We had an interesting wine this Monday with Dave. First, dinner! Nancy cut up a bunch of vegetables, carrots, onions, garlic (whole cloves), red potatoes and brussels sprouts. She put them in a casserole dish and splashed some olive oil and salt and pepper on top and put in the oven at 350 degrees. I had been to the market and bought some medium cut pork chops. We seasoned the pork chops and after the veggies had cooked and browned a little, about 15 to 20 minutes, we put the pork chops on top. After about 30 minutes we took the chops off, stirred the veggies and flipped the chops over and put them back on top. About another 15 minutes we took the pork chops off again and covered them with foil to rest. We left the vegetables in a little longer until everything was done enough. Tasted great!
Dave brought a 2004 Pasos Reserve Pinot Noir Umpqua Valley Oregon. I was a little leery about having this wine with the roasted vegetables and pork chops but was pleasantly surprised at how well it went. The nose had smoke, earthiness, bacon fat and some rubber tire notes. It had a medium body with plenty of dark fruit, smoke and leather. There also was a little tartness along with light tannins. There was a medium length finish with a little heat (alc 13.9%). As the evening went on the wine continued to evolve with different flavors. I will say I would not pick this out in a blind tasting as a Pinot Noir but it was a very nice wine that paired well with the pork chops.
