Recent exciting cooking and excellent, inexpensive wine pairings

WINE TALK
1

Lately, I have been drinking very modest wines. I sometimes go through phases where the food I cook doesn’t invite a very exciting or expensive wine at all. On the contrary, some dishes demand a very simple yet well-matched wine. For some reason, the last week or so has been in that mode, so it’s worth reviewing what I cooked and how I chose to paired the wines I did.

  • Grilled Sockeye Salmon with a brown sugar/paprika/cayenne pepper rub served with wild rice and grilled Asparagus (with olive oil, garlic and lemon zest): To serve an expensive wine with this meal would probably be waste in my opinion. The rub that’s on the salmon is both sweet, salty and spicy, and therefore pretty powerful. Asparagus is pretty difficult for any wine pairing. So what did I decide? 2007 Sella & Mosca Cannonau Riserva (from Sardinia). Perfect match for the food. The Cannonau has nice and sweet fruit and tannins, and its relatively minimal structure allows the food flavors to dominate. But its nice acidity still cuts through the salmon flavors and does OK with the asparagus.

  • Linguini with Seafood (shrimp, little neck clams and baby octopus) in a white wine / tomato broth: Again, strong flavors here thanks to the seafood. A white wine like Trebbiano or Vermentino would have worked well (but I didn’t have any of those), so would a prosecco (again…no dice), so I again chose the same Cannonau as with the Salmon. The Cannonau works well with the tomato base and is just fresh enough to stand up to the seafood. Can it get any more Sardinian than this?

  • Lamb Burgers with Israeli Feta, Greek Salad, and grilled local Zucchini: This is a pretty rustic meal. The fatty and flavorful lamb combined with the flavorful feta and strong greek salad are begging for a big wine. Preferably for one that shows some dried herb flavors (to stay with the mediterranean flavors), one that has structure, yet the fruit to hang with the meal. My choice? 2007 Chante le Cigale Chateauneuf-du-Pape. This wine ticks all the boxes for this meal and is a great companion for the lamb a well as the herbs used in cooking (Mint, thyme, and rosemary).

The Cannonau is a $12 bottle of wine, and the CdP is a $25 bottle of wine. Despite their low price, they deliver multiples the pleasure with the simple mediterranean meals I prepared. And because I believe that music rounds out the experience, I try to add music that thematically fits the food and wine. Greek music with greek wine, Spanish flamenco with Spanish tapas and Rioja, Edith Piaf with French Bistro fare, Eros Ramazotti with Italian food…I try to transport myself to these other locales to give myself a better overall sensory experience. It’s truly one of life’s great pleasures…great food, great wine, great music, great company.

2

those all sound like very tasty dinners and sometimes a simple wine fits perfectly…nice

3

Was the 2007 CdP en magnum? newhere

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[welldone.gif] No…no mag. Just a simple 750ml.

5

Not really a wine match, but seared foie gras with a pear cider was an unbelievable match…