Saturday night - Gooey Goodness – Part 1

It was my turn to host this past Saturday night’s dinner and I had three new dishes on tap and two new wines to pair with them. 

 

The first course was Brie stuffed French toast with a garlic, caper, butter and wine dipping sauce. 

The second course was an asparagus and avocado salad.  Both were paired with a 2002 Lanson Gold Label Brut Champagne.

The nose was easy to find with aromas of canned mandarins, Mott’s apple juice, cream, floral notes, nutmeg and lime.  Tasting the wine, a ton of different flavours jump out at you - lime, pumpkin pie, tangerine, caramel and a touch of beer/hops in the background.  The wine was creamy and easy to drink but the acidity was a touch light in my opinion.  The wine though did finish very dry.  It was nice on its own but was a very good pairing with both dishes.  The fact that it worked so well as a pairing for two very different dishes was impressive.

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

 

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

 

Lanson Gold Label Brut Champagne 2002
VINTAGES#: 722520
Price: $65.25
Release Date: December 7, 2013
750 mL bottle
Alcohol/Vol12.5%
Made in: Champagne, France
By: Champagne Lanson Pere & Fils
Sugar Content:13 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: XD - Extra Dry
Style: Rich & Complex
Varietal :Champagne

 

Description - A smoke-tinged powerhouse, with a minerally undertow and firm acidity, offering refined texture and a subtle range of ground spice, ripe plum, whole-grain toast, crystallized honey and candied lemon zest notes. The creamy finish shows a hint of savory fleur de sel. Drink now through 2027. Score - 93. (Alison Napjus, winespectator.com, Dec. 31, 2012)

 

It is not often that all four of us have the same rating, but I think that is a good reflection on this wine; solid, nicely structured, great with food but missing that certain magic to bump into the 90’s. 

The Brie French toast was nice and gooey and a good way to kick of the dinner on a cooler Fall day.  The garlic, caper, butter and wine sauce was the best part as it was rich and decadent.  The asparagus and avocado salad also had mint, lime, olive oil and coarse salt in it and was light and fun and quite frankly was better than I expected it to be.  Of the two courses, the Brie was true winner and I will have to do it again.  The salad was good but I don’t think I will be rushing to make it again, especially as shaving the asparagus was a pain in the butt.

 

Click here for Part 2