We had another guest in addition to Dave for our Monday night wine dinner. We invited Leslie, another Thursday night wine taster, to share food and wine with us this week. Dave brought the wine, Nancy made the dinner and Leslie brought a cheesecake for dessert. Nancy made Pork, Apples and Creme a La Normande with Spaetzle and an Asparagus, Pea and Edemame Salad. The recipes came from various sources. The pork dish and the spaetzle are from Dorie Greenspan’s book, Around My French Table and the salad recipe is from Laura Calder’s TV program, French Food at Home. Everything was excellent.The pork chops were flavorful in the sauce of apples, mushrooms, onions and creme fraiche. The pea salad was warm and had a nice mixture of vegetables and crispy bacon. Leslie, who doesn’t eat peas, left with the recipe for the salad in hand! Dave’s choice of wines matched perfectly.
Dave brought a 2001 Chateau Chauvin, a Grand Cru Classe from Saint-Emilion. The wine is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and a little Cabernet Sauvignon. It had a dark garnet color with a nice nose of dark fruit. The body was light with dark fruit, a little green pepper, rubber tire and tobacco flavors. The Cabernet Franc influence was noticeable. It had good acidity, very smooth tannins and a nice long finish. I would say this wine is very good drinking right now and if you have you have any in your cellar you should try it. I don’t know if it will get any better but It certainly won’t improve much with more aging. The flavors have blended beautifully.
With dessert I opened a bottle of 2003 Chateau Guiraud Sauternes Premier Grand Cru Classe. The wine had turned a dark yellow, apple cider color. There was some nuttiness and restrained botrytis in the nose. There was a subtle complexity in the mouth and good acid that left your mouth clean while you savored the long finish. Really good!
I had not heard of the Ch. Chauvin before. Dave had bought it several years ago when it was first released and certainly aged it well.
The wine selection sounds great but I really was taken by the food pairing. I checked out the sites in this post and will definitely try the recipes. Guess I went to the wrong house for dinner. All I had was a bologna & cheese sandwich, salt & vinegar chips with green tea. Ahhh, the perils of working late! Great post Peter, I can almost taste the wine and food you’ve described. I must make the pork chops et. al. You have some really great wines that I’m unfamiliar with – keep ’em coming.