* News Updates
* Special offers
* Post reviews
Create Account

S01E05 | Glenmorgan Bar & Grill Food and Wine Pairing

Written By: ClassicWines.com Team on Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Brian Freedman:Welcome to ‘The Classic Wines Minute’ brought to you by classicwines.com, I am Brian Freedman. And we are here again at the Glenmorgan and Chef de Cuisine, Bonino, has provided us with an absolutely beautiful dish here and this really is one of the major issues this time of year that food and wine lovers are forced to deal with and that’s what do you pair with Salmon? Right, and we have some issues here because Salmon has a lot more fat, lot more oil, a lot more heft, than a lot of those summary type fishes that you have in those dog days back in June or July or even August. So might be a little bit much for a white like a Pinot Grigio, let’s say that most people drink. At the same time, it’s still fish, so you don’t want to go with a really heavy, peppery, over-extracted, alcoholic, California’s Zinfandel, because that’s just going to kill the flavor of the fish.

So, what do we do when it comes to pairing with Salmon, which is something that a lot of people order this time of year? And really one of the more interesting developments in recent years has been the acceptance, and of course acceptance doesn’t mean anything if you don’t like the pairing, but I think this one is great. Of Salmon with Pinot Noir, so let’s start here with what we have. Chef Bonino has provided us with a Cedar-planked Jail Island Salmon -- I practiced that and I still flubbed it -- with a Dijon brown-sugared glaze, it is on top of Basmati rice, it tops a little bit with Alfalfa sprouts and we also have this gorgeous corn relish. So, the question is, what are we going to try to pair with all of these flavors on the plate and what I would propose to do is to take the Salmon which is going to give us a surreal meaty, hardy flavors but at the same time there is going to be a sweetness to it because of this glaze.

Now, Pinot Noir is the perfect pairing partner for this because Pinot has enough acid that is going to be able to cut through the fat and richness in that fish. It also is going to have a little bit of natural sweetness -- okay, specially a new world Pinot Noir. You get a Pinot Noir from Burgundy, (ph) it is going to be focused a little more on that earthy, funky, mushery, barnyard thing going on there, but in the new world there is a little more fruit, there’s a little more natural sweetness that is sweet wine that is more sweetness to it, and that is really good a pair well with the Salmon, so let’s see how this goes. Right? So, first let us start with the wine. Whenever you have a Pinot Noir, you are going to notice that the color is probably going to be much lighter than you are expecting. Everybody wants to drink Pinot since the movie Sideways and then there are shocked that it does not taste like their favorite Yellowtail Shiraz.

The truth is, this is an elegant wine, it’s not necessarily a blockbuster, so prepare yourself for that. So we’re going to give it a good smell here as we’ve gone over before on ‘The Classic Wines Minute’ and I am noticing two things first. I am noticing some almost like crushed red berry fruit and you get this hint of sweetness in there from that fruit but at the same time there is this funk, this almost mushroomy, wet leaf, wet earth sort of thing and that’s very classic of Pinot Noir. It’s juxtaposition of fruit and funk, sounds like a bad early 90s rap group, that’s neither here nor there, but I do think that these two very distinct aspects of the Pinot are going to be delicious with this fish, so give this a taste here.

It is a very well-balanced wine, there is certainly enough acid in there to keep that fruit testing fresh and I think that acid is going to be absolutely spectacular when it comes to pairing with the Salmon. So, let us take a bite here and Chef Bonino has cooked this perfectly. In the outside it has a gorgeous caramelization on it from this glaze, and the inside couldn’t be more moist. Hmm. I would like to end this segment here and just eat. Texturally that’s absolutely spectacular. What I am struck by is the certain sweetness because of this glaze but that has been checked by the mustard. We’ll see how this goes with the pairing here. You can tell immediately as soon as you smell this wine, it is going to be perfect for Salmon. Couldn’t be better. The acid really holds in check all that richness from the Salmon, the sweetness of the Salmon and that is certain -- I do not know, let’s call it a depth from that mustard and from the fat of the fish itself. It almost brings to life this wine that otherwise would have been a lot more simple and straightforward than it was there is so much nuance in the interplay between the wine and the fish. This is absolutely, not only an example of why Pinot and Salmon are so great together but also of why when you have great food like this and a very nice wine like this, really the pairings just take care of themselves.

So for until next time rather, I am Brian Freedman, bringing you ‘The Classic Wines Minute’ and I am actually going to be finishing this, in this gorgeous pre-wrapped in a phyllo dough here. So thanks for joining us and until next time. Cheers.

Send to a Friend Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us

  Be the first to comment on this article

You need to log into your ClassicWines account to leave a comment on this article. You can log in here. If you do not have a Classic Wines account you can sign up here.