Talk-A-Vino

As you might be aware, I was recently invited to join a group of food and wine bloggers to create full seasonal dinner menus with suggested wine pairings, to make it easy for the people to bring their friends and families together to have a great time, great meal and great conversation. The project was called The Dinner Party Collective, and after a few month of the hard work, we finally published the first menu, which we simply call a Summer Menu. As you can judge from the name, this is the suggested menu for the Northern Hemisphere, for those of us who are lucky (or not, if it is 90F and humid) to live through our summer season. The Winter menu will be published shortly.

I had a pleasure of pairing the Summer menu dishes with the wines. I don’t know how successful was that pairing, only you, dear readers, will be able to figure that out, hopefully after you will have the dinner based on those delicious recipes. I essentially created a long post, explaining the logic behind each suggested dish pairing, so I will not be repeating it here  – I will provide all the links for the Summer Menu at the end of this post, including the one on the pairing details. However, I still have a few wines to talk about here.

The main dish of the Summer Menu, Salmon Tikka, was not trivial for me to pair, due to the wide range of spices and the cooking method. I ended up cooking the dish, religiously following the recipe, and then invited a few friends to taste those potential pairings together, to find out what works and what doesn’t. Here are the wines which we tried, with the tasting notes:

2014 Famille Lançon La Solitude Côtes du Rhône, France (13% ABV, $14.99, 70% Grnache, 30% Syrah)
C: bright pink
N: strawberries, touch of lime
P: strawberries, good acidity, soft, delicate, medium-long finish
V: 7+
With Food: nicely complemented the fish, provided delicate backbone.

2013 Casas del Bosque Carménère Reserva DO Rapel Valley, Chile (14% ABV, $11.99, 100% Carménère)
C: Dark Garnet
N: Floral, mint, touch of chocolate, vegetative, hint of dark berries
P: dark spices, mint, smoke, tar, good acidity
V: 8-
With Food: was not universally good for all. The spices had a bit of a mismatch on the finish, but overall was not bad.

2011 Château de Brézé Saumur AOC, France (13% ABV, $17.99, 100% Cabernet Franc)
C: Dark ruby
N: Tobacco, blueberry, good intensity
P: minty, complex, layered, luscious, delicious overall
V: 8
With Food: excellent. Very good match with the wine been just a touch bigger than the food, adding nice sweet profile when consumed together.

2013 Bodegas San Valero Particular Garnacha Cariñena DO, Spain (13.5% ABV, $14.99, 100% Garnacha)
C: Dark Ruby
N: minty, herbal nose, green bell pepper
P: herbal dominated profile, but with a lot of fruit, dark chocolate, tobacco, earthy complexity
V: 8
With Food: worked very well, with wine adding some powerful notes to the combination of food and wine.

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The Château de Brézé Saumur was the favorite of all the wines and probably the best pairing – problem is that this was a unique shot, as it was absolutely atypical of Loire Cabernet Franc, hence the absence of the generic recommendation. Yes, I know that suggestion of the Grenache pairing with fish raises more than a few eyebrows, but based on the flavor profile of that dish, I stand by my recommendation.

That’s all I wanted to share with you today. I think we came up with a beautiful menu for a great family and friends dinner, so I hope you will feel inclined to make it – and then I really want to hear your feedback on the wine pairings (and the menu itself).

Here are all the links for the Summer Menu:

The Summer Menu | June 2015 – The menu itself, as you would expect it at a restaurant

Wine Pairings | Summer Menu | Northern Hemisphere | June 2015 – detailed explanation as to why and how the wines were chosen

Fresh Summer Salad with Tangy Buttermilk Lime Herb Dressing | Summer Menu | Appetizer

Salmon Tikka with Mint Chutney | Summer Menu | Main Course

Mango Tarte Tatin with Spiced Syrup| Summer Menu | Dessert

That’s all I have for you for today. I hope you are already following The Dinner Party Collective – if not,  you need to fix it right away, so you will not miss on lots of great recipes and lots of fun. Until the next time – cheers!