Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Food & Wine Pairing


A client approached us recently about a very unique opportunity. He and his wife had traveled to Sonoma Valley and made friends with the owner of Amphora a boutique winery. They wanted to have a wine dinner in their home to be attended by many of their friends from college. The winery sells futures on the wines they produce so when the wines are ready they ship directly to the purchaser. To prepare for the dinner the owner sent us a case of the wines to sample. I KNOW, right? To food people such as ourselves, this was like Christmas in March!

The case included a Cabernet, Syrah, Petite Syrah, Merlot, and 3 Zinfandels (NOT White Zinfandel mind you). To get ready we spent 2 weekends sampling these wonderful bottles with everything from cheeses, to cured and grilled meats, to olives, and sweets. Those were 2 VERY enjoyable weekends!

With our yellow pads in hand, we set about the "unenviable task" of trying all of these wines with the different foods. You can obviously see why we split them up into two separate weekends. We recorded all of the different flavor profiles and how they interacted with the different foods we had chosen. Some meshed perfectly while others had a metallic twang that was less than pleasant. You can taste a wine by itself, but when paired with different foods a totally different flavor profile emerges.

We chose those that had a synergistic effect. Here is the menu we developed with wine pairings:

Appetizer:
Amphora Cabernet Sauvignon - Tuna Tartar with Smoked Oyster Quenelle and Truffle Oil
Amphora Syrah - Beef Carpaccio with Devilish Quail Egg and Blue Cheese Stuffed Olives
Amphora Merlot - Goose Liver Pate' and Blue Castello Terrine with Leek and a Cranberry Cream

Entree:
Amphora Zinfandel, Mounts Vineyard - Grilled Fan of New York Strip with Blue Castello Cream and Blackberry Barbecued Quail served with Haricot Verts and Risolee' Potatoes
Amphora Petite Syrah - Dry Aged Barrel Cut Filet of Beef with a Smoky Kalamata Demi-Glace served with Asparagus en Croute and Roasted Garlic Leek Risotto
Amphora Syrah - Grilled Veal Chop with Hudson Valley Camembert Cream served with Sun-Dried Tomato Caponata Relish and Gnocchi with Truffle Essence

Dessert:
Amphora Zinfandel, La Loma Block - Poached Pears with Raspberry Mousse and Double Chocolate Ganache
Amphora Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley - Dark Chocolate Mousse with Macerated Berries and Sugar Dusted Sweet Potato Dipping Chips
Amphora Merlot - Trio of Housemade Truffles with Kirsch Creme Anglaise (Triple Chocolate with Blackberry Dust, Dark Chocolate Thai Chili, and White Chocolate with Raspberry Dust)

It was such "hard work" tasting all of the wine and food, but it's what we do! We took one for the team... The hard work paid off. Rick, the owner, loved the menu. The food was a hit and Rick came away with a black book full of futures sold.

If you have a weekend (or two) to devote to indulgence I highly recommend you give your wine tasting and menu planning skills a shot... or call us and we'll take care of everything for you!

Salut and Bon Appetit!