A belated report on the Society for American Wines dinner at the Cathedral Creek Bistro on January 27. This dinner was as interesting for the food as for the wine: everything, and we mean everything, right down to the ice cream, contained garlic. Fortunately, we both attended, so we didn’t have any, um, personal scent issues later on.
The reception wine was Beringer White Zinfandel 2004. It costs $11.95 here in Saskatchewan, and was paired with an amuse bouche of roasted garlic on a crostini. It wasn’t our favorite: light and fruity, sure, but essentially uninteresting. However, it went okay with the garlic.
The same wine was paired with the appetizer, a trio of roasted garlic, stilton and walnut tarte, garlic prawn and salt cod brandade on a bread point. (Why, yes, we are copying this from the menu. Why do you ask?)
The White Zinfandel went nicely with the prawn and the garlic, stilton and walnut tarte and wasn’t bad with the salt cod; it didn’t match the garlic prawn quite as well.
Next course: soup. Specifically, garlic-sage soup with olive tapenade. Matching it: Cline Oakley 2002, a blended white that went very well with soup, and on its own. Said Margaret Anne, “I love it. Full of flavour. Nice mouth feel. Lasts on the palate. Different flavour.”
Next came a palette cleanser: lime-garlic sorbet
The main course followed in due course: “duo of chicken breast with forty cloves and garlic-crusted pork tenderloin with garlic-shallot mash.” Another Cline product accompanied it, this time the Oakley Vin Rouge, again a blend of several varietals, from the familiar—Syrah—to the complete mysteries to us: Alicante? Bouschet?
In any event, it’s a nice light red, with notes of cherry and possibly red pepper—something more herbaceous than fruity, anyway. Comments from those at our table: “It reminds me of cough syrup.” “I get broccoli, especially in the aftertaste.” Ed, however, didn’t really taste the vegetableness (vegetality? vegetativeness?) others seemed to pick up on.
The principle behind the night’s pairing of wine and food, we were told, was simplicity/complexity: if the wine is complex, keep the meal simple. Since, instead, we had a complex meal, simple wines were chosen.
The dessert wine was Essensia California Orange Muscat 2004. We found this very nice, with a definite orange flavour. (Gee, you think maybe that’s why it’s called Orange Muscat? Duh...)
Dessert itself was roasted, yes, garlic ice cream with “petite pointe of (wait for it)...garlic fudge.”
And yes, it was good. And the wine actually went with it.
A very nice evening in one of our favorite restaurants. (We returned to it just a couple of weeks later for our traditional Valentine’s Day lunch.)
And if they ever put it on the menu, we’ll even order the garlic ice cream again.
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