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Wine Pairing Extravaganza
Fourth Course: Beef with Cabernet and Garnacha
Kevin originally intended to use fresh Highland flank steak straight from the Berkeley Farmer’s Market. The cow, however, was saved by a few dangerously sober vegan protestors, so we bought some excellent tri-tip from a local butcher instead. We grilled the tri-tip and served it with melted Picon, a mild Spanish bleu cheese.
For this course, I wanted to show the regional versatililty of pairing old-vine Garnacha from Spain (a 2002 Aquilon) and newer Cabernet from California (a 2002 Lewis Cellars Reserve) with the same dish. The star of the evening was the Lewis Cellars Cab, which was marked by a lavish display of toasty vanilla bean, oak, and a thick core of ripe currant, black cherry, and wild berry. It complemented the tri-tip very well.
We decanted the Aquilon for an hour before serving. This wine was made by one of my favorite winemakers of all time, Chris Ringland, and has a fabulous note of sweet vanilla oak. It's then followed by a complex perfume of kirsch liquer and rasberry. When paired with the grilled beef, however, it was overpowered. Next time, I'd match it with some type of wild game, like venison or fallow deer, or maybe even goose.
Dessert Course : Cake and Viognier
As if we hadn't already had our cake and eaten it, too, we finished off our meal with some amazing tiramisu and lemon crème cake from Crixa Cakes. I paired a non-vintage Pride Mistelle de Viognier to balance the sweetness of the desserts.
(Note that we didn't drink the 2003 Von Simmern Hattenheimer Mannberg Auslese shown above.) The Pride Viognier has a subtle flavor of candied orange peel, hazelnut, and honey, and complemented the lemon crème cake perfectly. If we'd been able to handle yet another bottle, I probably would have found a tawny port to match better with the tiramisu.
Final thoughts for our next dinner
My first take-away from this extravagant meal is that wine pairing accuracy really depends on a menu's details. While I had advance notice of all the great food we'd be eating, I didn't actually know how some of the dishes would be prepared; that extra information would definitely have helped me with the nuances of matching wines with each course.
I also realized that for a smaller menu—say, one with only two or three courses—it would be interesting to open two or more different bottles for each dish. That approach would let you see the subtle differences between wines, and increase your chances of finding a home-run pairing.
The most important insight from this meal was, of course, that it's all about having a great time with friends and family. Without good conversation and laughter, pairing wines might as well be done in a sterile lab—and how much fun would that be? We enjoyed ourselves so thoroughly that even the biggest wine snobs at the table got a kick out of the evening's final surprise pairing.
This article was written by Sam Chen, Echelonwines. Copyright © 2006-2008. Not to be reproduced without express written permission.
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