Wine Dinner Report 1

 

The Meal

- For the meal, I baked a Rainbow trout that I had caught from Goose Creek in Floyd County, I stuffed it with lemon, dill, garlic, and butter then wrapped it in tin foil and threw it in the oven while I prepared the rest. My two sides were a lemon parsley couscous with toasted pine nuts and a soul food style Swiss Chard. 

The Wine

 - The wine was a Sea Glass Sauvignon Blanc from Santa Barbara, California (I bought it from Food Lion in Blacksburg, though). I like Sauvignon Blanc and use it frequently to cook with, and I purchased this bottle for that reason. I thought I was going to make a wine butter sauce for the fish but decided against it. I drank it chilled for this dinner. Wine Folly describes this variety as herbaceous, with notes of gooseberry, honeydew, grapefruit, white peach and passionfruit.

Tasting Notes

 

- I bought the wine for the fish and I was most excited to pair it with the fish. The trout is delicate and flaky, light on the palette. The added dill, lemon and butter give it more depth without drowning out the flavor of fresh fish. The wine pairs nicely because it is crisp and citrusy. It washes the fish down without overpowering and doesn't linger long in my mouth. It isn't a very complex wine but I wasn't looking for complexity with this meal. 

Next, the wine with the couscous. The couscous is nutty and tangy from the toasty pine nuts and lemon, with a little bit of fresh grassiness from the parsley. The wine compliments and adds to the fruit (maybe a little too much) and highlights the nuttiness of the dish, bringing it to the front of my mouth.

Finally, the wine and the greens. Chard is sharp and slightly peppery, I cooked it with bacon, garlic and shallots to add some meaty umami flavor to it. Surprisingly, the wine worked well with this by lightening all the flavors and contrasting. Greens and salads are typically thought of a white pairing but I figured this would work well with a complex red like a Cab Sav or a Shiraz. I think this wine is a nice palette refresher and doesn't demand much thoughtful introspection into dense complexity, body and flavor profile. The nose is the mouth and its crisp, simple and delicious.