Sommelier Speak

Menu: Broiled Salmon with Bearnaise sauce, w/ Pommes Natures and Sauteed Zucchini

Description: A melt in your mouth Salmon filet paired with a bearnaise sauce, where the sauce adds flavor components such as lemon and butter that ties in well with the tenderness of the salmon. Adding the pommes natures gives the dish a bit of a crispy texture and salt as well as the sauteed zucchini.

Three Wines:

Sauvignon Blanc/ Semillon blend from Bordeaux, France 2015

Pinot Gris from Willamette Valley,North America 2015

Riesling from Central Otago, New Zealand 2015

The Riesling from Central Otago, New Zealand 2015 is a well balanced white wine with high acidly. On the palate it gives a clean crisp apple note with a hit of a lime zest, this will help balance with the lightness of the salmon and the lemon profile of the Bearnaise sauce. Also the slight sweetness that comes from the apple balance out the salt components from the potatoes and zucchini. Overall this wine enhance the lightness of the dish without out over-powering it.

In New Zealand, the cool climate is tailored made for white wines. Consisting of two island North and South which are surrounded by the Pacific Ocean with maritime climate, long hours daylight, temperature variation from day to night, warm daytime for grape ripening, and cooler temperatures at night for acid retention. Especially in the southern island the soil is less fertile with good drainage and the primary topographic in the south island is the Southern Alps that runs through the island.

In the South Island Central Otago is considered the southern most wine region in the world. The cool temperature of the island allows harvest to start late April. The vinification of Riesling is a complex one because in Central Otago the aromatic features are important. In some wineries such as Chard Farm the grapes are hand-picked and whole bunched pressed, which sometimes could be usually 9 hours long. The juice is extracted very slowly and gently meaning we don’t have to use anything to aid the clarifying and settling of the juice. Then small batches of Riesling are fermented with natural yeast while the others are inoculated with selected yeast. Once all components are have fermented and are balanced it is cooled to stop. Finally the lots are left on yeast lees till the end of the year to pick up texture and length, before blending and bottling for the following year.

Kolpan, S, Smith, B. H, Weiss(2010). The Culinary Institue of America. Exploring Wine. John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Society of Wine Educators(2017). Certified Specialist of Wine Study Guide

http://www.chardfarm.co.nz