Got together with a small group of friends that meets 5 times a year to create excuses to haul out our most interesting wines. This weekend was my turn to come up with a dinner and solicit wines from everyone. Took a day and a half of cooking and prep for me to do it all on my own, and it reminded me (and my aching back) why I only do this once in awhile!
I created a menu and the assigned each member a course to match a wine with. They nominated 2 or 3 wines and I made the final decision on which one they should bring. That way they get to share in the thought process of doing the wine matching but still get a surprise when they see the menu and the wines the others have selected. In this case we tasted the first few blind at first just to exercise out palates and memories.
1989 Henriot Brut Champagne – this was surprisingly fresh and young in the nose, the complexity only showing once you tasted the wine. The wine has considerable acidity and would work well with many different foods, though in this case I served it on it’s own as there was more than enough food to come.
First course – salmon and asparagus en croute – a filet of salmon topped with a mixture of crème fraiche, dill and the finely sliced asparagus tops, then a layer of asparagus stalks (uncooked) on top of that, all done in puff pastry. Cooked in a very hot oven, the fish is completely cooked while the asparagus remains al dente. I served this with a finely sliced fennel salad with citrus dressing, orange and lemon rind and pine nuts. Choices of wine offered to me included a Chablis, another Chard and the following:
1999 Dom. Weinbach Riesling Schlossberg – this wine wasn’t showing as well as it has with other bottles. Rather dark in colour, very dry, and a slight bitterness at the end I haven’t experienced last time I tasted it. C’est la vie. Mated fairly well with the salmon and would probably have worked even better if it had been a better bottle with more fruit.
The next course was a mushroom soup made with cepes and finished with chanterelles. Again, suggestions ranged through the conventional matches that were sure to work, like red Burgundy, but I selected an outside choice:
1996 Muga Prado Enea Rioja Gran Reserva – colour a little darker than I’d expected and there was lots of oak/vanilla in the nose as well as dark fruit. It has excellent flavour intensity, soft tannin and a good finish. Went well with the soup. I later thought that had I been on the other end of the selection process and was offered this course to match, a really good Madeira would be most interesting.
Next course was pork tenderloin with rosemary and pears, spiced with fresh ginger and cooked with bacon. I served it with sliced endives sautéed with golden raisins, the sweetness working well against the pear in the main dish.
2001 Ch. de Beaucastel – now you may be wondering where my head was at choosing this wine. Traditionally Beaucastel has always been blended with a high Mourvedre component and it has needed about a decade to sort out and hit drinking plateau. I had tasted this wine before, however, and been amazed at how forward it was and with so little tannin. Checked the usual reviewers and they were calling this a long term wine. This bottle was exactly how I remember the last one. Dark quite lovely colour, still some purple at the edges but a deep red in the body. Nose absolutely clear of any Bret, a classic Rhone garrigue, leather and a hint of mushrooms. Ripe, forward and showing amazingly soft tannins, this drinks so well now that I have a problem agreeing with Parker, who said it would go into the usual closed dumb phase for 7-8 years when he reviewed it in 2004 (it hasn’t), and with Perrin himself who allowed as how this was similar to the 1990. This is a great wine for those who are not into delayed gratification, but it remains to be seen if it is also a good one for those of us that prefer the wines well cellared and mature.
The main course was a North African preparation of lamb, red peppers, preserved lemons, black olives, orange peel, garlic and a huge range of spices (10 different ones) cooked a day ahead and then served the next day topped with fresh cilantro and toasted almonds. I’ve found some great matches with this sort of food and red wines. Served with cous cous (why? Just becous!) and minted baby peas with lettuce.
1997 Rodney Strong Reserve Cabernet – big nose on this one, sweet entry, soft and smooth, but ultimately lacking in brightness and length. My least favourite of the three.
1997 Kenwood Artists Label Cabernet – darker wine with a very interesting nose that you wanted to tarry over before tasting the wine – more depth, albeit a bit heavier. More tannin on palate, but smooth and showing the beginning of complexity, this drinks well now but if I had it in my cellar I’d leave it a few years yet.
1986 Kenwood Jack London Vineyard Cabernet – this wine must have been a brute when young, rivalling the 1975 Bordeaux for tannin levels, but it has finally come around, though it still shows higher levels of tannin than the 1997 did. Darkest most tannic wine of the three, but also most complex, and a nice smoothness through the mid-palate. This has turned out well and there is certainly no rush to drink it.
Finally, although I am not a dessert type, I opted to do my sort of dessert for this event to give one participant the chance to match wines with it. It was a duo of Stilton walnut tart (not sweet) and a pear half stuffed with Stilton butter. The latter is made simply by creaming together equal amounts of Stilton and butter, adding some Cognac, stuffing the pear halves and then grinding some coarse black pepper on top. I’d normally top that with a couple of walnut or pecan halves, but thought that would be redundant given the tart. Offered a challenge of matching this, the possible ranges of wines go from sweet white through dry red to what my friend finally chose, a sweet red.
1977 Dow’s Port – this wine was right up there with some of the best Ports I’ve tasted – there were no flaws at all and you’d be very hard pressed if asked to point out any aspect that you like changed. It is still obviously young, but was neither too sweet as many vintages of, for example, Grahams are, nor too spirity, a characteristic that I can endure but prefer not to. My call on this one is that it is probably just entering the drinkable stage (shame on anyone that drank all theirs ten years ago – you know who you are!) and should stay there for a very long time. How nice to take an early look at this wine, and how unfortunate that I didn’t buy far more of it when I could, especially at the prices back then!
So that’s it, all over but the washing of (many) glasses and the slow recovery of my aching back! I'd intended to take pics of some of the courses, but had too much to do and only got this one of the first course, having to snatch it from the jaws of my friend that had started to mess it about before chowing down.
Too bad you didn't have pictures of the rest of the dishes, not that the salmon pastry isn't beautiful enough. Great job!