These are notes from one of our periodic dinners where 5 of us get together, one cooks a meal and everyone ponies up wine that we just haven’t found an occasion for before, because it is ‘too good’ or our last bottle, or sometimes an oddball wine that doesn’t fit easily into normal tastings.
This one was an interesting format – the host chose the meal and then allocated a course to each other person (we didn’t know what the others were tasked with) who had to come up with THE perfect wine to match with the food. Makes one really think about wine and food matching, and everyone did a good job.
With a trio of tartlets – Putanesca, caramalized onion, and oven roasted tomato with little bocconcini ‘hats’, we had an extra wine I kicked in:
Lanson Black Label Brut Champagne (nv) – clean yeasty nose with a hint of vanilla, nicely balanced and a good showing considering this was something I had left from the millennium (real, not year 2000, which only the simple minded decided was the turn of century etc.)
With seared giant scallops on braised spinach and oyster mushrooms:
2002 Christian Moreau Chablis 1er Cru Vaillon – wet gravel nose, now showing a little colour, smooth mouth feel and enough acidity to mate well with the food.
With prosciutto and black figs (a tough challenge for wine):
2005 Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc - one of the best white CNduPs I’ve tasted. A wax and honeysuckle nose, smooth and full on palate with sweet honeyed fruit coming in at the end. Very nice wine.
With duck confit salad with walnuts and walnut oil:
2002 Bouchard Pere et Fils Volnay Caillerets Ancienne Cuvee Carnot – medium dark colour with excellent depth of fruit in the nose, mostly dark cherry with a hint of spice, soft and smooth in the mouth, ending with good acidity. An all round great drinking Burgundy with an especially good nose.
With penne with elk sausage and sautéed eggplant:
1990 Ruffino Riserva Ducale Gold Label Chianti Classico – my matching challenge and I dare say it worked out well as the wine was just spot on, and perhaps the best Chianti I’ve had in years. Wish I’d bought more! Quite good dark colour, lightening but not browning at the edges, mellow full nose with aromatic wood and herbs. It still has lots of tannin and acid but the weight to carry it for years to come. I can’t say I think it will improve from where it is today, but it should last for many years.
With poached sockeye salmon with beurre blanc, green beans amandine, and potato:
1999 Dom. Weinbach Schlossberg Grand Cru Schlossberg Cuvée Sainte Catherine " L'Inédit – from a small enclave in their vineyard, this Riesling had a very rich nose, just like a late harvest wine with the same concentration but no botrytis. It was also quite concentrated on palate with great length and finished quite dry.
Every wine stood up in this dinner, with no failures at all, and an excellent meal. My turn next, and I may just adopt the same allocation technique as it seems to work so well!