I’m cooking for my girlfriend for the first time. I have a great meal planned, but since I don’t know much about wine, I would appreciate a good recommendation.
I’m serving
Spinach, Feta and roasted garlic stuffed chicken breast
Pan roasted asparagus spears seasoned with pepper, garlic and butter served on a bed of red onions.
French Baguette slices topped with fresh Basil, tomatoes and melted brie.
Also, possibly a side of fresh greens with sliced almonds and tomatoes.
I’m assuming I want to go with a white, but what kind? And if you can recommend any brands that are fairly cheap but still decent (neither of us has what could really be described as a sophisticated palette for wine), that would be great.
p.s any other side or dessert suggestions would be welcome.
A New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc should work well with just about everything on your menu.
You need something to stand up to the garlic and feta in the chicken and the acid in the tomatoes and a NZ Sauv Blanc can do it.
It should be able to hold its own against the asparagus as well, where most other wines would most definitely take on a metallic flavor after a bite.
Matua Valley, Whitehaven, Kim Crawford, and Forrest Estate are all good brands and all under 20 bucks I think. They might all be from the Marlborough region.
This is what I came to say. The crisp acidity in NZ Sauv Blanc pairs well with lots of different food, and I think this is a very good recommendation. I will also throw in Jackson Estate as another Marlborough fave.
The best news of all is that NZ Sauv Blanc’s are generally high quality and not very expensive.
Thanks! I woud like to get into wine more, but have limited funds (work in social services, going to grad school at night), any other reasonably priced wines I should try? i love to cook and it would be great if I knew how to pair up my meals with wine.
Spanish is the great wine deal nowadays - you can get some GREAT Spanish wines at very low prices.
Best bet for getting into wine is to find a good wine store in your area - someplace that specializes in wine, and has a knowledgeable staff. Don’t think that “wine store” means high prices. It doesn’t. Any really good wine store is going to have wine at low prices, because most of us winos are always looking for something good & cheap so that we can open a bottle every day and not break the bank.
As to the OP, I’m going to differ and say look for an Argentinean Torrontes. Harder to find than an Australian Sauvignon Blanc, but worth the hunt. Lovely perfumey wine - currently my favorite go-to white, since my precious Alsatians are so hard to come by in my area.
Sauvignon blancs are made in Australia too, but people have been talking about NZ sauv blancs, which taste signifcantly different (and generally better, in this Australian’s opinion). Yes, Australia and New Zealand are relatively close, but they are not the same country.
I can’t give you a wine suggestion because I know less than nothing about them. I would like to comment on your menu. That sounds like a delicious meal, but there’s a considerable amount of garlic and onion involved for a first dinner for a girlfriend. Are you not hoping for some serious lip-locking after the dishes are done?
Maybe your desert should be something minty and light.
Haha, yea hadn’t thought of that! I just loves me some garlic and onion! I’ll keep it in mind, thanks! (we’ve been dating for a while, so its not too uncomfortable, this is the first time I’m cooking for her tho)
When we had the SDMB wine club, the Menage a Trois red was a popular choice - its a red blend. That year was better (IMHO) than the current year you find on the shelves - but its still a fairly cheap, drinkable wine.
If you search up the old wine club threads - I think the limit was around $20 for a bottle - heavily weighted towards reds (that’s what it seemed most people liked), with good commentary.
You could also do very well with a trocken or halb-trocken Riesling with that meal. Trocken means full dry, with little to no residual sugar in the finished product, halb-trocken is an off-dry white that has a little more residual sugar than trocken wines but isn’t generally sweet to the palate. Rieslings from Germany (particularly from the Mosel region) are one of the world’s most overlooked wines due to the bastardization of the grape thanks to the oceans of syrupy sweet, corporate swill that’s been inflicted upon the wine buying public by big producers.
German Rieslings are the fucking shit, and the variety in styles/sweetness levels is pretty astounding.
Trust psycat90 on this one. I didn’t know this before, and the asparagus ruined a perfectly good rioja on me.
The Kim Crawford was a SDMB wine selection some time back, and very well received. However, year or two on Wine Spectator’s top 100 list seems to have raised the price above the mean, in my opinion. I remember reading that SB is an inexpensive wine to produce, and a big money maker for wineries (psycat90, is that so?). A few months ago, the NH liquor commission offered a case discount on wines from down under, so I picked up half a case from Australia, and half NZ whites. For me, the standout was the Sauvignon Republic Marlborough SB. Not quite as flinty as the Kim Crawford.
I know that they also have a SB from South Africa, and I believe one from the Russian River Valley, but I haven’t tried those.
I love love love the Nobilo Sauv Blanc. It usually runs $13 - $15 dollars a bottle, and is widely available around my neck of the woods, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find. Crisp, grapefruity, simply excellent. I can’t say enough good about it.
IIRC, it has a blue cap and cream colored label. And it’s from the Marlborough region, too.
It is true. The grapes aren’t too finicky and usually produce high yields, resulting in a lower cost. And the wine is one of the fastest to hit the market after crush. We’re harvesting grapes here in Sonoma County as I type this, and you can expect to see some 09 Sauv Blancs on the store shelf by March or April. You can already buy 09 NZ Sauv Blancs. And they rarely require any pricey oak barrel treatment.
The writer of this bloghas more to say, claiming NZ Sauv Blancs are the most profitable wines in the world.
I didn’t know this before, and the asparagus ruined a perfectly good rioja on me.