Notes from Anne's wine dinner

[dananne]

As a party for the summer associates for her law firm, Anne helped organize a wine dinner. The four course, Southwestern-inspired meal was catered by the Sala restaurant, and the pairings were as follows:

Ensalada de Casa -- mixed greens, lime-marinated onions, avocado and tomato with a roasted corn vinaigrette -- this was a somewhat difficult pairing because of the vinegarette, but they decided on a Gruet Blanc de Noirs, not only because of the acidity holding up well, but to open the evening off with something festive, which bubblies are, and the added bonus of it being a bubbly from the SW (New Mexico). As always, I enjoyed the Gruet, and it did hold up well with the dressing. The Gruet runs around $14.

Coctel de Conggrejo -- lump crab meat mixed with avocado chunks and cilantro, with a creamy lime dressing -- served cold -- this was matched with a 2004 NZ Sauvignon Blanc from Villa Maria, which was lively and showed a great citrus spritz with gooseberries behind a grassy nose. This seemed a big favorite with the pairing, though I enjoyed the wine with a vegetarian option of a cold black bean salad, instead. I liked the wine, though, and it will make for a refreshing summer quaffer. I may be wrong, but I think they paid around $10 per for this wine.

Main course -- Latin-spiced beef short ribs with jicama slaw and corn and red pepper saute -- paired with a 2003 Novy Syrah -- the Syrah was stellar, with gobs of forward fruit and peppery spiciness, that held up to the spicy-sweet sauce on the ribs (according to others, as I again had the vegetarian option). I feel the wine would have been better served if it had been decanted for a short while before pouring, as the tannins were still formidable. Given time, however, it's going to turn into a wonderful example of New World Syrah. Around these parts, the Novy runs around $20.

Dessert -- Empanada de Manzana -- warm apple turnovers with Mexican chocolate sauce and cinnamon/vanilla ice cream -- Here is where the tasting got complicated. Anne and her fellow organizers had initially selected a late harvest Riesling to match with the apple tunrovers, but before the order was filled, they ran out of stock. So the store subbed a 2003 St. Urbans Hof Riesling instead. However, the apple turnover dessert changed, too, and with the chocolate sauce and ice cream, it became a drier-tasting dessert that likely would have been overwhelmed by the sweeter dessert wine. The zesty zing of the St. Urbans Hof added a liveliness to the dessert, and it wasn't too sweet for it. It showed green apple skins and citrus flavors. It runs around $15 per bottle. I probably wouldn't use it as a dessert wine, but rather as an aperitif or as a foil for spicy Asian food like Thai.

All in all, it seemed a successful dinner, and everyone had positive feedback, both the wine newbies and the more experienced drinkers. Each course's wine match was briefly previewed and described, there were large posters with info on each of the different wines, as well as printed cards with all the info on each wine for people to take home and/or to make notes.

[This message has been edited by dananne (edited 06-27-2005).]

[Innkeeper]

First you make me salivate; then you make me drool!!!!

[hotwine]

Very nice indeed! Thanks for the notes.

[winoweenie]

Even made me crave a SW. WW [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img]