Wine-Tasting Dinner, April '09

Lucky us! Brenna and Cassidy gave us a wine-tasting dinner as a recent gift and we cashed in on it last weekend. Here's what they dreamed up for wines and pairings, with the descriptors we came up with for each wine in parentheses (any especially descriptive descriptors likely came from my mom). There are no pictures for courses 4 and 5, between us forgetting to take them and it getting too dark out to get any good ones.

1. (France) 2007 Chateau Graville-Lacoste Graves Blanc (mineral, lemon, wet stone)-- with arugula tossed in Fondo di Toscana Tuscan extra-virgin olive oil, with shaved parmesan and toasted pine nuts



2. (France) Macon Villages White Burgundy (birch plywood, crisp)-- with creamed barley and vanilla-chardonnay-poached pear tucked in a crepe sprinkled with toasted almonds




3. (Sonoma-Mendocino) 2007 Angeline Pinot Noir (dried strawberry, overripe fruit, leather fruit, dried fruit)-- with grilled pork loin topped with creamed corn with bacon and onion




4. (Napa) 1994 (ooh-la-la-- this was one they'd been saving and were generous enough to share with us) Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon (moss, forest floor, earth, molasses, rotting log (in a good way))-- with New York strip steak on arugula with onion chutney and melted gorgonzola


5. (Spain) Brut Sparkling Wine-- with homemade strawberry sorbet in it