At Red Hook Winery we tried three white wines which were a Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, and Chardonnay. In the beginning when each student had to pick what three wines that would pair well with your dish, our dish being the “Broiled Salmon w/ Bearnaise Sauce, Pommes Natures, and Sautees Zucchini, a grape variety we had in common was Riesling. The Riesling we had at Red Hook Winery was exactly the type of wine that would pair well with our dish because it was a clean wine with medium body and had notes of crisp apple, peaches which will balance out the lemon zest of the bearnaise sauce. Also we thought it would cut through the richness of the salmon and the intensity of the wine wouldn’t be too over bearing, so we know definitely the Riesling is our base wine.
The next decision we agreed on is that we probably won’t use Sauvignon Blanc because as good as it tasted we thought the wine was very sweet and would over power our dish. Even if we did a blend that was 85% Riesling and 15% Sauvignon, we felt the salmon and sauce will be lost. We were leaning towards more of a Riesling/Chardonnay. The dominated tasting notes in the Chardonnay are similar to the Riesling so wouldn’t lose the qualities we like so much in the Riesling. The light zing of the wild flower and the smoothness of the Chardonnay will blend well and tie up the meal together. Our next move is to decide how are we going to blend it, which we’ll know when we test them on Monday.
