Fun(gus) With Wine

     I enjoy receiving my Cooking Light Magazine each month. Looking for new recipes to try with the family that are tasty, but not over the top in fat and calories is something I look forward to. In the latest issue, January/February 2013, a suggestion in the Match Me column caught my attention. Lisa, Mary Jo, and I enjoy pairing wine with food, and are always looking for that next “ahhhh” pairing we can discover. I was intrigued by the Cooking Light’s suggestion to pair a Spanish Rioja with an earthy mushroom dish. In the past my tried and true pairing with mushroom dishes has been Pinot Noir, but I do enjoy a nice Rioja, so I decided to put these two wines to a taste test with my husband and myself as the judges.

    
 I have to admit in the past I was the first to pull mushrooms off a pizza or push them to the side of my plate. I hated the texture, and didn’t see any reason to make them part of my cooking repertoire.  My husband on the other hand has always loved mushrooms. The fact that most of the mushrooms that I had tried in the past came out of can and look like they might bounce if you drop them may have something to do with my distaste for them. Luckily with age (there are advantages to getting older) I have become more adventurous in my gastronomical endeavors, and I have come to appreciate mushrooms in my dining. It helped that I had life altering food moment on my 25^th anniversary trip with my husband at Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg, CA. Mike and I were fortunate enough to enjoy a wine pairing dinner as part of our celebration. I would have to say it was one of the best, if not the best dining experiences of my life, and in the process opened my eyes to the wonders of mushrooms. What changed my opinions of mushrooms?? A wonderful mushroom soup paired with a Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. I’m not kidding; I wanted to jump in a vat of that soup!! And the Pinot Noir to me was the perfect pairing, and that is why my first thought when pairing a mushroom dish is to go with a Pinot.

     First I needed to find the recipe I wanted to try pairing with a Rioja and Pinot Noir. I looked at the recipe recommended by the magazine article, but thought I would search a bit more and I found a winner on myrecipes.com. It is a Smoked-Gouda Risotto with Spinach and Mushrooms and just happens to be a Cooking Light recipe from 1999. Next I needed to pick the wines. The article had recommended Camp Viejo, Rioja Reserva, 2007. I have enjoyed this wine in the past and it is readily available at a reasonable price, but I have recently tried a Rioja that I enjoyed as much, if not better. It is Viña Eguía, Rioja Crianza, 2008 and I found it at my local World Market for $9.99 (regularly $14.99). For the Pinot I went with one of my favorites in the low $20 range, Meiomi Pinot Noir, 2011 for $22 at Plaza Liquor and Wine in O’Fallon, IL. Both wines have received high ratings. The Wine Advocate gave the Rioja 91 points and Wine Spectator rated the Meiomi at 92 points. Let the tasting begin!

     The preparation of the risotto went off without a hitch. The sautéing of the mushrooms warmed the winter house with a wonderful, earthy richness. Mike also grilled some T-bone steaks for himself and our 15 year old son, and I fixed a green salad with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The wine was opened about ½ hour before the meal was ready.  

 

THE TASTING

Meiomi Pinot Noir

We have both enjoyed this wine in the past and were not disappointed tonight. Cherry, spice, nicely balanced, Mike thought it tasted like a cherry cola! The risotto definitely enhanced the finish on this wine. Mike thought there was a taste explosion at the back of his mouth. He loved it with the T-bone so much I had to try a taste.

Viña Eguía, Rioja Crianza

The nose on this wine was much earthier than the pinot so I was a bit surprised when tasted alone it seemed very jammy compared to the pinot. With the risotto it definitely tamed the fruit and the finish was much enhanced. This wine was delicious with the steak.

RESULTS

The risotto was a definite hit and although both wines went well we both agree the Meiomi was the winner, hands down.

Cheers!
Beth


WINE WORD OF THE WEEK
Earthiness-a common wine term used to identify the subtlety and terroir characteristics of Old World wines such as Italian Chianti, French white and red Burgundy and Rhone wines, Spanish Rioja, among many others. Some other "earth" words used in wine descriptions are dusty, flinty, chalky, minerally, mushroom, truffle (the fungus, not the candy), forest floor, humus, wet leaves, tea leaves, and barnyard.  Get the picture? Not the old mud pies you made as a kid :).
 

Pigs and Pinot

     The weather has definitely taken on a chill. The season for backyard BBQ’s has passed. So the Winos and their husbands needed to move dinner inside and we were looking for a twist on a traditional dinner party. My husband and I had read about an annual event in Healdsburg, CA, called “Pigs and Pinot” which is held at Hotel Healdsburg and Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen. It looks and sounds like an awesome event that also raises money for charity events, but we all live 2,000 miles away. Lucky for us, Wino Lisa’s husband is a fantastic cook and is a wiz with his backyard pit. So it seemed only logical that we invite some wine loving friends over and try our “Pigs and Pinot”.

     We invited our friends to all bring a bottle of their favorite Pinot for a blind tasting to begin the evening, and what a treat that was. We had wine from California, Oregon, and New Zealand.

The lineup was:

·         Craggy Range Single Vineyard, Martinborough, New Zealand 2009

·         Talley Vineyards, Arroyo Grande Valley, California 2009

·         MacPhail Frattey Shams Vineyard, Healdsburg, California 2009

·         Winderlea Estate, Dundee Hills, Oregon 2007

·         Sequana Santa Lucia Highlander, California 2009

·         Domaine Drouhin, Willamette Valley Oregon 2008

·         Papapietro-Perry Nunes Vineyard, Russian River Valley, California 2009

    

     My husband, Mike, was the Master of Ceremonies for the blind tasting. We all received a scorecard, a blue chip for our first place vote, a red chip for a second place vote, and a white chip for our third place choice. Appetizers were passed during the tasting, pig inspired of course, including water chestnuts wrapped in bacon and drizzled with Maple syrup and Asian pork skewers with Portabella mushrooms. Both were a great match for the Pinots! As we tasted we wrote our impressions on a tasting card spending about five to ten minutes on each wine. After tasting all seven wines, we picked a first, second, and third place winner and awarded the wines accordingly. A first place vote was worth 3 points, a second place vote was 2 points, and a third place vote received one point. All agreed it was tough picking winners because we enjoyed all of the wines, but the Grand Champion was the Sequana Santa Lucia Highlander.

    

     Next it was on to dinner! Bart prepared the majority of the meal in his pit outside and it was all delicious. We enjoyed Pork Brozol in tomato sauce (a chef Bart creation), homemade smoked sausage, baby back ribs, and chopped pork shoulder with a choice of Carolina sauce or a Texas Red Sauce. On the side there was a cold green bean salad, Dutch oven potatoes, baked squash with cheese and breadcrumbs, and a tomato, cucumber, mozzarella salad with Balsamic dressing, and a homemade flatbread with Parmesan cheese. We enjoyed a lovely Meiomi Pinot Noir with dinner. If you had room for dessert there was Blue Bell ice cream with Papaya and a chocolate covered bacon stake.

     Great wine, delicious food and wonderful friends-it doesn’t get any better than that! So grab a few friends, a nice bottle of wine and enjoy.

Cheers,

Beth

 Wine Word(s) of the Day

"Dry"vs "Sweet" -in wine terms "dry" refers to wine without residual sugar. In the wine making process,  fermentation usually turns all the sugar in ripe grapes into alcohol.  Therefore, "sweet" wines may be only 5-6% alcohol and "dry' wines may be 13-15% alcohol.