Saturday Night – California Love

It was my turn to host this past Saturday night’s dinner.  On our trip to Vegas last month, I had a sweet corn chowder with roasted tomatoes, garlic and bacon at Heritage Steakhouse at the Mirage that was amazing.  I decided to attempt to make my own version of it for the first course.  I changed a few things – I added the bacon to the chowder itself rather than roasting it separately and I just pureed the soup vs. pureeing and straining it like the restaurant did and lastly I skipped the roast garlic and just did roasted cherry tomatoes.

 

To pair with my chowder, I wanted a California Chardonnay and went with a Stag’s Leap “Karia” Napa Valley Chardonnay.

The nose on the wine was about medium strength in intensity with aromas of melted butter, Crème Brûlée and Irish Spring soap.  Tasting the wine, lemon and pink grapefruit dominate the wine with hints of bubble gum and papaya in the background.  The wine was nicely balanced with lovely crisp acidity to it and a finish that lingered for a very long time.   The citrus overtones and crisp acidity had me thinking the wine was more like a Sauvignon Blanc than a Chardonnay and as I have been really enjoying Sauvignon Blanc recently this wasn’t a bad thing at all.  It was a good pairing with the food and just as enjoyable on its own.

Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 89, Mark – 89, Kathy – 88, Amy – 88, Overall – 88.5.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

STAG'S LEAP WINE CELLARS KARIA CHARDONNAY 2011
VINTAGES 54585
750 mL bottle
Price $ 39.95
Made in: California, USA
By: Ste. Michelle Wine Estates Fob
Release Date: Nov 23, 2013
Wine, White Wine
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Style: Full-bodied & Rich
Varietal: Chardonnay
Sugar Content: 3 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry

Tasting Note  - A monumental Chardonnay from a monumental producer. Sets the scene with rich notions of pineapple, banana custard, melon and toast. It's rich, opulent and mouthfilling with a toasty, tropical finish. Enjoy over the next 4-5 years with grilled pork or lobster. (VINTAGES panel, Oct. 2013)

This was a funny wine as we all very much enjoyed it but weren’t blown away by it; that said, Mick made the comment “Too bad that isn’t a magnum” as we all looked at the empty bottle and wished for more.

The chowder turned out nicely, it was different from the restaurant’s version but still very good.

For the main course, I kept the steakhouse theme and did beef tenderloin with Béarnaise sauce with sides of baby potatoes and green beans.  I paired this with a 2005 Beringer’s Private Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  We’ve reviewed this before so I won’t go into much detail other than to say it was very good with main course and even better with dessert.

For dessert I picked up a La Rocca Chocolate Truffle cake which finished off an evening of decadent food quite nicely.

Cheers!

Mark

Saturday Night – It’s Viognier time – Part 3

Click here for Part 1

 

The main course of the night was blackened scallops with an avocado corn relish and tortillas. Our final Viognier was the Fess Parker Viognier from California.

 

The nose on this wine was the most powerful of the three (no swirling needed here folks) and had aromas of buttered popcorn and burnt caramel as the two main ones with some floral and wet stone notes in the background.  Tasting the wine, marzipan, toasted caramel and grapefruit were the three dominate flavours to this wine.  The structure on this wine was good with a big hit of flavour to start and good balance to it, though it was a touch soft at times and could have used a bit more acidity to round things out more.  This wine was more of a complete package than the other two as it was both good on its own and with the food.  Very solid wine.

 

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

 

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

 

FESS PARKER VIOGNIER 2011
VINTAGES 297523
750 mL bottle
Price $ 25.95
Made in: California, USA
By: Fess Parker Winery
Release Date: Apr 12, 2014
Wine, White Wine
14.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Style: Aromatic & Flavourful
Varietal: Viognier
Sugar Content: 7 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: D - Dry

 

Tasting Note - Moving to the two Viogniers, the 2011 Viognier Santa Barbara County, which was 70% barrel-fermented and had malo blocked, possesses a medium-bodied, lively and fresh profile with nice tropical, peach, citrus and floral aromas and flavors. Showing solid Viognier typicity in a fresh, lean style, it should be enjoyed over the coming couple of years. Drink now-2015. Score - 89. (Jeb Dunnuck, erobertparker.com, Aug. 2013)

 

 

To finish up the night, Amy had picked up cupcakes for dessert which ended the night nicely. 

