We’re going to a chef’s dinner this weekend. It’s being held at a local farm and will feature local products. Being a farm, they don’t sell wine, so we have to bring our own. We’ll take two bottles for this dinner - some of it will be consumed by us and possibly shared with others before the dinner, with the remainder consumed by us during the first course or two. The second bottle will take us through the last 4 courses, though I am open to bringing a champagne split for dessert - we can just share anything we don’t drink from the second bottle.
If you were going, what would you bring? Here’s the menu: Queso Blanco Quesadillas with Foster’s Market 7 Pepper Jelly
Heirloom Gazpacho with Lime Crème Fraiche
Local Field Green Salad with Chevre Croutons, Crispy Prosciutto and Figs with a Fresh Fig Vinaigrette
Cane Creek Farms Sausage, Wild Mushroom and Feta Ravioli with a Roasted Shallot Aioli, Basil and Sundried Tomato Infused Oils
Bourbon Espresso Beef Shoulder Tenderloin with Mashed North Carolina Sweet Potatoes and Collard Greens
Caramel Peach Upside Down Cake with a Raspberry Chambord Reduction
I’d bring a semi-dry to semi-sweet Riesling for the first two dishes and a Willamette Valley Pinot Noir for the last two, and share the two of 'em for the salad course. Then I’d bring the Champagne split for the dessert, because why on earth would you want to skip an occasion for Champagne?
Here’s my reasoning:
The first course could potentially be spicy, which is hard to pair. You want something that will hold up to the pepper jelly and complement the richness of the Queso Blanco. This screams Riesling to me.
Gazpacho with lime = acidity. Once again, the Riesling will pair well. You could go dryer on this course, but you want to limit the number of bottles, so the first will probably work.
Salad: Depending on how acidic/salty the salad is, I could see it going with either wine.
Ravioli: I’m having trouble imagining this sauce. Aioli and infused oils sounds either greasy and heavy, or (if the chef is amazing) incredibly good. I think the Pinot will work well, and it’ll taste good if the ravioli is too greasy.
Tenderloin: lots of big, potentially sweet flavors here. You could do almost any red with this dish except a really austere Europoean style. Heck, even that might go well. But it’s still summer, so I’d err on the side of lighter wines, thus the Pinot.
Dessert. Champagne. The French scoff at us drinking Champagne with dessert, but let them. It’ll be good.
I’d go with a Sauvignon Blanc early on, just because it’s my favorite white grape and it won’t overwhelm the first few courses. The herbal flavors should go well there.
After the salad I’d switch to a Zinfandel or Primitivo. I love it with both sausage and pesto, so it should work great with the ravioli, and it should play nicely with the beef course, too.
Yes, spicy things are indeed hard to pair, which is part of the reason I am soliciting opinions. I’d typically go with either a dry gewurztramier or a sauvignon blanc, as DrJ has mentioned - we don’t like sweet-ish wines - but I feel like I need to think more broadly here, since we’re talking about multiple courses.
The chef has an excellent reputation. We shall see.
My typical action when I don’t know what to bring is to roll over and bring some sort of sparkling wine - it goes with everything, right? And yeah, screw the French. I’m thinking some Spanish cava might work just fine.
I almost said Gewürztraminer, but took it out because it’s harder to find a good Gewurz than a good Riesling, at least in my neck o’ the woods. As far as Sauvignon Blanc, well, that’s a matter of taste. I tend to dislike them, but I like sweeter wines. I’m sure the right Gewurz/Riesling/Sauv Blanc would work; the trick is to get something that won’t be totally overpowered if that first course is spicy. You could always go with a beer
I think my husband would heartily approve of beer! However, I find beer to be really filling and I didn’t want to end up feeling like a whale at the end of 6 courses.
We are fortunate in this area to have several wine merchants who carry good stuff and actually know the wines they are selling, so I know I can find something decent in both the Gewürztraminer and Riesling range - it’s just a case of too many choices … so much wine, so little time …
That is in fact the correct answer. Beer with the first course, why try to match wine with a dish that will overpower it? I remember when my friends and I were young and stupid we used to go to classy Indian restaurants and think, “classy food deserves classy wine,” and we wasted gallons of great wine on food that isn’t designed for any wine at all.
