Grape Squeeze

Quails Gate Chardonnay to go with Pear, Grilled Prawn, Toasted Pecan, and Parmesan Salad

When is the last time you had a hallowed wine and food moment? You know the kind I am talking about. When you take a bite of something delicious followed by a sip of something divine, and it’s like there is a sort of angelic choir note followed by the clouds parting to reveal sunshine! There are many ‘must try’ food and wine pairings that promise to send you over the edge and into that other place. I believe that December 2011 should be the month dedicated to tasting as many excellent combinations as possible. I mean, why not make this the time to cross something off of your barrel list? According to the experts, these suggestions for food and wine pairings may speed your transit to the gates of heaven:

Champagne with Caviar
Pinot Noir with Duck
Sangiovese with Pasta & Tomato Sauce
Cabernet Sauvignon with Steak
Bordeaux with Lamb
Sauterne with Foie Gras

There are plenty of food and wine events that you can attend where the wizardry is performed for you. The Winemaker brings the wine, the Chef prepares an excellent menu, and you get to sit back and enjoy the fireworks. That’s not a bad system… it’s part of what we do with our Wine Club and I say that it makes us happier people. However, what if you wanted to create some food and wine magic in your own home? Let’s imagine that you have invited one or more special friends over and you wanted to blow their socks off. Do you know how to go about putting it all together so that you and your guests are experiencing a taste of the divine by the end of the night?

Duck Pond Pinot Noir with Roasted Red Pepper Cream Soup topped with a Buttered Garlic Crouton and Crumbled Feta

The first thing you need is to know how to cook. There is no help for you if you cannot turn that big hot box in your kitchen on and make something good happen. There is also great hope if you are able to ferret out some of the aromas and flavours from a glass of wine. I am about to share some insights with you so that you are better able to do this. If I can do it, then so can you. Trust me. Here’s the revelation: my mother never taught me how to cook. Nope, she didn’t because she liked things to be very tidy and very organized in her kitchen, which understandably, my two giggling sisters and I were not. After I moved out of the house I taught myself to cook, beginning with packages of Ramen noodles topped with ketchup and progressing to multiple course dinners that make my company swoon. How did I learn to do it? I put my taste buds and my other senses to work. My mother may not have allowed me much hands-on experience, but she certainly did teach me what tasted good.

Let us put our minds to writing a multiple course dinner menu complete with perfect wine pairings. Do you start with the food or do you start with the wine? Technically you can start with either, but I find it easier to begin with a bottle of wine and create the course around the flavours and textures in the glass instead of the other way around. I am about to reveal an until now secret menu that I have been working on… while waiting for ‘the moment’. I hope that it will help you to understand my process, and that everyone will ultimately be super impressed by my culinary mastery.

First Wine: Quails’ Gate Chardonnay (Okanagan Valley, B.C.) – this wine is intensely flavourful with honeyed orchard and tropical fruit flavours backed with a spritz of citrus. Half of the wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks while 50% spends time in oak barrels during fermentation, increasing the wine’s complexity by adding toasty caramel and vanilla notes to the glass. Although technically dry, the wine’s fruitiness suggests a touch of sweetness. The oak treatment also changes its mouth feel to give it a softer, creamier sensation on the tongue (think apple juice vs. milk to understand this subtlety). It’s a pretty substantial white wine.

Monte da Ravas Queira Vinho Tinto to go with Grilled Filet of Beef brushed with Rosemary Garlic Olive Oil, Grilled Portobello Mushrooms, and Roasted Potatoes

First Course: I will make a salad to go with the Chardonnay. It will be a mixture of red lettuce and spinach leaves topped with slices of pear, toasted pecans, grilled prawns, curls of shaved Parmesan, and a homemade honey-lemon-garlic-olive oil dressing. The pears will echo the orchard fruit flavours in the wine and the toasted pecans will cooperate with the oak. Grilling the prawns gives them a smoky flavour and their subtle sweetness ties into the suggestion of sweetness in the wine. Parmesan cheese also has some sugariness, and the dressing speaks for itself.

