Food for a Shiraz Tasting?

[tammylc]

You all had such great suggestions when I asked for foods to serve at my riesling tasting, I'm hoping you can help me out again!

This month my wine club will be tasting Australian Shiraz. We'll be tasting 4 wines at a few different price points, including a standard $6 supermarket offering. We taste blind, so it should be fun to see how it stacks up againt the others.

My wineseller suggested hard cheeses, like parmesan, and perhaps something with very mild jerk seasoning. Any other suggestions? Most everyone in the group is just starting to learn about wine, so we like to taste each wine by itself and talk about it. After we've tasted them on their own we try them with food, and see how people's perceptions and rankings change. So I'm especially interested in pairings that will highlight interesting things about the wine.

Thanks!

[Carolyn Tillie]

While I've been drinking and enjoying wine for a long time, I have only just begun to really tackle Shiraz/Syrah. Coincidentally, I have been opening one a day for the past week!

And like it was suggested, I have been drinking my Syrah (I'm drinking the California versions, not the Australian ones), with hard cheeses. Last night's wine is called Caseda and is a second label produced by Syrah luminary Karen Culler. We were drinking it with two cheeses, Dorothea Goat Gouda and a Doddington (which is a hard, aged cow's milk cheese).

Much of the basic tasting components you will find in these wines include jammy, liqueur-like fruit flavors; boysonberry, blackberry, cassis, and blueberry. The wines will tend to be inky black and dark, dark purple in color and these concentrated fruit flavors will be layered with a smokiness not unlike a sweet-cured bacon. Indeed, you may get the sensation of those flavors tasted in barbecue meat; smokiness with a core of sweetness in the caramelized meat proteins. There should be solid, balanced tannins and exceptional richness.

So, in knowing you will be drinking thick, viscous, jammy wines, the concepts of food pairings becomes a bit more difficult. This is why simple, aged cheeses work so well -- the sweetness of the wine counters with the saltines of the cheese. I would be careful with anything too smoked, but milder components that I would consider include baba ghanouj and hummus with the potential of a hint of smokiness in roasted eggplant expanding a potential smokiness in a wine, still having a hefty, thick food that will stand up to the complexity of the wines.

As a shear experiment, you could have some simple roasted beef, slices of cold, rare sliced tri-tip. But serve alongside several dipping sauces; BBQ sauce, olive tapenade, pistachio or walnut oil, etc. This way you have a protein in which to carry the various sauce flavors and then taste next to the wine to see how it reacts with each of the sauces. You will find some remarkable discoveries, I assure you!

Lastly, give yourself lots of time. Many Syrah/Shiraz can hold up to be open for several hours before they fully develop It is one of the few wines that I will open one day and see where it goes the second or third day without worrying about gassing with a preservative.

Let us know what you find!

[Rebel Rose]

I would second everything Carolyn suggested.

However, I'd also like to suggest trying the wines on their own first, then going back through and trying them again with wine. While syrah certainly invites smoky flavors and can stand up to a lot of hearty flavors . . . fats in cheeses, oils, and the vinegar inherent in an olive tapenade will affect your perception of the wines. Fats make a wine seem more tart and lively, olives and other vinegar-based preserves make a wine seem sweeter and fatter.

Sometimes a wine that didn't impress in an initial taste through becomes a real star when paired with these foods. I'd be interested to see what your group thinks.

[tammylc]

I would second everything Carolyn suggested.

However, I'd also like to suggest trying the wines on their own first, then going back through and trying them again with wine.  While syrah certainly invites smoky flavors and can stand up to a lot of hearty flavors . . . fats in cheeses, oils, and the vinegar inherent in an olive tapenade will affect your perception of the wines.  Fats make a wine seem more tart and lively, olives and other vinegar-based preserves make a wine seem sweeter and fatter.

Sometimes a wine that didn't impress in an initial taste through becomes a real star when paired with these foods.  I'd be interested to see what your group thinks.

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Guess I wasn't clear - we do taste all the wines on their own first before starting food.

[Rebel Rose]

Guess I wasn't clear - we do taste all the wines on their own first before starting food.

Well in that case I'm also fond of broiled mild jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. I can only eat one or two before developing an immediate capsaicin sunburn, but they're oh so good with syrah.

[legourmet]

Lately I had the 2002 "The Footbolt" Shiraz d'Arenberg for tasting and these are food suggestions for this wine I've got from a French sommelier

Poultry:

- grilled Pigeon on cassis-juniper berries-sauce

- Peking duck

Lamb/goat:

- ragout of kid goat (with tomatoes, rosemary, black olives, red wine)

- roasted rack of lamb with a tapenade-mie de pain crust on rosemary sauce with ratatouille

beef

- caramelized stuffed oxtail with herbs and roots (carrot, parsley, celeriac etc)

- grilled t-bone steak with shallots, red wine sauce and potato gratin

game

- roasted rack of hare with dried plums-balsamic vinegar sauce and glaced beets

cheese

- ripe Brie de Maux

- roquefort

- Pecorino (Toscano)

- Maroilles

My offer to the shiraz was grilled deboned rack of deer wrapped into a herbed crêpe on cassis-juniper berries sauce.

it was a perfect match.

