Wine and Fresh Fish Pairing

WINE TALK
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Last week we had a privilege of having @Marcus_Goodfellow in town and we had some wine and fish together.

Wines:

  • Violin Willamette Valley Chardonnay 2021
  • Kelley Fox Hyland Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017
  • Le Milieu Sirius Pinot Noir 2021
  • Domaine Mont Don Gris 2022 (Pinot Gris)
  • Keiko et Jerome Hinagiku 2020 (Syrah)
  • Keiko et Jerome Degré de Liberté 2020 (Folle Noire)

Fish:

  • Bluefin Tuna Ototo (as is & torched)
  • Bluefin Tuna Chutoro
  • Bluefin Tuna Akami
  • Kinmedai - Splendid Alphonsino (Yushimo & torched)
  • Mahata - Grouper
  • Madai - Sea Bream (kombu-cured for 2 weeks)
  • Hotaru-ika - Firefly Squid (boiled)
  • Uni - Sea Urchin

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Japanese Pinot Noir felt slightly too gentle to handle the intensity and fat of Bluefin Tuna in general, while it was well-paired with Umami-boosted Madai. Its Oregon counterpart was well-structured and superb with Bluefin in general. With torched Otoro, my favorite is Keiko & Jerome’s. I liked the harmony of sea-minerality of firefly squids and Violin. Uni is oftentimes picky about the pairing with wine but this time skin-contact Pinot Gris accommodated the creaminess of Uni well.

Thanks Marcus for joining us! We’ll continue seeking for good pairings and look forward to having @Sonoe_Hirabayashi and @AkikoShiba with us and trying their wines with fish in a few weeks.

I’m new in the community and thankful as all above happened from my first BD purchase, where Marcus replied to my order email “I will be in DC around the same time wines are delivered…”

It’d also be great to hear about favorite pairings involving fresh fish or knowledge about Fe3+ in wines from peer Berserkers.

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I’ll mention two pairings that work for me that are probably uncommon:

  1. wild salmon and Volnay. I expect a few raised eyebrows on this but to me this is a match made in heaven. I can generalize this idea to any lighter-bodied and heavily perfumed PNs — some Oregon PNs are delightful as well with salmon.
  2. Smoked uni and Billecart-Salmon Sous Bois. I was very sceptical that this would work until I tried it at a Billecart tasting a few years ago.
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Wonderful pairing ideas! I can easily imagine the Kelly Fox Hyland we opened that night would be amazing with salmon mi cuit (or any preparation retaining the moisture in it.) Usually I find that Uni is not an easy pairing with many wines but that sounds a good one.

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🩷 oh yes!