2023 Wood Family Vineyards Pinot Noir with Blackened Mahi Mahi and Romesco Sauce
Photo ©Michael Kelly
The Winery
Photo from Wood Family Vineyards website
Wood Family Vineyards, located in eastern Livermore Valley, with Rhonda Wood owner & winemaker, has been producing award winning wines for over two decades. You can read more on her background from airline pilot to award winning winemaker at:
https://californiawinesandwineries.com/2016/02/10/wood-family-vineyards-2/
and
Her awards are extensive and too numerous to list here in this article and would refer you to their website at the bottom of this article.
Background on Pinot Noir
The name Pinot Noir derives from the French words “pine” and “black” as the grape’s tight pine cone clusters and dark color. Pinot Noir has origins dating back to the first century AD. Roman’s most likely expanded the plantings of Pinot Noir during their empire reign. The phylloxera crisis devastated vineyards across France and did not spare Pinot Noir. In the following years, many Pinot Noir clones were introduced with each having specific attributes including resistance to certain diseases, yield levels, distinct aromatics and flavor profiles. The most notable clones and commonly found today are 115, 667 and 777.
Geographically, California Pinot Noir presents more upfront fruit flavors, ripeness and a fuller body due to the warmer climate. Oregon cooler climate has a subtler fruit with pronounced earthy and mineral qualities.
In California Pinot Noir is the second largest planting of red wine grapes being 16% of the acreage (46,134). Number one being Cabernet Sauvignon with 92,364 or 33%. Zinfandel and Merlot follow with 37,601 and 32,978 respectively from the 2023 United State Agriculture Statistics Report. The latest numbers show Pinot Noir being the 5th most planted red wine grape in the world.
The Wine – “Wine is bottled poetry” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Photo ©Michael Kelly
The grapes for this Pinot Noir come from the Nella Terra vineyard located at the top of the Sunol grade. This area gets the cool breezes from the San Francisco Bay in the late afternoon and is typically much cooler than Livermore Valley, but both being in Alameda County.
On the eyes a semi-transparent ruby red coloring and medium viscosity. On the nose red berries and tart cranberries are predominant. On the palate the wine provides a mouthful feeling of texture along with the strawberry and cherry fruits. On the finish, the tartness provides the classical puckering in the mouth as well as the fruit counterbalanced with pepper and clove.
This inaugural wine will be available on July 18th for their summer release event. Only 65 cases were produced. Aged 9 months in 100% neutral French barrels. One unique process was saving about 10-15% of the grapes as full grape clusters without destemming. This was added to the destemmed fruit for fermentation to increase the complexity and fruitiness of the wine. The wine will be sold at $50/bottle.
The Food and Wine Pairing – “Food without wine is a corpse; wine without food is a ghost. United and well matched, they are as body and soul: living partners” – Andre Simon
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Chose this wine to pair with this evening with our Friday Night Wine & Dine group. Not necessarily a “common pairing” having a blackened Mahi Mahi with a Romesco sauce, smashed potatoes and green beans with salsa Verde. The Romesco sauce is a bit unique in that it is a tomato based sauce originated in Catalonia in the province of Tarragona, Spain. Fisherman in the area made the sauce to be paired with locally caught fish. It is typically made in a mixture of roasted tomatoes, garlic, almonds, pine nuts, olive or sunflower oil and peppers. Other ingredients can include sherry vinegar, red wine vinegar, onions, fennel and even mint. An excellent sauce!
The flaky Mahi Mahi was excellent with the Pinot Noir absorbing the blackened fish with fruit flavors and rounding out the finish. The wine, in my opinion is definitely a food wine as opposed to a standalone drinking wine as it was wholly enhanced with food. Next time will be pairing it with a pork tenderloin.
Other wines enjoyed this evening were:
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Sláinte,
Michael