Red Bigot Dinner
Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2003 1:41 pm
Firstly thank you to all who offered suggestions on food & wine match ups.
Red Bigots Dinner
The menu was straight out of The Epicure (The Age) featured a few weeks ago, the challenge was to try & match Red grape with the different courses.
Hors-D'oeuvre: Celeriac tartlets with Truffle oil. A crisp tart topped with a cream cheese texture of Celeriac that coated the palate, the truffle oil gave the tartlets another dimension.
TheWine: 1997 Domain Chandon Blanc de Noirs 100% Pinot Noir. Lovely pale gold and fine bead, biscuit, honey & mushroom. A rich palate, dry, good length and finish. The wine being dry cut through the cream cheese texture of the Celeriac and blended well with the flavours overall.
Great start.
Soup:Jerusalem Artichoke, the soup was much sweeter than anticipated, was expecting earthy flavours.
The Wine: 1994 Henschke Lenswood Abbotts Prayer. Medium bodied wine displaying violets, plums, earthiness. Very good balance soft mouth feel with good depth although not complex. A very good wine that was too much for the soup, the soup being sweet meant the flavour match up was unbalanced. The wine is drinking very well right now and should keep for a couple more years but I would be keep an eye on them.
Main: Beef with red wine (of course) mushrooms and bacon casserole, served with roast potatoes, beans and a mix of pumpkin & sweet potato mash. The casserole was superb with all the flavours coming through nicely yet not overpowering.
The Wines: The first wine served was 1992 Peter Lehman Stonewell**. Wonderful fruit nose still showing strong primary characters of raspberry and plum, on the palate is where it all happens wonderful balance, chocolate, prunes with ripe tannins and a long finish that is clean.
2nd wine: 1992 Penfolds Bin 707. Still purple in the glass, cassis, violets lead the palate a merry dance of licorice, black olive & berries, wonderful balance with great length, not the best 707 I have tried but a very good wine nonetheless, still developing will leave the rest for at least 5 years. Too youthful & big for the course.
The Stonewell was the better match of the two with the casserole, even the Cabernet Freak in the group appreciated the Stonewell.
** The first bottle of the Stonewell was not what I expecetd somewhat closed and even a little dumb. Opened the second bottle which presented much better, went back to the 1st bottle after 1 hour and it opened up into a good wine and was an interesting sidelight to compare the two bottles and highlight bottle variation.
Dessert: Rhubarb Crumble, layer of Rhubarb coated with dark chocolate and crumble. A little tart, yet a rich sweetness made for a difficult selection re the wine.
The Wine: Mountadam Ratafia, a fortified Pinot Noir from the Eden Valley coming in at a whopping 18.5% alchohol. A rich sweetness that didn't finish clean & crisp like a good botrytis but effective nonetheless, difficult to distinguish between the flavours of the crumble & the wine as they were quite similar probably why it worked quite well. A successful experiment indeed.
Cheese & Chocolate: Vintage cheddar & a soft cheese of which I forget the name. The chocolates were all hand made by one of the guests ( Thanks Linda) and truly wonderful ( I'm also a chocoholic)
The Wine: 1985 Warres Vintage Port, inpenetrable inkiness, what a luscious wine, berry, chocolate, plum, licorice and coffee. The length was just amazing, the wine of the night. I was so impressed that I didn't bother with the cheese or chocolate & just savoured the wine. I managed to find this at one of the local wine stores, wish I had some more. Not being a vintage port officianado unsure as to how long this wine would live although I believe another 10 years would not hurt this wine at all.
All the wines ( excepting the Ratafia) were double decanted approx 1 hour before dinner commenced.
Thank you to Hans & Jean for their hospitality and special thanks to Jean for the dinner, a superb job.
It was very interesting and probably the most difficult excercise in food & wine matching I have done. look forward to more challenges.
Red Bigots Dinner
The menu was straight out of The Epicure (The Age) featured a few weeks ago, the challenge was to try & match Red grape with the different courses.
Hors-D'oeuvre: Celeriac tartlets with Truffle oil. A crisp tart topped with a cream cheese texture of Celeriac that coated the palate, the truffle oil gave the tartlets another dimension.
TheWine: 1997 Domain Chandon Blanc de Noirs 100% Pinot Noir. Lovely pale gold and fine bead, biscuit, honey & mushroom. A rich palate, dry, good length and finish. The wine being dry cut through the cream cheese texture of the Celeriac and blended well with the flavours overall.
Great start.
Soup:Jerusalem Artichoke, the soup was much sweeter than anticipated, was expecting earthy flavours.
The Wine: 1994 Henschke Lenswood Abbotts Prayer. Medium bodied wine displaying violets, plums, earthiness. Very good balance soft mouth feel with good depth although not complex. A very good wine that was too much for the soup, the soup being sweet meant the flavour match up was unbalanced. The wine is drinking very well right now and should keep for a couple more years but I would be keep an eye on them.
Main: Beef with red wine (of course) mushrooms and bacon casserole, served with roast potatoes, beans and a mix of pumpkin & sweet potato mash. The casserole was superb with all the flavours coming through nicely yet not overpowering.
The Wines: The first wine served was 1992 Peter Lehman Stonewell**. Wonderful fruit nose still showing strong primary characters of raspberry and plum, on the palate is where it all happens wonderful balance, chocolate, prunes with ripe tannins and a long finish that is clean.
2nd wine: 1992 Penfolds Bin 707. Still purple in the glass, cassis, violets lead the palate a merry dance of licorice, black olive & berries, wonderful balance with great length, not the best 707 I have tried but a very good wine nonetheless, still developing will leave the rest for at least 5 years. Too youthful & big for the course.
The Stonewell was the better match of the two with the casserole, even the Cabernet Freak in the group appreciated the Stonewell.
** The first bottle of the Stonewell was not what I expecetd somewhat closed and even a little dumb. Opened the second bottle which presented much better, went back to the 1st bottle after 1 hour and it opened up into a good wine and was an interesting sidelight to compare the two bottles and highlight bottle variation.
Dessert: Rhubarb Crumble, layer of Rhubarb coated with dark chocolate and crumble. A little tart, yet a rich sweetness made for a difficult selection re the wine.
The Wine: Mountadam Ratafia, a fortified Pinot Noir from the Eden Valley coming in at a whopping 18.5% alchohol. A rich sweetness that didn't finish clean & crisp like a good botrytis but effective nonetheless, difficult to distinguish between the flavours of the crumble & the wine as they were quite similar probably why it worked quite well. A successful experiment indeed.
Cheese & Chocolate: Vintage cheddar & a soft cheese of which I forget the name. The chocolates were all hand made by one of the guests ( Thanks Linda) and truly wonderful ( I'm also a chocoholic)
The Wine: 1985 Warres Vintage Port, inpenetrable inkiness, what a luscious wine, berry, chocolate, plum, licorice and coffee. The length was just amazing, the wine of the night. I was so impressed that I didn't bother with the cheese or chocolate & just savoured the wine. I managed to find this at one of the local wine stores, wish I had some more. Not being a vintage port officianado unsure as to how long this wine would live although I believe another 10 years would not hurt this wine at all.
All the wines ( excepting the Ratafia) were double decanted approx 1 hour before dinner commenced.
Thank you to Hans & Jean for their hospitality and special thanks to Jean for the dinner, a superb job.
It was very interesting and probably the most difficult excercise in food & wine matching I have done. look forward to more challenges.
