Art of Wine & Food





(Left to Right) 2011 Private Reserve Riesling,

2010 Private Reserve Cabernet Franc, and

2011 Vidal Late Harvest.

The Art of Wine & Food is one of Peller Estates many tasting experiences.  Lucky for us, a friend of ours is a Peller Wine Club member so there was no charge for four of us, myself, Carrie, Kelly and Chris, to attend.  At our scheduled time, we were escorted upstairs to an area arranged as a large, but private dining room.  There were four others seated across from us and each place was set with three samples of wine and three accompanying accouterments.  Our host from Peller sat at the head of the table and walked us through the various taste combinations, asking and answering questions as we went, which altogether created the feeling of an informal, but very educational seminar.  Her message was twofold.  First, you don't have to adhere to traditional wine pairings if they don't suit your tastes, but second, some pairings are always better than others.  To prove her point, she had us drink these three pairings first as intended, and then mismatched, as explained in the following chart.

	Riesling	Cab Franc	Late Harvest Vidal
charred corn garden chilie & mango salsa	These flavours blended, taking the heat off of the chilie flavour.	This combo ruined the wine, making it sour and highlighting its alcohol.	These two flavours really fought it out, neither blending with nor improving each other.
smoked pastrami	The pastrami completely overpowered the wine, enhancing the black pepper crust on the pastrami.	These flavours blended, dulling the impact of the black pepper crust on the pastrami while augmenting its smokiness.	(didn't try)
peach walnut biscotti	This wasn't a bad combination, focusing more on the peach flavour of the biscotti.	(didn't try)	The wine nicely brought out the walnut flavour in the biscotti.

Throughout the experience, the host offered up these other pairing tips, all new to me:

• Spicy foods require low alcohol, fruity wines.  High alcohol wines will augment the spice.  Alternatively, serve a sparkling wine as the bubbles will cut through the spice.
• Acidic foods need acidic wines, because acidity neutralizes acidity.  For example, serve spaghetti with either chianti or pinot grigio.
• North Americans drink our whites too cold and our reds too warm.  Take the white out of the fridge for at least 15 minutes, and put the red in for the same.
• When tasting dessert wine, keep the first sip in your mouth for at least 5 seconds to acclimatize your taste buds.  Otherwise, it will taste extra-sweet.

Peller Icewine

It seems I'm getting more particular with icewine.  The last 3 bottles I opened, all bought during last January's icewine festival, didn't quite live up to my memories of them.  Since I'm pretty sure that 6 months isn't sufficient time for icewine to turn, I think my expectations, specifically about an icewine's complexity and structure, are increasing.  Since I was going to be at Peller Estates anyway for The Art of Wine & Food, and since I knew that its 2010 vintages were already winning awards, I tasted all 4 icewines in its current lineup to effectively reset my palate.

Two of these really stood out compared to their respective competition, primarily because, despite their high sugar content, they still resembled the grapes from which they were made.  This is typical for vidal icewines, as their regular harvest counterparts predominantly feature sweet, fruity flavours which intensify as the sugar concentrates while the grapes freeze.  However, there are lots of yummy flavours in a riesling or in a cabernet franc that somehow get lost in icewine production.  Riesling grapes turn into some sort of lemon syrup and cab franc grapes become strawberry sundae topping, and the more distinguishing features of the grapes get lost.

Not true for Peller's 2007 Riesling Icewine, now my standard for the category and earning a preliminary rating of 92-94 using my new wine rating rubric. Don't just trust me though; it also won gold medals in 7 different countries, plus a few silvers elsewhere.  My first impression of the scent was, "It smells like riesling!"  Yes, it has lots of aromas and flavours - lemon, apricot, nectarine and maybe pear - but it's all held together by a background of petrol and minerality that riesling lovers expect.  I'm looking forward to sharing this one sooner rather than later, and will watch out for future vintages. 

Similarly, Peller's 2010 Cabernet Franc Icewine has also started winning awards, despite a relatively recent release date.  Still enthralled with the riesling I'd just tasted, my first words about this one were "It smells like cab franc, [pause to drink] and it tastes like cab franc too!"  So in addition to the usual strawberry and rhubarb characteristics, and even the less-common spiciness, an elegant aroma and flavour of leather adds a complexity that offsets the strawberry, making the whole concoction altogether less like syrup and more like wine.  Like its riesling counterpart, this wine also had a long lingering finish, and will likely also score a 92 or higher.