Gazpacho: that lovely Andalucian chilled soup, such a refreshing and tasty starter – I love it! We could have a choice of different white wines to match this dish, ones with an acidy to make a mark on the various vegetables used as well as the garlic. Whites from DO Penedés or DO Alella would go well. But I often find that a wine/food colour match works well too.
The tomatoes will give the dish its main colour so I’m going to go with a Rosado, which in colour should be quite a nice match but also because Bodegas Sierra Salinas’ Mo Rosado 2009 has the necessary acidity as well as a complementary fruit flavour too.
Aunty Noelle’s Weird Salad: wow, this is a hard task! Smoked Bacon and Chicken are very different flavours in the first place but add fruit to the brew as well as Balsamic vinegar and a touch of bitterness from the rocket and you have a challenge for wine.
However I think I have the answer – a completely new style wine and indeed a new wine from La Rioja. Bodegas Luis Alegre has made an exceptionally fruity wine from very young vines whose grapes have been treated rather specially. Koden 2008 is a new release from this modern, forward thinking bodega and I’m sure it will be really good with this ‘wierd salad’!
Salud!