As a wine fanatic, one of my favorite things in life is going to wine pairing dinners. I love to see what creations that different chefs come up with, and what flavors wine experts choose to highlight. Sometimes I am blown away, and sometimes I cock my head like a dog who just doesn’t understand its owner.
If you’ve been following me at all, you know that I really love the wines from Nativ Winery from the Compañía region of Southern Italy. Their wines are a great value, which of course is the intersection of taste and price.
Nativ Winery and their Panama distributor Irpinia Wines recently hosted a wine dinner at a local Italian restaurant in Panama City. It was an intimate dinner, with only about 30 guests. There were four course of wine pairings. Three of them were fabulous; the fourth was a head-cocked dog. But that’s the fun of wine and food pairings…it’s all about interpretation and experimentation.
The course pictured to the left was course number three—slices of beef with a Parmesan fondue and a literal dollop of mashed potatoes. It was paired with Naviv’s Blu Onice, a medium-bodied Aglianico grown near an Onyx mine. (If you don’t speak Italian, Blu Onice means “blue onyx.”) With dark fruit flavors like cassis and blueberries combined with a toasted oak flavor from its time in French oak barrels, this wine was the perfect complement to the Parmesan-enhanced beef. (Personally, I could have eaten a soup-bowl full of the Parmesan fondue—which was not heavy like traditional fondue but rather creamy and light—but I behave in public. I settled for my minuscule amount of fondue with zero complaining.)
This was the third pairing of the evening, and the third home run. I actually gave away a portion of my meat because I was salivating for what must come next. The fourth wine—and final wine pairing—was with one of my favorite wines, the Bicento, which scored an impressive 99 points out of 100 in a prominent Italian wine competition. I was expecting lamb or something equally exotic. Imagine my surprise when we were given a dessert cup that was a chocolate mousse with a raspberry coulis. I wished I hadn’t given part of my dinner away, but I’m always game when it comes to wine and food pairings, so I spooned some chocolate and raspberry into my mouth and took a sip of wine.
Bicento is produced from 200 year old vines in volcanic soil from Mount Vesuvius and then aged for 12 months in French oak barrels. If there is any wine in the world that screams RED MEAT, this is it. Even though I’m a card-carrying chocoholic, I would never have paired this with chocolate. After tasting the Bicento with the chocolate mousse, I still wouldn’t.
I understand the chef’s dilemma. They had two very bold wines to pair, and both of them are beautiful with red meat. Rather than overwhelm their guests with two red meat courses, they wanted to get creative with their wine and food pairings. I’m a foodie, so I get it… but that didn’t make it any less underwhelming, especially for a wine I love so much. If I were putting together the menu, I would have paired the Bicento with lamb lollipops. Or Ossobucco. Or a blue cheese soufflé. Or even just a plate of salami and cheese.
Hmmm. This has me thinking about something creative I could make with salami and cheese. I have to go now. The test kitchen is calling. Stay tuned for my better wine and food pairing of the Bicento wine from Nativ Winery. If you haven’t tried it yet, my yet-to-be-unveiled-pairing with make you a believer.
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