Yesterday I spoke about how I went about choosing the wines I did for the celebrity chef pairings at the Vintage Virginia wine Festival this past year. Today I’m going to talk about what wines I actually chose and why. I mentioned that the first day I was to pair red wines and on day two I was to pair white wines with the dishes. Given the dishes being presented, that challenged some of the basic assumptions I routinely hear about food and wine pairing. The list of dishes were:
Day 1 | Day 2 |
| Jumbo Crab Ceviche | Snapper with Microgreen Salad and Chimichurri |
| Grouper with Spring Vegetables and Garlic Chive Vinaigrette | Skirt Steak “Cilantro Chimichurri”/ Latin Yucca Hash |
| Coffee Duster Filet, Rapini, Gnocchi and Coconut Foam | Virginia Apple Bread Pudding |
Jumbo Crab Ceviche
This was the first dish out the gate and it was prepared by Chef Roshni Gurnani. The taste profile for this dish was acid dominant so I knew that I needed to pair a red wine that had light body and strong acids (acidic foods will smooth out the textures of a wine and bring out the fruit flavors). Chef Roshni also likes to incorporate local ingredients into her dishes so this had both Virginia ham and Virginia strawberries as part of the flavor profile. This led me to immediately think about pairing a Chambourcin with the dish. However after tasting many wines I found a beautiful, high acid, 2012 Cabernet Franc from Veritas Vineyard and Winery that carried the flavor of strawberry to complete the match. The fruit notes in the wine filled the same niche as the strawberries in the dish creating a harmonious pairing that set the tone for the rest of the event.
Grouper with Spring Vegetables and Garlic Chive Vinaigrette
Next came this wonderful offering from Chef Barbie Marshall. Chef Barbie is big into the farm to table movement and had picked the spring vegetables from her farm in Pennsylvania before arriving in Virginia for this show. I often tell my students to pair wine to the preparation, not the protein and it is this strategy that allowed me to once again pair a red wine with fish. It was the vinaigrette that would be providing the most flavor here and the whole dish would be acid/umami dominant. For that reason I went with a lighter red again, this time a 2011 Barboursville Sangiovese Reserve. The Sangiovese had a smoky backdrop that worked with the umami of the fish while the acidity of the vinaigrette helped bring out the cherry flavor of the wine. Once again, the crowd agreed that it was an amazing pairing.
Coffee Duster Filet, Rapini, Gnocchi and Coconut Foam
Finally, I get something with red meat in it to pair with a red wine! This dish was prepared by Chef Ray Alongi and this is contemporary cuisine at its finest. All the components of the dish come together to make a taste profile that is balanced between umami,sweet and bitter. Balanced dishes are the easiest to pair wines to as they do not change the flavor of the wine. This means I was looking for a full bodied wine that highlighted some of the flavors in the dish. In particular, I was looking for something that showed a bit of coffee in the flavors and I found it in the 2010 Potomac Point Richland Reserve Heritage. This wine is a Bordeaux blend with big, bold black fruit flavors with a touch of smoke and coffee on the finish. A powerful wine for a powerful dish.
Snapper with Microgreen Salad and Chimichurri
Day two started with a lighter dish that got a white wine pairing. This dish was prepared by Chef Barbie and once again it showed bright, clean flavors. The chimichurri is acid and salt dominant so I was looking for something bright and clean to match the food profile. The 2012 Delfosse Sauvignon Blanc fit the bill nicely. Lemongrass and citrus in the wine complimented the flavors of cilantro and lime juice in the dish. Also, the acidity of the wine was cut by the acidity of the dish allowing those beautiful flavors to be showcased.
Skirt Steak “Cilantro Chimichurri”/ Latin Yucca Hash
So now we have the opposite of yesterday’s dilemma, pairing a white wine with red meat. Once again, I looked to the preparation and not the protein for the inspiration. This dish was prepared by Chef Ronaldo Linares and his Latin flair came out in this dish. The chimichurri provided a bit of acidity while the hash has a touch of sweetness to it. I was hoping for an opportunity to pair Virginia’s state grape with a dish and this Rockbridge Winery was the perfect opportunity. A 2011 Trump Winery Viognier provided the perfect pairing with this dish. It is a full bodied white wine that shows classic Viognier flavors of stone fruit (peaches and apricots). The flavors were bold enough so that they complimented the dish rather than being overwhelmed by it.
Virginia Apple Bread Pudding
Once again Chef Roshni found a way to incorporate local Virginia ham into her dish, this time a dessert. My initial thought was that because this dessert had a bit of chocolate in it that I would try and be tricky and use the white Xoco from Horton Vineyards as a foil but I ended up going in a different direction. The 2010 Rockbridge Winery V d’Or was what I finally settled upon simply because at 15% residual sugar, it would still carry enough fruit flavor after the bit of dessert to still read sweet. What I didn’t know is that Chef Roshini had heard about the Horton Xoco and decided that was the wine she would use in her dessert! It all worked out well though because the flavors of apple present in the V d’Or carried through to highlight the apple in the bread pudding.
