Paired Up: Sangiovese and a Smorgasbord

In our Paired Up posts, we review a wine and the food we wisely (or foolishly) paired it with. 

The Wine

2008 Yellow Hawk Cellar Sangiovese (Columbia Valley)

On the final day of our first trip to Walla Walla, we stopped in at Yellow Hawk Cellars. Sadly, that would be our one and only visit as they have since closed up shop. At that visit, though, the wines were good and the prices were great, so we grabbed a couple bottles. When we got home, the 2007 Sangiovese became an early favorite of the trip of ours, and we bought several more bottles at Metropolitan Market. It was also one of the first wines that sent us out looking for online wine reviews and wine blogs. Washington Wine Report has selected a couple of the older vintages of this wine as recommended Thanksgiving wines, and we have generally found that Sangiovese is a food-friendly wine that goes with most anything. We put that to the test here.

This bottle was bought shortly before Thanksgiving last year and has been in the wine rack in our living room since then. It decanted for as long as it took us to heat everything up, so about 15-20 minutes. That was sufficient for this wine, and popping and pouring probably wouldn't be bad either.

The Food

After working out, we needed something quick, and we needed to use up leftovers. So, we put together this smorgasbord!

Paired Up: Syrah and Pasta with Meat Sauce

In our Paired Up posts, we review a wine and the food we wisely (or foolishly) paired it with. 

The Wine

2007 Va Piano Syrah (Columbia Valley)

During our first trip out to Walla Walla wine country, we were pretty much blank slates on what kind of wine we liked. We knew that we didn't like white. We were wrong there. We also had an inkling that we didn't like Syrah. We could not have been more wrong on that. This 2007 Syrah from Va Piano Vineyards was the one that really grabbed us and shook the Syrah hesitance right out of us. We picked up this bottle on that trip and stored it for a few months in our storage unit until we got the wine fridge up and running, where it rested until we popped it open for this meal. We decanted it for a good hour or so before tasting, and that seemed to work pretty well

The Food

This is one of Hunter's specialties, so he took the lead while Katy helped out with the cutting. In the chef's words:

Pasta is the staple of many a young man with a high metabolism and limited cooking skills. Back when that described me, I was a master of spaghetti and the Prego jar. Eventually, I learned my way around the kitchen a bit more and came to make a pretty decent chili. I realized that the Cincinnati-style chili of my youth wasn't too different from spaghetti with meat sauce, so one day I set out to make pasta sauce from scratch. Or at least pretty close to scratch.

Paired Up: Malbec and Chicken Fajitas

In our Paired Up posts, we review a wine and the food we wisely (or foolishly) paired it with. 

The Wine

2007 Hightower Cellars Malbec Red Wine Estate Grown (Red Mountain)

Malbec got its start as a component in Bordeaux blends, but found its way to being a stand-out stand-alone varietal via South America. It has since begun to rise as a solid grape for Washington. As with our Pinot Noir and salmon pairing, we tried to mesh together some semblance of climactic familiarity between the wine and dishes on this one. The (very!) spicy fajitas we assembled come with southwest flavor suited to a dry, hot climate. This wine comes from the estate fruit of Hightower Cellars, grown in one of Washington's warmest AVAs - Red Mountain, whose southwest exposure makes for long days of hot sun.

We bought the wine at Fred Meyer the day we made the dinner and decanted it for only about 15-20 minutes while veggies were cut. It definitely got better as it aired out, so a longer decant would help it smooth the edges.

The Food

Fajitas are a relatively easy and fool-proof meal to make, so many people have their own versions of how it's done. That is certainly the case for us, so we paired up our cooking skills to make a truly collaborative dinner. Katy had an idea that she wanted to try for the chicken, so she took that on while Hunter brought the heat with the veggies. Being a meal borne of teamwork, and Katy ever being a fan of creating a shorthand word, this dish has been given the name "Aqueminitas".

Paired Up: Merlot/Cabernet Franc Blend and Steak in Chocolate Sauce

In our Paired Up posts, we review a wine and the food we wisely (or foolishly) paired it with. 

The Wine

2009 Buty Winery Merlot & Cabernet Franc (Columbia Valley)

We wanted to do a Merlot for this tasting, but we didn't think the one bottle in our cellar was quite ready and we didn't find any varietal Merlots that tickled our fancy. We tried a bottle of the 2008 vintage of this blend with an excellent dinner at Monsoon in Capitol Hill a couple nights prior to this meal, where it worked Buty-fully with a wide variety of dishes. The strength of the wine was great with steak, and we felt that the chocolate notes would mesh well with the chocolate sauce in this meal. Alas, the 2008 was not to be found, so we picked up a bottle of the 2009 at McCarthy & Schiering in Queen Anne while out on a walk. We packed it back down the hill and it sat in our living room for a few days before we got a chance to cook this dinner. It decanted for about 20 minutes before tasting, and really should have aired out more as it got better as the night wore on.

