A Food and Wine Pairing Dilemma
The Set Up
Last evening the wife prepared a Spinach, Dried Tomato, Feta cheese stuffed chicken breast. As is our custom to select a wine to go with the meal it was no easy process. Chicken is usually a straightforward selection with Chardonnay or other well-known whites being the go-to wine of choice. However, a pairing with sundried tomatoes with Chardonnay is a known “no-no”! Tomato and tomato sauce-based foods go well with Chianti, Sangiovese, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, etc. Wine that are rich in tannins and high acidity are the wines known as the best companions. The dilemma being to pair wine with the chicken or the ingredients of spinach, dried tomatoes and feta cheese? Would like to hear your thoughts on which you would choose to pair it with? We ended up choosing a soft Pinot Noir and it worked very well.
Background on Pinot Noir
The name Pinot Noir derives from the French word’s “pine” and “black” as the grape’s tight pinecone 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 with views of San Francisco Bay. 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 pepper and clove. We chose this wine as it was one of the “softer Pinot’s” in the cellar.
This inaugural wine was 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 is $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
Paired with a sliced chicken breast stuffed with Feta cheese, fresh spinach, sun dried tomato and first seared in a skillet and then baked. Ingredients included kosher salt, paprika, garlic powder, chopped baby spinach, chopped sundried tomatoes in oil, crumbled feta cheese, shallot, minced garlic, chopped fresh basil, panko, fresh oregano, grated Parmesan cheese and olive oil. Accompanied by a spinach salad with bacon, red onion slivers and baby spinach with stems removed. The dressing was prepared with a small portion of bacon grease, red wine vinegar, sugar, Dijon mustard and salted to taste. Also, jasmine rice was plated.
The texture of the chicken, both from the skillet and being baked filled the palate. The flavors of the other ingredients provided complementary and contrasting flavors that circle the mouth with satisfaction. It turned out to be a very good food and wine pairing.
Would like to know other suggestions?
Sláinte,
Michael