller mouth-feel than I expected.  The 1999 and 2003 Insignia are big and bold in the month with huge fruit and tons of flavour whereas this had a cherry chocolate flavour that seemed very subdued in comparison.  The structure was interesting as this is probably the smoothest wine I have ever tried as the tannins were silky and soft, there was decent acidity and the wine didn’t come across as hot either.  The finish on the wine was good as it lingered around for quite a while.  I liked the wine but was disappointed with the 2005 as it didn’t ‘wow’ me as much as the 2003 or 1999 vintages.

Here is the group rating for the wine – Mark -90, Chris -89, Kathy -88, Jan - 90, Overall – 89.25.

There is no listing for Insignia on the LCBO’s website.  The 2005 Insignia was purchased from the Lifford Wine Agency at $220 per bottle when buying a half case.

Click here for Part 2

Chicken Trauma

Yesterday’s post bothered me a bit as I didn’t get a picture from Amy of Mick’s awesome Cherry Bomb Chicken.  I was going to let this slide but then remembered the other time Amy forgot to take a picture was of Mick’s Marmalade and Dijon Chicken wings (or I as like to call them “the Greatest Chicken wings ever!”) .  Two amazing chicken dishes and two missing photos, I was starting to think something was up with Amy and chicken.

I need to get to the bottom of this so I called Amy’s mom and asked if Amy has any issues with chicken.

“Wow, she still isn’t over Clucky…” her mom sighed in response to my query.

“Clucky?” I asked in a confused tone.

“Yeah, Clucky was our family’s pet chicken when Amy was growing up.  She was a delightful pet, so playful but yet well behaved, just a joy to be around…. I still miss her.”

“OK a pet chicken, cool.  But what was Amy’s problem with Clucky?” I probed determined to get to the bottom of this fowl mystery.

“I suppose it was our fault… Clucky was just so much fun to be around and the family probably paid more attention to it than we did to Amy and she began to resent the chicken.  It got really bad in the Christmas of 1986… Amy was down with Chicken pox, which of course she blamed Clucky for and we had booked family photos.  Every year we would get photos done and have Christmas cards made up from the photos.  So we took Clucky in her place and the Christmas cards turned out awesome.  Amy was really mad that we replaced her with a chicken.” 

“So what happened after that?”

“Things went downhill; Amy and Clucky were always fighting with each other.  I can’t count the number of times I caught Amy choking the chicken.   It got so bad we knew one of them had to go, but we really loved Clucky and well, as Amy was our daughter so I guess we had to keep her but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to get rid of Clucky.”

“So what happened in the end?” I asked.

“In January of 87, there was a big snow storm and in the confusion Clucky somehow got out in the front yard and got run over by a snow plow.  To this day I still wonder, ‘Why, WHY DID THAT CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD’!”

At this point Amy’s mom was quite upset so I thanked her for her time and let her go.

So at least now I know why Amy ‘forgot’ to take a picture of Mick’s Cherry Bomb chicken…

Cheers!

Mark

Saturday Night – Tomato Time!

Mick and Amy were hosting this past Saturday night’s dinner and Mick had a Tomato theme going for the evening.  Mick decided that every dish on the menu (thankfully except for dessert!) was going to have tomatoes from his garden in it.

The first course was Caprese salad with a 2010 Graham Beck Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa.  We have reviewed this wine before so I won’t be doing it again now.  I will add that it was a decent match with the Caprese Salad but we thought a Chardonnay might be a better match.

The second course was sliders with a cherry tomato salsa.  Mick paired this with a 2007 Marques de Casa Concha Cabernet Sauvignon.

The nose wine was big with easy to find aromas of cherry, cocoa, wood smoke, green pepper, coffee and mushroom.  Tasting the wine, it came across very French as it was herbaceous and loamy with dark chocolate and a touch of vanilla.  The structure was a little off as it was much more tannic than it was acidic and this caused the wine to come across as extremely dry on its own.  I wasn’t a big fan of this wine on its own but it really redeemed itself with the food and was a very good pairing with the sliders.   The sliders did a good job of neutralizing the tannin and bringing out the fruit in the wine.  

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick –89, Mark - 86, Kathy – 87, Amy – 88, Overall – 87.5.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine -

CONCHA Y TORO MARQUES DE CASA CONCHA CABERNET SAUVIGNON (V) 2009

VINTAGES 337238
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 19.95
Made in: Maipo Valley, Chile
By: Concha Toro S.A.
Release Date: Jul 25, 2012
Style: Full-bodied & Smooth
Wine, Red Wine
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Sugar Content: 4 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry
Tasting Note  - A real beauty with graphite, minerality and rich, clean, exciting berry fruit and controlled oak aromas. Very pure and stylish Cabernet Sauvignon with fat but balanced cassis and sweet berry flavors. Big tannins lend structure and framework; young like a baby now; will be better and more evolved come fall, winter and over the next few years. Editors' Choice. Score - 91. (Michael Schachner, Wine Enthusiast, June 2011)

*Note – this LCBO listing is for the current release which is a 2009 and not the 2007 reviewed here.

The main course for the evening was Cherry Bomb Grilled Chicken with oven roasted fingerling potatoes.  The Cherry Bomb Chicken was a soak in a salt, sugar, cherry tomato and habanero brine before being grilled on the barbeque.  Mick paired this with a 2006 Seghesio Zinfandel.  We have had this wine before so we won’t be reviewing it again here.

The Cherry Bomb Grilled Chicken was really good; brine gave the chicken a sweet smoky flavour that was awesome.  The Seghesio was also a good pairing with this dish.

For dessert, Mick had picked up a decadent Chocolate cake which was enjoyed by all.

Thanks to Mick and Amy for hosting and to Mick and his garden for three wonderful tomato based courses.

Cheers!

Mark