The Food

This one was all Katy - the only thing Hunter helped with was the eating. In the chef's words:

Moving on up! After mastering the leg of lamb, I'm feeling like getting a little edgy- onto the Beef Tenderloin! We knew that we wanted to taste a Merlot, and since, in our opinions, Merlot just comes off as a generic-panic at the cellar-"I didn't know what to buy, so I got this because I've heard of it" wine, we wanted to try something a little unconventional for the dish.

Paired Up: Primitivo and Leg of Lamb

In our Paired Up posts, we review a wine and the food we wisely (or foolishly) paired it with. 

The Wine

2007 Michael Florentino Cellars Primitivo (Columbia Valley)

Still Buzzing (oh the puns!) from our latest successful food and wine pairing, we went for something ambitious: leg of lamb. Since this was Katy's first time cooking it, we weren't quite sure what to pick out to pair with it. In stepped this Primitivo from Michael Florentino Cellars. Primitivo is the Italian name for Zinfandel, which is typically a very flexible food wine that can go with most anything. We picked up this bottle during St. Nicholas Day Open House. It rested in our wine fridge for the past few months, then we decanted it for about an hour before dinner.

The Food

This one was all Katy - the only thing Hunter helped with was the eating. In the chef's words:

Lamb has always seemed a little "way-out" for my culinary forays. It seems a little too "grown-up" and, to be honest, a little too... potentially disastrous. Well, I am here to tell you not to believe the hype! I stumbled across a seemingly bullet proof recipe early one Saturday morning, and decided to go all in and make it. It was a breeze. I bought the smallest leg of lamb that we could find (cooking for 2 and drinking loads of wine to boot presents a lot of "scale" issues, so I try to combat the battle of the bulge with small proportions, when applicable...)
 

We decided to try and make a traditional, New Zealand-esque Sunday Roast and subsequent feast. We paired the Lego Lamb with some baked brussels sprouts and a different sort of baked potatoes.

Paired Up: Red Blend and Pizza

In our Paired Up posts, we review a wine and the food we wisely (or foolishly) paired it with. 

The Wine

2007 Beresan Winery The Buzz (Walla Walla Valley)

Since we were having a pizza with a little bit of everything, we wanted a wine with a little bit of everything. This one fit the bill: it's a blend of 40% Syrah, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc, 10% Merlot and 10% Malbec.We first tried this blend at Beresan Winery just south of Walla Walla during Spring Release last year, and we picked up a bottle at that time. That bottle is long gone; this one came from Fred Meyer. It rested at room temperature in our dining room wine rack for a couple months until it got pulled for this meal. We opened and decanted it about 30 minutes before tasting. It didn't seem to need even that long, though. We could smell this one beckoning us from across the room right away. It's truly a pop and pour wine.

The Food

After a long day of hiking around Seattle, Hunter took the reigns on making this meal happen. In the chef's words:

This was a tough one. First, I consulted Katy to decide whether we wanted a cheesy pizza or a toppings-driven pie. Toppings was the consensus, so I went online to Zeek's Pizza to bring up the "Super Awesome," a custom pizza with pepperoni, spinach, pineapple, mushrooms, roma tomatoes and roasted garlic. Unfortunately, Zeek's website had been updated since we last ordered and I could not simply recall a saved order, meaning I had to check all those boxes individually... what trials!

Paired Up: Syrah and Chicken Cordon Bleu

In our Paired Up posts, we review a wine and the food we wisely (or foolishly) paired it with. 

The Wine

2007 Walter Dacon C'est Syrah Beaux (Columbia Valley)

When we cook, we usually set the menu and then try to pick out a wine to complement it. This time, we flipped it around, picking out this Syrah from Walter Dacon Wines in Shelton, WA. We happened upon Walter Dacon on our way home from the coast last summer, and spent a lovely afternoon on their patio sipping on a couple of their Syrahs after tasting through their lineup of mostly Rhône-intensive wines.

The wines that we purchased at the winery that day, along with a bottle we picked up at a wine shop on the coast, inspired us to get a little serious about it and order a wine fridge. After a few days, we got the wine fridge in and running, so this bottle has been resting there for a little over half a year. In a nice change from our norm, we got a proper 2-hour decant in before tasting this one. 

The Food

Hoping to follow in the footsteps of our successful-though-somewhat-unexpected pairing of pork and Cabernet Franc, we bypassed the surefire dishes of lamb or beef and made Chicken Cordon Bleu with green beans on the side. Katy handled the main course while Hunter prepared the beans.