...and New Year's Eve dinner
Wine is food. Champagne is wine. So Champagne is food. We confirmed all of these verities during another Feast of Many Courses on New Year's Eve.
Actually, we started with Cava as a warm-up act to the Champagne: Colet A Priori Brut Cava ($16). I like this wine a lot. Many inexpensive Cavas do their bubbly job without a lot of personality. This guy's got personality, thanks in part to discrete dashes of riesling, gewürztraminer, and muscat. It's fun to smell, fun to drink, and extremely reasonably priced.
At some point during the raw oysters, gravlax, and superb smoked trout from Hapuku Fish Shop, we opened Larmandier-Bernier Champagne Rosé de Saignée ($60). All of us at Paul Marcus Wines are in love with Larmandier-Bernier's Champagnes, but we only recently got the rosé in, and I hadn't tasted it before. It's the darkest rosé I've ever seen. It's not the best oyster wine, but oh, what a wine! I hadn't noticed before that it's Extra-Brut - that is, wickedly dry. I'm still puzzling over what to pair this wine with. Maybe paella?! (Pinot noir rosé - the still variety - has been a great paella match in the past.)
Andru and Cheryl's excellent vegetable pasta primo brought on some dry white wine that I no longer remember. Then we served romesco de peix (monkfish with Catalan romesco sauce) from the great Moro cookbook and Andru's memorable vegetable and caper contorno. I'd made the romesco de peix because: (1) monkfish is the poor man's lobster (more money left for Champagne!), (2) I love romesco sauce, and (3) I had a hunch that the dish would work well with Vilmart & Cie Champagne 'Grand Cellier' ($59). I was right (this time). The base wines for Vilmart's Champagnes are all aged in barrique, which gives the wine remarkable body and personality. Smelling them always reminds me of white Burgundy, and they have a textural quality that's pretty much unique among Champagnes.
The next time you're thinking about food and wine pairings, consider Champagne and other sparkling wines - on New Year's Eve or any other eve.
Actually, we started with Cava as a warm-up act to the Champagne: Colet A Priori Brut Cava ($16). I like this wine a lot. Many inexpensive Cavas do their bubbly job without a lot of personality. This guy's got personality, thanks in part to discrete dashes of riesling, gewürztraminer, and muscat. It's fun to smell, fun to drink, and extremely reasonably priced.
At some point during the raw oysters, gravlax, and superb smoked trout from Hapuku Fish Shop, we opened Larmandier-Bernier Champagne Rosé de Saignée ($60). All of us at Paul Marcus Wines are in love with Larmandier-Bernier's Champagnes, but we only recently got the rosé in, and I hadn't tasted it before. It's the darkest rosé I've ever seen. It's not the best oyster wine, but oh, what a wine! I hadn't noticed before that it's Extra-Brut - that is, wickedly dry. I'm still puzzling over what to pair this wine with. Maybe paella?! (Pinot noir rosé - the still variety - has been a great paella match in the past.)
Andru and Cheryl's excellent vegetable pasta primo brought on some dry white wine that I no longer remember. Then we served romesco de peix (monkfish with Catalan romesco sauce) from the great Moro cookbook and Andru's memorable vegetable and caper contorno. I'd made the romesco de peix because: (1) monkfish is the poor man's lobster (more money left for Champagne!), (2) I love romesco sauce, and (3) I had a hunch that the dish would work well with Vilmart & Cie Champagne 'Grand Cellier' ($59). I was right (this time). The base wines for Vilmart's Champagnes are all aged in barrique, which gives the wine remarkable body and personality. Smelling them always reminds me of white Burgundy, and they have a textural quality that's pretty much unique among Champagnes.
The next time you're thinking about food and wine pairings, consider Champagne and other sparkling wines - on New Year's Eve or any other eve.
