We had a little different format for our Thursday night tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton this week. Marianne McCarroll of Marianne’s Pantry brought some appetizers she made for a wine and food pairing. We have done this a couple of times before but this time it was particularly informal. We had several people who don’t usually show up for the regular tastings so Gail decided to keep it simple and not go into a lot of depth in the critiques. I think we may intimidate new people once in awhile and we don’t want to do that. We want even the most beginner of wine to feel welcome.
We had four wines and three appetizers. The appetizers were slices of Apricots layered with a variety of cheeses, blanched vegetables with a spring garlic aioli and Spanikopita made with beet greens and swiss chard. The first wine was a NV Watts Chardonnay from Lodi. When was the last time you saw a non vintage Chardonnay? I don’t think I ever have before. After that we had a 2010 Bokisch Albarino from Lodi, actually all wines were from Lodi, then a 2009 St. Amant Barbera and a 2006 Onus Cabernet Sauvignon.
The prices of the wines ranged from $10.50 for the Watts Chardonnay to $27 for the Onus Cabernet. The Chardonnay wasn’t overly oaked or buttery, more clean and crisp, a good summer sipper. The Bokisch Albarino is a nice wine, I have had it several times and at $15.00 it another good wine to sit in the backyard and drink on a warm evening. I initially thought the St. Amant Barbera ($18.00) was a Zinfandel because of the abundance of fruit that overwhelmed everything else it may have had. The Onus Cabernet Sauvignon was a pretty good effort for the hot Lodi climate but not a match for Napa. The winemaker did a pretty good job, however, and didn’t let it get too ripe before picking like many in Lodi do.
Because it was more a social wine and appetizer affair we didn’t really spend much talking about the wine or even how the pairing was. Just looking at the menu you can pretty well pick out what went best with what. The whites with the stuffed apricots and veggies and the reds with the spanikopita. When you had the veggies with the garlic aioli, then they could stand up to the reds. While Nancy and I felt the wines were matched well with the food, there wasn’t anything that stood out. You know, like when something in the food makes a wine really pop! I thought the aioli was pretty good, though, and I liked the Spanikopita quite a lot.
