A sale on pork loin this past week prompted me to make a lemon garlic pork loin( Lemon Garlic Pork Roast ) for dinner Sunday night with friends. The whole pork loin was so massive that I cut in two and froze one of the pieces. From the recipe above I marinated the meat for 2 days before cooking. Cooked vidalia onion and small potatoes made for side dish and a palate cleansing salad to follow main course. A day ahead of cooking the dinner I pulled out a 1999 Arnaud Ente Volnay Santenots de Milieu 1er and placed it upright on the counter to go with the pork. I looked at Cellartracker for some guidance on how this might be drinking and found that there were not many recent entries and within the few entries some people mentioned they had flawed wines. So I decided to have a backup ready.
The 1999 Ente was distributed by Kermit Lynch at the time and I had purchased it on release from a retailer in Massachusetts for $70. As I mentioned it seemed like a potential good fit for the pork loin dinner. Thinking that the cork might need a little finesse to get out whole I pulled out the trusty 2 piece Durand. It was a tough pull but the cork came out whole and with only about 1/4 inch of wine stain at the cork bottom. After opening I poured a small portion into all of our Gabriél universal glasses and went back to preparing the gravy for the pork loin. While making the gravy my spouse and friends said I needed to taste the wine. At first I was a bit worried that the backup wine might be needed but when I turned to look at everyone I could tell this red burgundy was a winner.
TN - On the nose there was a floral note intermingled with red fruits. Color was a dark garnet color with minimal bricking on the edge. On the palate it was clear right away that this wine had a slight rich fruitiness that was perfectly balanced with the acidity. The red and black cherry fruit with some perfectly ripe plum gave a nice richness and a thread of spiciness in this medium body wine. The wine had good length to work perfectly with the moist richness of the pork, potatoes, and onions. At this point I would say that the wine is at it’s apex but has a stride that will keep it there for a long time. Luckily I have one more to enjoy a few years down the road. Cheers!