Lamp, Scallops, Greek White Wine, and Chateauneuf-du-Pape

It’s been a wonderful summer full of friends, family, adventures, BBQs, and of course beautiful wines with the most memorable meals. And isn’t that what summer is for? Wine is just an accent but it does make it that more special. One of favorite memories this summer was a friends dinner party. What was suppose to be two families turned into three and included a pool, rack of lamb, scallops, homemade sourdough bread, local fresh organic greens and veggies, and maybe some very special candies got into the mix haha.

It was another beautiful warm day in southern California so perfect for a summer cookout. Plan was my friends choose the dinner and I will bring the wines! Yes wines! I didn’t know at the time how many we would be having dinner with but a rule of thumb is to always bring one more bottle that you think you need (this turned out to be perfect in my case).

Our best friends Lindsay and Greg (L&G), even though we are not related, are like family to me. We call each other sister/brother and my husband Rob and I have the privilege of being Godparents to their two beautiful children. Basically we are really tight! I’m sure you have friends like this.

Another reason why we are such good friends is our appreciation for all things food and drink. L&G are quite creative in the kitchen and just love eating/cooking good food. Between the two of them I have had some serious good meals. Did you see my Wines of the Summer? The chili was theirs! They truly are passionate about food and so when we came up with our collaboration wine and dinner idea I knew it was going to be a good one!

I thought planning the meal would actually be the most challenging thing about dinner. How do we decide to cook and prepare with all the good food that we love, decisions are hard haha. People ask me, how do you do a wine pairing? Do you start with the wine or the food? The answer is either! The question really comes back to you and what your primary focus is on. For us this time it would be easier for the group to pick food and then I can easily match wine for it. However I am doing wine pairing dinners where I normally start with the wine and build a menu off that. 

We started with food, which again thought it might take days to put together some ideas, I am pretty sure it took us 10 minutes lol. We love food haha! It is more than just eating thought, it is about love, sharing love, getting together, and spending time with people we love, that is what we are passionate about.

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My one request with dinner is that we do seafood as well as meat dish. I just really wanted to do have both a red and white wine with dinner haha. Greg then said “Let’s do rack of lamb and scallops” and everyone said okay. Not very exciting story but not everything in life needs to be complicated.

We had the food now it was my turn for the wines!

The Wines…

Let’s start with the wines and why I chose them. First scallops. It is not the first time I have featured scallops on this blog – again see wines of summer. Guess we really like scallops haha. In this case the scallops were prepared very differently and therefore a new wine was selected. To be perfectly honest I chose a wine that I knew very little about other than what was on the label however I selected this wine because I thought it would be an interesting wine to taste and with simply prepared seafood I was rolling the dice that this pairing would work. Take a chance once in a while! Worst case scenario it won’t taste well together and then you learn something.

This wine caught my eye as it was from Greece! How many wines from Greece have you had? Any lol? I myself have probably only tasted through less than a dozen so as soon as I see something like this I usually end up picking up a bottle (or two) just to taste, analyze, and appreciate it.

Turns out my wino sense was turned on that day when I selected that white wine cause it was an absolute winner! More about this wine: it was made from Athiri grapes which originate from Greece. They are widely planted in the country but more often than not are used as a blending varietal with other white wine grapes. So it is very cool and that we got to try a single variety of this wine! It is a rare find and when I went to find out where I could by more of it winesearcher.com could only find it at the store that i bought it from. So no where else in the United States?? That’s crazy! I researched more about the producer and learn that the Porto Carras (the producer) are exclusively organic vineyards, which is so great cause it definitely takes more time and effort to produce organic grapes and vines but the beneficial impact that it has on  the environment and people is a gold standard that I hope more and more vineyards will follow. So happy I found this totally unique wine! Let’s get into the bottle- Tasting notes for this wine : It is a beautiful golden color reminding me of summer sunshine with flavors of orange peel, coconut, pear, preaches, crushed stone, and toasted croissant. Anthiri is usually going to produce a light, crisp, white wine that is versatile with food and should go well with shellfish, roasted veggies, cheese plates, hummus, and olives. Good thing we had scallops! 

Next bottle. Chateauneuf-du-Pape (CdP) (sounds like shot-tow-nuuf-do-pop or at least as close as I can say it)

Chateaunuef-du-Pape is a very well known region in France that is famous for it’s full robust blends typically made from Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre. In America we call these GSM blends and is CdP is where we have copied the winemaking style. A little more about CdP, it is the most famous of the Rhone region in France. The Rhone is in Southern France where there is a Mediterranean climate and temperatures stay warm into the fall which allows grapes to reach the perfect amount of ripeness for big lush wines. The wine I selected from producer Domaine de la Ronciere did not disappoint. The wine is Grenache dominate with a hint of Syrah and Mounvedre. This rich dark red wine with purple tones is medium plus bodied, ripe dark fruit, and earthy undertones of tobacco, leather, fig, lavender, thyme, and game. Perfect for the flavors found in gamy meats like lamb. It was another winner for the pairing! Fun fact! In the early 1900s wine from CdP were becoming so popular people began counterfeiting the wine, saying they were from CdP when in fact they were not. To help protect against this member of the region created the very unique embossing coat of arms that is only allowed on bottles where producer both grow and bottle their own wine within the appellation. (Plus it looks incredibly cool) And now you know exactly where a bottle of wine is from when you see that coat of arms on the bottle!

For the third, I wanted to stay in France but try a different region. We went to Corbieres, which is really Southern France where Corbieres actually borders the Mediterranean Sea.  so I thought it would be very interesting trying them side by side and it was! This wine was slightly less body than the CdP however still pleasant on the palate. The nose has deep aromatic, again not quite as intense as the CdP comparison but still quite vibrant. I picked up notes of nutmeg and cinnamon with fruit flavors of red cherries and dark plum followed by a slight herbal note. Tannins were present and very supple so for those of us ready for a second glass of red this was a perfect choice to continue our dinner with the lamb and all the sides………

The sides!! I forgot to talk about the side so just a quick note because these veggies are something that I truly care for and are just as important to meal as the wine is.

Every single veggie that was served at dinner came from Jared’s Farm. A local organic farm. Literally every vegetable we ate in the salad was harvested that very day! I love that we have found a local farm and am so grateful we live in a climate that produce such bountiful gardens. The food tastes better, feels better, support the local economy, and when food doesn’t have to travel so far they don’t need to cover it with pesticides or that other yucky stuff we should not be eating. Find a local farm near you or subscribe to a local CSA box. I promise you will not be disappointed and through sharing real whole food like this with others is sharing love. We all need more of that!

Another very successful dinner and wine pairing! Food was amazing and cooked/prepared with so much love. Wine for me was thoughtful, delicious, fun, and inspiring. Most importantly the company was gathering was unforgettable. Food and wine are replaceable but making these memories and spending time with your favorite people for me is what life is all about. As always looking forward to the next one!

Cheers to my lovely readers!!

Want to plan a dinner and wine pairing? Need help? Contact me as I available to help you! Let’s make a dinner that you and your loved ones will never forget!