How on earth do you pair a wine with this dish? I mean we are blending a pork tenderloin that will have a merlot-shallots-blackberry currant based sauce. You might as well just offer the wine cellar and let the masses choose for themselves. Now that’s an interesting concept. You know how everyone is trying to “brand” themselves, trying to figure out just who and what they are. Well imagine if the restaurant management announced to the dinner guests there would be “open cellar” for thirty minutes. Imagine the mad dash that would ensue, one more refined nose pushing out another, the sound of bottles being broken, women screaming, the arrival of les flics. What a wonderful grape mess indeed!
Back to our Pork Tenderloin and our search for the perfect pairing. One little thing that can throw you off is falling for the old pork is whie meat hence the wine shall be white. Ignore that whine. If you remember we had a little discussion about the “philosophy” of pairing and the notion of that white and red meat rules seem to be slowly trickling away as we find many ways to bring out the flavor of our dishes with a range of wines. So stand tall and resist that syrens’ song. A Porc Tenderloin is the ultimate in efficiency: it is fancy, quick cooking and has almost no waste. So the culinary footprint is practically nil. Eat and drink.
Les Vins de Sélection
Zinfandel is a food-friendly wine, pairable with a variety of Beef, Pork, Game, Lamb, Chicken, Fowl, Cheese, Pizza, cheeseburger (possibly) and other dishes. Most “Zins” we talk about are the high alcoholic, fruity red wine. It is the second most-widely planted red grape in California, and found in many other areas of the world. A good Zin to consider is 7 Deadly Zins which is the flagship Zinfandel devised by the two Phillips brothers at the Michael David Winery.
If your thinking that you would really prefer to have a white wine because someone is behind you with a baseball bat ready to swing for your head than by all means “go white” but make it a white with some body not a vineyard wimp that goes with little crackers and cheese. Chateau Guiraud G is a white “affordable” Bordeaux that is 70% sauvignon Blanc and 30% Semillon. The wine huddles for about 9 months in oak which gives rounds it out nicely. This is a full bodied white wine that has a nice acidity to hold up to food.
2005 Kuleto Estate Syrah from Nappa Valley, California is a wine that can handle all of of the various ingredients found in the sauce. The smoky character of this syrah and the small addition of cabernet sauvignon, will enhance the pork’s inherent gamey nature, while the tinge of sweetness from the blackberry works in concert with the note of French oak
I could not leave a good Beaujolais for too long. Beaujolais Crus, specifically the appellation of Fleurie in the north of the Beaujolais region where wines are made in the traditional style – with little if any carbonic maceration. The resulting wines exude elegant fruit, spice, and flowers – violets, roses, peaches, anise and black currants. Michel Chignard Moriers 2006 is a recommendation that should seriously be considered.
And which wine was finally chosen? Well, you will have to wait for the “Post Mortem” on a meal to have your answer. Hint: think Provence.