The main course was middle Lamb loin from Cumbrae’s with sliced garden tomatoes with feta and basil and green beans with butter and parmesan cheese. I paired this with a 2004 Adelsheim Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.
The nose on this wine was easy to find with huge aromas of cherry, herbs, mushroom, pine needle, sulfur and cedar. Tasting the wine, you will find black cherry, raspberry with a hint of mint in the background. The structure on the wine was phenomenal with acidity, silky tannins and alcohol all being in perfect balance together with a long finish. The wine was a bit cloudy but didn’t show any bricking around the edges which was surprising considering its age. It made a wonderful pairing for the lamb but was also very good with the tomato and green bean sides. I’m not normally a huge pinot fan but this wine was big, complex and there was very little I could find fault with and I was sad when the bottle was empty.
Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 91, Mark – 92, Kathy – 91, Amy – 92, Overall – 91.5.
Bonus Rating – Chris – 91, Jan – 92.
There was no LCBO listing on the wine which isn’t a shock as I bought this down in NY state years ago. Doing a quick web search puts the bottle price at $27-32 a bottle. The 2011 is the current release so that shows it has been a few years since I bought the 2004. This is one of those bottles that had I known it was going to be this good, I would have bought a case without even thinking about.
For dessert I picked up mini Angel food cakes and topped them with a fresh berry medley, raspberry coulis and fresh whipped cream. I really couldn’t resist doing something berry based as they are all in season and so inexpensive at this moment, it would have been a crime not to do this type dessert. I opened a bottle of Henry of Pelham Late Harvest Riesling to go with the dessert (I have reviewed this before so won’t go into much detail). The first time we had the 2006 Late Harvest Riesling we rated it a 86; this one certainly tasted better than that but I was disappointed on the nose of the wine as dessert wines usually have an amazing nose and this one was a bit funky so maybe the 86 isn’t too far off the mark. The berry based dessert was also a good choice as I think we were all pretty full at this point and this lighter styled dessert was a great way to finish up.
Even though we didn’t get to go out for dinner, in the end, it worked out for the best as I believe any restaurant out there would have been hard pressed to match the quality of the food and wine of last night’s dinner. It was great having Chris and Jan added to our usual Saturday night dinners and I am already looking forward to the next time we get together.
Cheers!
Mark
1 comment:
Mark, you have outdone yourself! I'm so impressed that you served three different fresh vegetables with the delicious looking shrimp and lamb courses. And then there were fresh berries in the dessert as well! It all looks so good! Are you on a health kick?
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