Menu item: Basque Style Chicken with Creamy Polenta
Description: Chicken pan seared till golden brown and cooked in a rich sauce along with a creamy polenta to add a soft texture and umami factor.
Three Wines: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio
Chardonnay from California would be a good fit for this dish because of its light fruit taste of both apple, pear, and pineapples that comes clean on both the nose and palate, as well as its refreshing and dry taste which acts as a palate cleanser. The Chardonnay should have a nice vanilla and nutty smell as well as taste due to its fermentation in oak. The wine has a vinous taste making it unique because it is a young wine at two years old, it has light white pepper that is short on the palate and present also on the nose. This Chardonnay is well balanced and has a short finish. The wine is a nice light canary yellow and is day bright.
California as a wine region benefits by being surrounded by mountains. The mountains protect the vines from extreme weather as well as provide an air conditioning type of coolness for the grapes when the temperature increases, certain areas in California are affected by dinural temperatures due to the mountains ranges, this helps stress the vines making them stronger and allowing them to produce great grapes which makes great wines. California also has something called a Marine Layer. The marine layer is a thick fog that rolls around in the morning and sits above the vines, the layer provides moisture as well as a cooling source for the grapes at high temperatures. California is also home to many different soils, each soil contributes something different to each vine such a rich wine or a more aromatic and light wine. All these great things contribute to why California is not only a great wine growing region, but also the region that produces the most wine.(81-88% of all wines produced comes from California)