I’ve paired wine with spicy foods many times and had it work out quite well (and wine consumption is going up by 25 to 30 percent a year in India, so they’ve got to be drinking it with something and liking it). A good Gewürztraminer with Schezuan green beans, for example, is a thing of beauty. That’s the cool thing about good wine - there’s a lot going on there and certain foods can bring out subtle flavors in a wine that you may not much notice otherwise.
The issue here though is that there’s a whole lot of flavors represented in the menu and I am limited in what I can bring, so that makes it a particular challenge. I can’t just focus on the flavor profile of a single course. Beer is just not going to be an option.
Right down the street from Foster’s Market is Wine Authorities: http://www.wineauthorities.com/home.php. Those guys are great at pairings, and their prices are very reasonable. I usually just cheat and ask them.
Well, they’re not exactly down the street, being in Durham while Foster’s is in Chapel Hill, but yeah, I’ve thought about just asking them. Or Todd over at Chapel Hill Wine (who does happen to be right down the street), but it does seem like cheating!
Athena’s suggestions are perfection, the thought of the menu with her suggested wines is definitely making my mouth water.
I’ll offer my own, which are nearly identical anyway.
For the first 2 - definitely an off dry Riesling. For the same reasons Athena mentioned. The slight sweetness level of the wine will compliment the spice and sweetness of the first course, and the acidity will hold up to that of the second.
Consider a German Kabinett or one made in that style. One of my favorite bargain wines is Ch. Ste. Michelle’s Eroica - a wine made in collaboration w/Ernst Loosen.
It will also hold up to the vinaigrette in the salad.
For the last 2, I would also go with a Pinot Noir. One that’s made in a more dense and rich style. It will compliment the mushroom, shallot, and tomato flavors of the ravioli, and stand up to the beef without being too tannic or bitter next to the sweet potatoes and greens.
Lately I’m in love with the rich Pinot Noirs from the Central Otago region of New Zealand, although there are plenty that fall into that dense category coming from the Russian River Valley and Santa Barbara County here in CA.
The only thing I’d change is dessert. Unless you go with a sweet sparkling (Moscato d’Asti or Brachetto d’Acqui maybe?), I think the wine is going to end up tasting too dry and bitter.
I would bring a split of sparkling, and consider drinking it as an aperitif or even as a palate cleanser with the salad if it is dry. But I’d also consider bringing a half bottle of something special to pair with the dessert. Of course I’m a sucker for desserts and dessert wines. For something not over the top sweet, a Late Harvest Muscat or Viognier would go well with this dessert and would definitely be my pick.
Sounds like you’re going to have a wonderful evening. Enjoy!
Thanks for the suggestions, psycat90, and the well wishes shorin-ryu. We went to another one of these dinners a couple months ago and it was fantastic, plus the setting is lovely too.
I really dislike sweet wines (like with the fire of about, say, 100 suns) so I tend to make up for that by going with something fruity instead if something dry won’t quite fit right. I think something a bit more dry might actually complement the dessert if I get the right one - I’ve had raspberry chambord/champagne cocktails before that were pretty awesome. My choices will be more limited with just a split, though, since most stores don’t carry a whole lot of them.
I know that conventional wisdom is that the wine should be sweeter than the dessert, but for whatever reason, Champagne, even a dry one, with dessert has always worked for me. Maybe it’s the carbonation, but I always enjoy the dry fizziness of Champagne with something sweet to eat. But heck, I’m just silly that way. I’d drink Champagne with breakfast cereal if I could get away with it.
Plus it seems like lately all the dessert wines fall into two or three categories and beyond that, taste the same to me. Or maybe it’s just that I’m spoiled forever on dessert wines after that amazing, incredible, would-sell-my-soul-to-the-devil bottle of Zind-Humbrecht I had a couple years ago. But suffice to say, unless I drop serious bucks, dessert wines have been disappointing of late.
I emailed the Wine Authorities guys, and as usual they’ve outdone themselves. Craig had the farm email us all with recommendations for the dinner tomorrow:
I’d go with a nice rose for the first course, or a New Zealand Sauvignon blanc, although the Sauvignon blanc would go nicely with the second course as well. I also bet a dry champagne would go well with the acidity of the gazpacho and lime creme fraiche.
I’m thinking some Spanish cava might work just fine. 