[tammylc]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. We'll be doing hard cheese for sure, probably Parmagianno-Reggiano. I don't have a lot of time to do prep or cooking, so I'll have to just imagine legourmet's pairings! The best things for me are things that I can just pick up pre-made from the deli case at Zingerman's or Whole Foods, or can quickly assemble.

I made a grill-roasted smoked pork loin today with a chili-mustard rub. I have a bunch leftover and thought that might be a good thing to try - what do you think? It's a little smoky, with some heat from the chili powder, but not too much.

[carswell]

Your pork loin sounds like it should work, tammylc. In any case, finding out whether or not it does is part of the fun, right?

I'd echo a couple of the good reccos you've already got. Several people have suggested tapenade. I'd narrow it down to one with a proven affinity for shiraz: pesto rosso, a coarse purée of sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, fresh thyme and rosemary, garlic, dried chiles and olive oil (PM me if you'd like the recipe). Spread thinly on squares of toasted country bread.

Peking duck would have been one of my suggestions, too. If you're pressed for time, you could opt for Chinese barbecued duck, which is available at many Asian stores.

Carpaccio's a good bet, as is anything gamey (terrines, smoked duck breast, etc.).

Some pizzas will make a pretty good match. My favourite pizza joint has a merguez pie that's tailor-made for big, juicy wines. For your purposes, you could follow the lead of a local Lebanese bakery, which makes pizzas on thin pitas: a smear of tomato sauce, a tangle of sweated onions, some crumbled sautéed merguez or kofta kebab and a sprinkle of cheese in the centre. Bake until crisp and cut into quarters, sixths or eighths.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I'm sorry I didn't spell out the concept of tasting the wine before having it with food...

Seems sort of second nature to me and didn't consider the fact that it would have to be explained!

[tammylc]

I'm sorry I didn't spell out the concept of tasting the wine before having it with food...

Seems sort of second nature to me and didn't consider the fact that it would have to be explained!

←

It didn't need any explanation for *me* since that's the way we've always done it. But I'm sure someone else ready this thread will appreciate RebelRose's explanation.

[tammylc]

Your pork loin sounds like it should work, tammylc. In any case, finding out whether or not it does is part of the fun, right?

True, true!

I'd echo a couple of the good reccos you've already got. Several people have suggested tapenade. I'd narrow it down to one with a proven affinity for shiraz: pesto rosso, a coarse purée of sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, fresh thyme and rosemary, garlic, dried chiles and olive oil (PM me if you'd like the recipe). Spread thinly on squares of toasted country bread.

Hmm - sound intriguing, PM on the way.

As usual, you all are very helpful. Thanks!

[tammylc]

Thanks everyone - we had another fun tasting tonight. I didn't have time to make carswell's excellent sounding pesto rosso, so I just went with a simple black olive tapenade that I could buy already prepared. In addition, we had hunks of parmesan cheese, and thin slices of grill-roasted smoked pork loin with a chili-mustard rub. All the foods were good pairings, and able to stand up to these big wines.

2003 Hope Hunter Valley Shiraz, $10.99 (Everyday Wines)

Lots of fruit - raspberry, cherry, cranberry - with some sweetness but high acidity. Short finish. Really sung when tasted with the parmesan - beautiful pairing.

Alone: 3.1, Food: 3.5, Range with food: 2/5, Range alone: 2/5

2003 Bulletin Place South Eastern Australia,$8.00 (Big Ten)

Not a very fruity nose - a little musky and woody. Very smooth, with some spice in the long finish. Everything worked well together. Good on its own, but didn't go well with anything we were tasting.

Alone: 3.3, Food: 2.8, Range with food: 2/4, Range alone: 2/4

2002 Peter Lehmann Barossa Shiraz 2002, $18.00 (Everyday Wines)

Leather and wood on the nose. Delicately fruity, but quite tannic too. Lighter in body than you'd expect. Good alone, good with food - really nice wine.

Alone: 3.5, Food: 3.6, Range with food: 3/4, Range alone: 2/5

2004 Little Penguin South Eastern Australia Shiraz, $8.00 (Meijer)

Cherry and strawberry nose, little or no oak detectable. Licorice and tar on the palate - "cherry flavored Nyquil." Strong tannins. (These are my notes - as you can see from the range, some people really liked it and probably have quite different notes!)

Alone: 2.5, Food: 2.5, Range with food: 1/4, Range alone: 1/4

A note on our scoring system - it's a totally subjective five point system that I modifed from the eGullet Culinary Institute wine class. 1 is Blech, 3 is "Happy to drink it, but wouldn't buy it" and 5 is "I'd take out a second mortage to buy more."