The wines:
- Bonterra Vineyards 2007 Viognier Mendocino County & Lake County, California
- Robert Sinskey Vineyards 2010 Pinot Noir Los Carneros, Napa Valley, California
The pork strips were served with a rice / lentils combo and sautéed Brussels sprouts wilth almonds.
Why two wines? The dish is complicated to pair due to the unusual food composition. Pork, Red Wine, Gorgonzola, ... The combination allows no straightforward decision. I thought that an off-dry white could work so I tried the Bonterra Viognier. It is not really off-dry but my feeling was it could work. On the other hand I tasted at Sinskey last year the Los Carneros Pinot with blue cheese. Wonderful. So I decided to try both.
Due to the Gorgonzola Red Wine Sauce the dish has a strong aroma. The rice with the lentils underlines the aroma where the medium prepared Brussels sprouts with the almonds give a nice counterpart. In total a very interesting dish with a lot of flavours. Both wines work - but on a different level. The residual sweetness of the Bonterra leads to a very interesting experience. Drinking the wine directly after some strips seems to kill the wine a little bit - the Viogner appears to be flat. But if you wait 5 seconds minimum a totally different view. Suddenly the fruity aromas harmonise with the dish. Nice thing.
However the Pinot works better. No difference if you drink directly or wait a little bit. Equal partners. The Pinot strengthens the aromas of the pork strips and vice versa. Another good example that a good prepared Pinot is a wonderful food pairing wine. Unfortunately my last bottle. I will be back to Sinskey during my next US trip definitely.
By the way: Tasting notes for both wines are also blogged.
Sunday, February 2. 2014
Haggis - The Challenge
The wine: Two Hands 2010 Lily's Garden McLaren Vale Shiraz
One day a friend from Scotland presented us two cans of haggis. We mentioned for several times that we would really like to taste this Scottish national dish and so suddenly there was no further excuse. Of course we missed the Burns Supper at the 25th of January, but we are Germans - we are excused.
One week later we started the mission. The good thing with Haggis in cans is that the preparation is easy - which seems not to be the natural thing. Nearly all recipes we checked sound - let's say - interesting. Mostly we like that all of them end with drinking a whiskey - alternatively before, during and / or after eating.
So the most challenging thing for us was the pairing of food and wine. We wanted to avoid the traditional food pairing Swede and "neeps and tatties". We chose fried potatoes and beetroot. Excellent!
The wine selection was an easy thing at the end. Most recommendations were in direction of a strong red as equal partner. We selected a 2010 Lily's Garden Shiraz from Two Hands (McLaren Vale). Very deep coloured, full bodied and a wonderful aroma of black berries. A typical "Wow" wine from South Australia. Usualy not so easy to pair with food (from my perspective), but for the haggis it was an oustanding partner. Haggis is rich and has some "fat" aromas. The wine helps to reduce this "mouth feeling" and supports the intensive aroma without overpowering. My recommendation: Wait perhaps for 10 seconds before drinking the wine after a mouthful of haggis.
At the end a perfect Sunday lunch. We will definitely have haggis again. A wonderful dish for wine experiments.
For my British friends: You can get the wine (2011 vintage) at Majestics.
For my US friends: Import of haggis to the US is strictly forbidden because one part of it is sheep lungs....
One day a friend from Scotland presented us two cans of haggis. We mentioned for several times that we would really like to taste this Scottish national dish and so suddenly there was no further excuse. Of course we missed the Burns Supper at the 25th of January, but we are Germans - we are excused.
One week later we started the mission. The good thing with Haggis in cans is that the preparation is easy - which seems not to be the natural thing. Nearly all recipes we checked sound - let's say - interesting. Mostly we like that all of them end with drinking a whiskey - alternatively before, during and / or after eating.
So the most challenging thing for us was the pairing of food and wine. We wanted to avoid the traditional food pairing Swede and "neeps and tatties". We chose fried potatoes and beetroot. Excellent!
The wine selection was an easy thing at the end. Most recommendations were in direction of a strong red as equal partner. We selected a 2010 Lily's Garden Shiraz from Two Hands (McLaren Vale). Very deep coloured, full bodied and a wonderful aroma of black berries. A typical "Wow" wine from South Australia. Usualy not so easy to pair with food (from my perspective), but for the haggis it was an oustanding partner. Haggis is rich and has some "fat" aromas. The wine helps to reduce this "mouth feeling" and supports the intensive aroma without overpowering. My recommendation: Wait perhaps for 10 seconds before drinking the wine after a mouthful of haggis.
At the end a perfect Sunday lunch. We will definitely have haggis again. A wonderful dish for wine experiments.
For my British friends: You can get the wine (2011 vintage) at Majestics.
For my US friends: Import of haggis to the US is strictly forbidden because one part of it is sheep lungs....
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