Saturday Night – Bacon’s a vegetable, right?

This past Saturday night Mick and Amy were over for our usual Saturday night dinner and we were joined by Sheian and David. 

 

This was an interesting night as Sheian and David are vegetarians.  I wasn’t too concern about this as no meat wasn’t a big deal to work around especially since seafood was ok.  About a week before the dinner, Kathy got a text from Sheian that seafood was off the menu too.   At this point I was like no meat, no seafood, what the heck am I going to make for dinner?  We kicked around a number of different ideas and decided to do a buffet of appetizers – hummus with pita, a cheese tray and roasted red pepper dip with crackers, Greek salad from scratch, homemade cheese sticks with marinara, bruschetta, and Mick did up an avocado corn relish with tortillas.  As a bonus for the non-vegetarians I skewered some shrimp and Mick did grilled blacked scallops and grilled both on the barbeque.

Since we were being eclectic with the food, I decided to have some fun with the wine and went with a couple of unusual choices – a 2010 D’Arenberg Hermit Crab Viognier and a 2007 Lealtanza Rioja Reserva.  The Hermit Crab we have had many times before and we have reviewed it already.  I picked it as one of my choices as it pairs very well with hummus and I figured it would be good with the Greek salad as well and it was. 

The 2007 Lealtanza Rioja Reserva I picked as a pairing for the cheese sticks.  We haven’t had this wine before so let’s take a closer look at it –

The nose was powerful and aromatic with black pepper, nutmeg, black cherry and eucalyptus notes.  Mick added that he absolutely loved the nose on this wine and I fully agree with that comment.  Tasting the wine it was an interesting mix of cherry, green pepper and coffee flavours.  The structure on the wine was disappointing and it was tannic, needed more fruit and finished thin.  On the upside, it was a very good match with the food, especially the cheese sticks as they neutralized the tannin and brought out the fruit in the wine.  This wouldn’t be a wine that I sit and drink on its own but with tomato based pastas, NY strips steaks, ribs on the BBQ this wine would be very good pairing.

Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 87, Mark - 88, Kathy – 87, Amy – 87, Overall – 87.25.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine -

LEALTANZA RESERVA 2007
VINTAGES 208223
750 mL bottle
Price $ 19.95
Made in: Rioja, Spain
By: Bodegas Altanza S.A.
Release Date: Dec 8, 2012
Wine, Red Wine
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content: 6 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry

Tasting Note -  Vivid ruby. Spicy, assertive aromas of candied cherry and blackcurrant, with smoke, rose and anise accents. Sappy and seamless on the palate, which displays gently sweet cherry-cola and vanilla flavors and a hint of bitter chocolate. Finishes with good breadth and focus, leaving a suave floral note behind. Score - 90. (Josh Raynolds, International Wine Cellar, Sept. 2012) .

I was surprised at the end of the meal how stupid full I was and really the scallops and shrimp weren’t needed as all the other food was more than enough. 

Sheian brought dessert which was a nice selection of individual pastries and this finished the night up nicely.

A fun night with a different menu from the norm and a couple of different wines to try as well but I’m looking forward to next Saturday at Mick’s house.  I pretty sure I heard him saying something about seafood wrapped in bacon and served on a large helping of beef… 

Cheers!

Mark