Just A Taste
Frank Sutherland's wine column for Saturday 4/17/04
Forget white wine with fish rules when pairing with seared tuna
Wine column by FRANK SUTHERLAND
Gannett News Service
More and more restaurants in my area are regularly serving grilled fish of different sorts, and I have taken to grilling fish outside.
My favorite is to push sesame seeds into a sushi grade tuna steak and cover the tuna with sesame oil. I have seared it in a pan on the stove and I have cooked it medium rare on the grill.
The old saw about white wine with fish doesn't necessarily hold with seared tuna. I usually prefer a light red or a pinot noir, but you should drink what you like with food, not what someone tells you to drink.
I decided to test a tuna and wine combination with the tasting group. We had tuna seared and seasoned only with salt and pepper for our blind tasting.
We compared five wines for drinkability by themselves and then with the food. Here is what we found:
2000 Lorca Pinot Blanc at $17.99. This aroma offered apples and minerals with a slightly sweet smell. On the palate, it tasted fruity sweet and hot from the alcohol. It finished buttery with hints of bitter orange peel. With the food, Lorca (made by Caymus) was a little too fruity sweet for the tuna and lost ground to the food.
2000 Castle Pinot Noir at $25.99. This wine had a woody, leathery aroma with nice cherry fruit. On the palate, the layers of fruit tastes balanced the oak. Before tasting the food, the Castle finished second in our comparison. The tuna brought out the wood and spice in the wine, almost as if the tuna had been smoked. It was delightful. This was our favorite wine with the food.
2002 Au bon Climat Santa Barbara Pinot Noir at $19.99. This aroma had hints of volatile acidity, which in wine jargon means we smelled the results of oxidation of the wine, such as hints of vinegar or acetic acid (like fingernail polish). It doesn't mean the wine is bad, but it is not at its best. In the mouth, the wine was dry and tannic (chemicals in wine which in their youth can make your mouth pucker and dry out). With the food, the wine got better but slightly astringent and thinner.
2002 Frei Brothers Reserve Pinot Noir at $23.99. The aroma reminded us of cherry Coke with sweet cherry fruit. It had a nice texture that came together in a finish that was a bit high in alcohol. This was our favorite wine by itself. With the food, the wine was a good match with the wine improving but still a little overwhelming for the fish.
Surfing the wine shelves:
2001 Penfolds Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz at $24. Lots of black fruit and spice with wood and cigar filled the aroma. On the palate, it was very intense and needed more time to fully open up. This wine will be drinkable for many years.
2000 Charles Krug-Peter Mondavi Family Napa Valley Chardonnay at $17. Rich and easy to drink, with plenty of soft fruit.
1998 L'Ermitage Brut at $39. This sparkling wine from Roederer Estate in California had a sweet floral, honey aroma. It had a creamy texture whose fruit and acids were well balanced.
2001 Murphy-Goode Wild Card Claret at $19. This Bordeaux-style wine was easy to drink. It was made with Cabernet Sauvignon softened by the merlot and given a little bit of spice from petit verdot grapes.
2001 Far Niente Estate Bottled Cabernet Sauvignon at $100. Thick and chewy almost, this was a dense wine full of currant, black fruit and hints of chocolate. The texture was velvety, and the finish seemed to last forever. This wine will age well for several years.
Questions may be sent to Frank Sutherland, editor, The Tennessean, 1100
Broadway, Nashville 37203, or e-mailed to editor@tennessean.com..
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