CREAMY GARLIC MUSHROOMS & TOSSED UP CHICKEN CHILLI
This sounds a super, balanced menu – but it’s a challenge for wines! Mushrooms often go well with red wines, full-bodied ones at that. However there is an integral creaminess to this starter so we need to tone down the full-on red and yet retain some of the character. Rosado is my choice, particularly Bestué 2009 from DO Somontano. This wine, made from Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon is dark in colour, fruity but with a nice lick of acidity to cut through the cream – should be ideal.
Chicken is very wine-friendly and there are many styles and colours of wine that will suit this popular poultry. Here we have a slight Oriental or South East Asian influence with the addition of sweet chilli sauce and there is a super grape variety to match all the flavours going on in this dish – Gewurztraminer!
It’s a mouthful to say but worth it as it makes a wonderful, exotically flavoured, aromatic white wine which really should be on all Chinese/Thai/Indonesian/Vietnamese restaurants’ wine lists! The one I’m thinking of is Bodegas Viñas de Vero’s Gewurztraminer 2009, again from DO Somontano. Considered a German grape variety it’s name means spicy grape – ideal with this sort of cuisine.
Both wines are widely available – why not buy them both and enjoy Noelle’s recipes even more?
Enjoy!