Food/wine match challenge: chicken tajin with olives and preserved lemons

I pulled a 2018, which was a warm year, but Charvin kept it in check. I was loving a bottle I opened 10 days ago.

An old Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Cuvée Roussanne Vieilles Vignes. I had it with the same meal and it was perfect for me, YMMV.

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Couldn’t a skin contact white be good here? I find that olives/tagin dishes have a little bit of bitterness and the orange wine might stand up to it, without being heavy.

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For me the problem wouldn’t be the preserved lemon, which softens but retains a bitterness. It would be the olives. You’re putting bitter on bitter with those. You’re going to have cumin, coriander, probably cinnamon and cloves, maybe allspice and who knows what else, and lemon pith and olives will add bitter components.

So I would go with something really simple, like Pinot Grigio or the S. Rhone wines you say you don’t have on hand. Or something funky like a pet nat, maybe an orange wine, or something from Jura, which you may be able to find at that displaced Brooklyn guy’s place. The nice thing about an orange wine is that you can tell your fellow diners they’re having something really special and they won’t hate you because they won’t actually have to taste the wine.

Of course I need not mention that 2007 CdP pairs with everything. But everyone knows that.

EDIT - Adam posted while I was writing. I agree with him.

Went looking for a recipe and I see there’s one from NY Times with 1000s of good reviews, just need olives, preserved lemons, and parsley. Looking forward to it. I’m feeling southern Rhône or St. Joseph right now, will see.

America Test Kitchen has a fast recipe to make preserved lemons.

Personally would go with a slightly sweeter Chsmpagne

Skin contact white is exactly where I’d go. Have had some wonderful food pairings with these.

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Follow-up report:

We’d finished the Kumea NZ chardonnay over appetizers so I didn’t get to taste that against the tajin. This was the estate bottling and more oaky than I remembered, but had enough acid to keep it from being clumsy. It was refreshing on an evening in the mountains where I kept my jacket on.

The tajin was delicious, but not unconventional in taste. The olives were green and neither they nor the lemon dominated. The 2018 Charvin CdR worked very well. (The Alamos malbec my friends served when we drained the Charvin, … well, that really doesn’t help any food.)

The way this tajin was made, it would have worked well with a wide array of whites or reds. My fears about the lemons and the olives were misplaced.

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Good to be vindicated :yum:

Yes, you are entitled to one “I told you so.”

I mean…

I guess to be perfect, I could have added avoid Alamos Malbec, but I feel like that was implied.

Joking aside, this is real comfort food at our house and the leftovers are great!

I cooked this tonight, called for 3 small or 1 large preserved lemons and I used 2 small…even with all the other not-afraid-of-flavor stuff, that was the dominant flavor, much more than the olives. Not sure I would call 2009 Pegau a ‘match’ but it certainly held its own and was quite good with this.

Mark thanks for the heads-up on making those. Instead of full-on, made-from-scratch I wanted more instant gratification to see where this dish was heading, and at least this time went with Mina preserved lemons from Wegmans. Worked fairly well, would make again even if I dial that back just a little.

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