Second Wine: Duck Pond Pinot Noir (Willamette Valley, Oregon USA) – this is a bottle I picked up during my trip to Oregon this summer, but it’s easy enough to find excellent Pinot Noir in Abbotsford. The wine is subtle with bright red flavours of strawberry and sour cherry, earthy notes reminiscent of mushrooms, and peppery spice. It’s fairly rich for a Pinot Noir, but true to the variety it remains a lighter red. On the finish there is an essence of mocha that lingers alongside the toasty oak.

Second Course: This wine will be paired with a roasted red pepper and cream soup topped with homemade buttered garlic croutons and feta cheese. The red peppers have an earthy and (obviously) peppery quality that is enhanced and made sweeter by roasting them. The creaminess coats the palate and allows the wine do its job of washing away each spoonful before the next one is taken. Croutons are delicious, and the feta cheese adds a fresh, cool brightness back into what will be quite an intense bowl of soup.

Third Wine: Monte da Ravas Queira Vinho Tinto (Alentejano, Portugal) – yes, it’s a mouthful to say and it’s a mouthful to swallow as well! I will definitely decant this bottle at least two hours before we begin our first course so that it has time to open up before we get to the main. I have had this wine immediately after opening the bottle and I have also had it the day after opening it, so please trust me that it benefits from decanting. It is a blend of Syrah, Aragones (Tempranillo), Alicate Bouschet (Garnacha), a few other native Portuguese grape varieties, and Petit Verdot. It is full bodied, very rich, and smooth. Raspberry, leather, and chocolate show on the palate with sweet pipe tobacco notes and some peppery, earthy characteristics. The tannins are firm yet well integrated to give structure while still cleansing the palate. The finish lingers beautifully.

Jackson Triggs Sparkling Riesling Icewine to go with Vanilla Cheesecake topped with a Warm Peach Mango Compote and White Chocolate

Third Course: Because the wine is so substantial in both body and flavour, it will be served with a grilled filet of beef that has been brushed with garlic and rosemary infused olive oil, grilled Portobello mushrooms brushed with the same oil, and roasted potatoes. Grilling the beef and the mushrooms will impart smoky richness that increases their flavour depth and complexity, as does the infused olive oil. Mushrooms are very earthy vegetables so they will complement the wine well. Roasted potatoes are just delicious. No big secret there… I will make them because I love them.

Fourth Wine: Jackson Triggs Sparkling Riesling Icewine (Okanagan Valley, B.C.) – this is the wine that makes me believe in a loving Creator of the Universe. The sweet purity of the honeyed peach, apricot, and tropical fruit flavours are intense and mouth coating with fresh acidity and hints of citrus fruits. And then… there are bubbles! This wine has tiny little bubbles that baffle the mind in their determination to reach the surface of this thick and intense golden elixir, bubbles that brighten and elevate the entire experience to one that is unsurpassed by any other Icewine on the planet. I am not exaggerating. This one is an absolute show stopper.

Fourth Course: I will make a simple vanilla cheesecake and dress it up with a warm honeyed peach and mango compote, then top it with curls of white chocolate. The key here is to keep the dessert simple enough so that it does not compete with the wine, while pulling out some of the flavours in the glass to add to the dessert. The most important thing to remember is that Icewine should always be a little sweeter than dessert.

I will probably hone and perfect this menu as time goes by, but in the meantime if your curiosity is piqued, you can check below for the recipes. I will test and write them this weekend. Please remember that I’m just a girl who was never taught to cook and who creates things more with her heart and her taste buds than with measuring cups and specifics… but isn’t that how we should approach everything in life anyways? I implore you to go forth into the festive season with your heart and your senses wide open! Give and love lavishly, and truly live each moment you have. Taste things you have never tried before and take some risks before the end of the year. The worst that can happen is that things don’t turn out quite like you had imagined them, but that’s all part of the fun of making memories isn’t it?

Bon appétit! Raise your glass! And may the Culinary Fireworks you experience in 2011 take you into a bright New Year!