It was my turn to host this past Saturday night’s dinner and to be honest I have been in a bit of a rut cooking-wise lately. I was looking to do something different and decided to do Halibut in a chili lime butter sauce. As this was a new recipe, I decided to do a test run on Friday and try it out – long story short I would give it a 3 out 10, the sauce was ok and the Halibut that I’d picked up wasn’t the nicest piece of fish I’d ever had. Since the test run was a failure, I went another route and Kathy and I went through some recipe books and found a recipe for grilled Beef Tenderloin with a brandy, cream and shallot sauce that looked interesting. The main course settled we kicked around ideas for a starter and decided on an Anti-Pasto starter.
For my Anti-Pasto I needed a wine that would pair well with bruschetta, salami, cheese, pickle and olive tray and roasted red pepper dip. My first though when having this many different things to pair with was a California Merlot which would have been a safe bet but after looking over the wine rack I choose to go with a 2011 Ben Marco Malbec instead.
After we tried the 2009 Ben Marco Malbec (http://zippysauce.blogspot.ca/2013/04/saturday-night-ups-and-downs-part-2.html) I went looking for more. The LCBO didn’t have any stock but Profile Wine Group (http://www.profilewinegroup.com/) did, well sort of. Mick had the 2009 on his rack for a while so Profile had the 2011 instead of the 2009. I wasn’t sure but the sales representative was sure I would like it and after chatting for a bit I ordered a case of the 2011. Mick and Amy bought 3 of the 12 bottles but hadn’t tried theirs yet so I thought it would be fun to try it together.
The nose on the 2011 Ben Marco was big and easy to find with aromas of cherry, green pepper, eucalyptus, cedar and truffle with strawberry and pine needle notes in the background. Tasting the wine, dark berry and dark chocolate flavours dominated the wine with a hint of vanilla peeking through at times. The structure on the wine was great as it came across very smooth as the balance of acidity, tannin and alcohol was in perfect harmony. The nice thing about this wine is it was just as great with the food as it was on its own. It wasn’t quite as good as 2009 was but I have no doubt that after a few years of cellaring that it will be.
Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 90, Mark – 90, Kathy – 90, Amy – 90, Overall – 90.
There is no LCBO listing for this wine but if you want a case, you can get one via Profile Wine Group. The price was $21 a bottle. The people at Profile Wine Group were great to deal with and they will happily send your case to your nearest LCBO for you to pick from there.
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