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+--- Thread: Menu/wine suggestions (/thread-1077.html)
- Clarkus - 11-08-1999
Having a pre-Tgiving dinner for close friends and would appreciate some wine suggestions.
App: Crab and Salmon Terrine with dill sauce...serving Veuve or Roederer, NV.
Main: Cornish Game Hens with Orange and Honey sauce. Recipe (from Epicurius online) calls for Chardonnay...my sister the californian reacted violently to this. Insists on a pinot or shiraz. What to do???
Cheese: after supper chesse course. a small selection of cheeses...nothing as strong as a stilton though. sister says port (which I love) carrying over thru dessert. But, not sure companions will like port (one does not like strong reds) ... perhaps something lighter??
Dessert: dk choc. cake with ganache and a spiced custard sauce (with strong cinnamon and ginger accents). would a sauterne or even a muscat work here?
any help will be appreciated
Clark
- Jerry D Mead - 11-08-1999
Your sister is a pretty smart lady. Re the Cornish Hens, I too would go with a Pinot Noir...and I suggest making the sauce a little less sweet than if you weren't concerned with matching with wine...sugar fights dry wines.
I disagree with her on the wine for the cheese course...I'd use this as an opportunity to showcase a blockbuster red...A big Cabernet, Bordeaux, Meritage red or Reserve Syrah/Shiraz. Geyser Peak Reserve Shiraz would be a good choice without breaking the bank.
Re dessert, unless the chocolate is bittersweet (in which case red wine sometimes works as well as a sweetie), I'd not try to match a dessert wine to it. This is a usually unsuccessful endeavor...trying to get the opposing sweetness levels of dessert and wine to compliment each other. When I do serve dessert wines with dessert...I always pour them a full five minutes before presenting the dessert itself, to give folks a chance to appreciate the wine's taste unencumbered by a sugary sweet dessert that might make it seem tart, too acid, even bitter. If you are going to try this, I'd go for a Late Harvest (Beerenaulese or higher level)Riesling from California, Washington, New York, Austria or Germany. Your local fine wine merchant will know what he has in that category that is good.
If everyone is sleeping over, a nice Cognac, or Cognac-style brandy from California (like Germain-Robin cor Jepson) with coffee could be the perfect capper for the evening.
- Thomas - 11-09-1999
The curm strikes again...I firmly agree.
- Randy Caparoso - 11-14-1999
Just back from Florida. So would you mind if I jump in?
Sister Wine Lover is right about Chardonnay -- a California style could fight with the honeyed orange sauce, the sweetness in the dish making the wine taste dry and harshly alcoholic. But -- and here's a big BUT -- there are some Chardonnays that might do the trick. A tropical fruit toned -- such as Chardonnay from Australia (especially Western Australians like as Leeuwin or Sandalford, although a South Australian like d'Arenberg or a Rosemount from the Hunter Valley could do the trick) -- could have enough suggestion of sweetness in the aroma and flavor to carry it off. Especially if you take Curmudgeon's suggestion and go easy on the sugar in the dish.
The other, perhaps safer, choice for the Cornish hen would be a good dry or off-dry Riesling. I'd recommend either a German trocken ("dry") halbtrocken ("half dry"), or one of those new fangled ones from New Zealand (the Villa Maria Riesling, for instance, has beautifully fragrant, tropical fruitiness and almost bone dryness). From Germany, you probably couldn't go wrong with the dry style Rieslings from the Pfalz region such as that of Burklin-Wolf or Bassermann-Jordan, with can have tremendous, exotic fruitiness.
For the cheese course, why don't you make yourself and your sister totally happy by serving a Port? The British swear by it -- especially when paired with a good Stilton. If you can't find that, do a Maytag Blue Cheese from the beautiful state of Iowa. Either one would go incredibly well with Port of almost any sort.
If anything, the Port could also easily carry through into your chocolate decadence; although I would suggest that you do the chocolate dessert, and then repair by the fire for the cheese. For variation, you might also wish to throw in an Italian style Moscato Passito from Pantelleria, or else a Vin Santo from Tuscany. These golden sweet wines also go great with blue cheese, and can be surprisingly good with chocolate as well (their muskiness connecting with the ginger in your recipe).
Finally, your crab and salmon terrine with dill sauce sounds like a job for a Blanc de Blancs style. If you can find them, I'm absolutely sure the famously refined Taittinger Comtes de Champagne or the airy soft and aromatic Pol Roger Blanc de Blancs would do a beautiful job -- not so much with the delicacy of the terrine, but also in context of the dill sauce (Chardonnay flavors love a good dill sauce). I love both Clicquot and Roederer, but the standard Bruts from these houses could be a tad rough and dry tasting with your chosen dish. Unless -- and here's a big UNLESS -- you go with a Roederer Cristal Rose, which is hideously expensive, but at least has the fruitiness to cozy up to the sweet taste of the crab and fishiness of the salmon in the terrine. Good luck!
- Bucko - 11-15-1999
Another wine that would work well with the hens, d/t the sweetness, would be an off-dry Baumard from the Loire such as Clos du Papillon.
Bucko
- Randy Caparoso - 11-15-1999
Another great choice, Bucko! That would be a Savennieres "Clos du Papillon" made by Baumard, which is always bone dry but with suggestions of fruitiness in honeyed, melony fragrance and flavor, with minerally underpinnings.
Savennieres is not quite as "tropical" as Riesling or even Chardonnay, but I have the feeling that it could very well do the trick. But to be safe, another good alternative in such a Loire style wine might be a demi-sec ("half dry" in French) Vouvray such as the "Le Haut Lieu" by Huet. There's a little more fruitiness in a Vouvray, and it's also less severely, steely dry than Savennieres -- so the match with the hen in the honey citrus sauce would be more of a guarantee.
Come to think of it, this would be a good dish for good old fashioned California Chenin Blanc as well. I'm sure that few of us would think of it since Chenin Blanc has been so unhip for so many years now. I remember the days (mid '70s) when it was practically our best selling wine in restaurants! Although you can't blame them, it's a terrible thing (for the varietal) that big time specialists like Robert Mondavi and Mirassou took their's out of national distribution. Pine Ridge, however, still makes a lovely, widely available demi-sec style that would go great with the hen. Dry Chenin Blancs by producers like Chappellet and Chalone, however, would be like the Savennieres -- okay for the hen, but a tad unfruity for the sauce.
[This message has been edited by Randy Caparoso (edited 11-15-1999).]