Wine #1. Light straw yellow. Expressive nose of fresh mown grass, gooseberries and hint of cat pee. Midpalate shows bracing acidity accompanied by gooseberries and grassy/herbal notes. Nice medium long acidic finish.
Paired with conumdrum Tilapia. Work with me on this one. I have to fix the fish at our house as my wife does not like to cook it. I had planned on a fresh lemon/butter/garlic sauce on grilled tilapia. We were out of lemon, almost out of butter, but had garlic. Plan B: Made up my own marinade after looking at some cookbooks. It had fresh squeezed orange juice, bottled lemon juice (its all we had), chopped garlic, I can't believe its not butter margarine, and a little bit of soy sauce. Baked the tilapia in this conumdrum sauce. We lightly salted and peppered the tilapia and served with the wine. Nice match especially bringing out some citrus flavors in the wine. This was Friday night dinner.
Saturday night and the twins Eric and Patrick cook up herb roasted pork tenderloin, baked potatoes, peas, and steamed cauliflower.
Wine #2. Light ruby red with a vermillion edge. Nose of earthy cherries, red raspberries and, with time, a hint of bacon. Silky smooth tannins on the midpalate with cherry pie and red raspberries balancing off a nice acidity. This wine had a long finish with an initial flourish of fruit, topped off with a touch of tannins and acidity.
The herb roasted pork brought out strawberry flavors in the wine and seemed to create layers of luxurious fruit.
Sunday night dinner was created by sons Cody and Patrick. Spicy mango chutney with poppadoms, Thai green curry chicken in a coconut milk sauce, and a vegetable curry with tofu.
Wine #3. Bright golden yellow. Wonderful nose of lychee nuts and rose petals. Midpalate of just enough acidity to balance out the lychees and rose oil. Nice medium long finish of fruit with a nice aftertaste of slighlty bitter rose oil.
Paired with the mango chutney this wine surprisingly shows spicy notes and although a bit one dimensional matches better than I thought it would. The green curry chicken match is delightful as the coconut milk accentuates the sweet fruit of the wine. Nice match with the curried veggies also with good notes of fruit although the finish is somewhat shorter.
Wine #1 2006 Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough, Kim Crawford. 13% abv
Wine #2 2003 Beaune, La Monte rouge, Domaine de la Vougeraie 13% abv. My favorite of the 3 wines. Great with food and a nice sipper. Somewhat fruity for a burgundy, but a really fine wine.
Wine #3 2004 Gewurztraminer, Alsace, Zind Humbrecht, 14.5% abv. My favorite match with spicy Thai food.
My wife thoroughly enjoyed being cooked for and having some nice wines to go with her food. I think her favorite was the Kim Crawford.
In all, the best 3 weekend wines
in sometime for me. Hope your weekend wines were excellent too! Let me know what you had, good or bad!