 

Trying three news wines was fun but I want add as good as the wines were they paled in comparison to the food as all 3 courses were cooked to perfection and were amazingly good.

 

Thanks to Mick and Amy for hosting and to Mick for all his hard work on the great food.

 

Cheers!

 

Mark

Saturday Night – It’s Viognier time – Part 2

For the second course Mick did grilled peppers stuffed with corn and cheese.  The next Viognier up is the Paul Mas Viognier from France.

 

 

The nose on this wine was very mild and you really had to swirl the glass to get anything off of it, but aromas of nectarine, turpentine, acacia and chalk could be found here.  Tasting the wine, gooseberry, grapefruit and wet stone were the dominate ones.  The structure on the wine was off as it came across a touch hot as there wasn’t enough fruit to balance it out nicely.  It was also the most acidic of the three but I liked that crispness it gave the wine and it was also the least oily in texture.  It reminded me more of a Sauvignon Blanc than a Viognier which as I love Sauvignon Blanc this wasn’t such a bad thing.  I liked this wine on its own but it was the weakest of the three on the food pairings.  The weak showing on the food pairing I think was more menu related than the wine itself and if you pairing this with something that needed a Sauvignon Blanc, it would be a good pairing.

 

Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 88, Mark – 87, Kathy – 85, Amy – 86, Overall – 86.5.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

PAUL MAS NICOLE VINEYARD VIOGNIER 2012
VINTAGES 370098
750 mL bottle
Price $ 17.95
Made in: Midi, France
By: Les Domaines Paul Mas
Release Date: May 10, 2014
Wine, White Wine
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Style: Aromatic & Flavourful
Varietal: Viognier
Sugar Content: 4 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry

Tasting Note - Inviting aromas of peach cobbler, nectarine and orchard blossoms. There's some good heft and juiciness on the palate, with peach stone and a touch of nutty almond-skin complexity. A good choice for grilled pork or chicken. (VINTAGES panel, March 2014)

Click here for Part 3

Saturday Night – It’s Viognier time – Part 1

It has been a touch quiet on the blog recently as our usual Saturday night dinners haven’t been so usual due to vacations, illness and our schedules.  Thankfully this past Saturday night we got back into the groove.  Mick and Amy were hosting and Mick decided to make the evening a “Viognier night” as he had three of them for us to try with three different courses.

 

The first course was grilled crab cakes with a peach salsa.

I will review the 3 Viogniers by price, going from lowest to highest, so this means the first one up is a Cono Sur Viognier from Chile.

The nose on the Cono Sur was medium strength with rose, petrol, tomato vine and lychee aromas to be found.  Tasting the wine, under sugared lime Jell-O was the main flavour with a hint of grapefruit in the background.  The wine was nicely balanced but had the oiliest texture to it of all three of the wines.  I really wasn’t a big fan of this wine on its own, but it got much better with the food and was my favourite pairing of the 3 wines with our last course of the evening.

Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 88, Mark – 87, Kathy – 85, Amy – 86, Overall – 86.5.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

CONO SUR BICICLETA VIOGNIER
LCBO 64287
750 mL bottle
Price $ 9.95
Made in: Region Not Specified, Chile
By: Vina Tocornal
Wine, White Wine
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Style: Aromatic & Flavourful
Varietal: Viognier
Sugar Content: 7 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry

Tasting Note - Pale gold colour; tropical fruit aromas with melon, peach and orange blossom notes; dry, medium bodied, with great acidity and flavours of grapefruit, peach, green apple and pineapple; good length on the finish.

Serving Suggestion -  Serve with stir-fry or wok-sautéed white meats, vegetables and creamy poultry dishes.

As I said earlier, I didn’t like this wine on its own but I do think I would be a pretty “food friendly” wine and you can’t complain about the price point, so if you are looking for a white wine as a pairing this might be a very good choice.

Click here for Part 2