Sparkling wine paired with jamón and other charcuterie takes me back to tapas bar-hopping in Barcelona. Grab a taste of this and bite of that and wash it all down with a glass of Cava! In the fall, I had the chance to participate in a virtual tasting that allowed me to relive those delicious memories without the plane fare. In this case, the bubbles and the jamón both have Spanish roots but were produced here in California. The tasting featured sparkling wines from Artesa winery, which is owned by one of Spain’s oldest Cava-producing families, paired with charcuterie from Encina Farms, which is raising one of Spain’s most celebrated breeds of pigs in California. 

Note: The wines and charcuterie in this post were provided as media samples for participation in the webinar. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

Artesa Vineyards and Winery

Image borrowed from Artesa Vineyards and Winery.

Raventós Codorníu is the oldest winemaking family in Spain, with roots dating back to 1551. They’re best known for their Cava, but they have projects all around Spain and several around the world.  In 1991, they brought their 17 generations of winemaking expertise to California and opened Codorníu Napa to produce sparkling wine. The project evolved to include still wines and became Artesa in 1998, taking its name from the Catalan word for “handcrafted.”

The Artesa Estate Vineyard encompasses 150-acres over steep vineyards straddling Los Carneros and Mount Veeder AVAs, with a variety of soils and slopes. Thanks to the proximity to San Pablo Bay, the vineyards generally experience cool, maritime climate conditions. This climate is perfect for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, which take the lion’s share of the plantings (about 80 acres), although there are a few other grapes planted as well. The vineyards are farmed sustainably and certified under Napa Green and Fish Friendly Farming.

The winemaking team is led by Ana Diogo-Draper, Director of Winemaking. They harvest and ferment the different lots separately, then blend them together when composing the final blend. Ana favors low intervention methods in the cellar, including wild fermentations. She and her team are constantly experimenting with the blends and methods in order to be constantly evolving to make better wine with each vintage. 

We’ll get to the wines tasted in just a minute. 

Encina Farms

Image borrowed from Encina Farms.

If you’ve been to Spain or are a fan of their cured meats, then you probably know about their famous Iberico pics. Encina Farms is raising them here in California. The key to the best Iberico ham is their diet of acorns, or “bellotas,” which gives the meat its rich flavor and texture. California has plenty of oak trees that produce the acorns, and they saw an opportunity. Moreover, the trees inspired the name of the company –– Encina means Oak Tree in Spanish.

They now have 650+ acres in the Coyote Valley near Middletown, including over 100 acres of certified organic pastures and over 550 acres of oak forests, on which they raise Iberico pigs exclusively – they’re the first producer to do so. They farm sustainably, using regenerative practices with no hormones or antibiotics while mixing in traditional Spanish methods. As is traditional, the pigs are finished on a diet of acorns, which they forage themselves from the oak trees, to ensure the flavor.

You can find large cuts via their website, smaller quantities via Good Eggs, and you’ll also find them at farmer’s markets in the Bay Area, as well as at Artesa. 

The Tasting

The tasting featured a lineup of three sparkling wines paired with a selection of three cured meats.

Grand Reserve Brut Barrica NV with Castro y Gonzalez Jamón

Blend: 75% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay | ABV: 11.5% |  Price: $65 

Winemaking: 100% of this lot was fermented in 10-year-old Chardonnay barrels, all French oak. The wine rested en tirage for 3 years. Additional details here.

BTS Notes: According to Ana, the goal here was to make a wine that’s rich but with lots of acidity. 

Tasting Notes: Fresh lemon and flowers, a little smoke on the nose, which increases as the wine warms. Yellow cherries, brioche (more as it warms), a touch of stone, salt, and cream. There were some oxidative elements as well that added a bit of nuttiness. 

Pairing Notes: The jamón had buttery and nutty touches. The wine brought out even more silky texture from the jamón. It cleanses the palate and played off the saltiness of the jamón beautifully. The jamón in turn brought out extra nutty notes from the wine. 

Grand Reserve Brut 2015 with Chorizo

Blend: 51% Chardonnay, 49% Pinot Noir | ABV: 11.5% |  Price: $50

Winemaking: 80% of the blend was fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks, while 20% of the wine was fermented in and racked to neutral French oak barrels for aging. The portion in barrels underwent malolactic fermentation, while the portion in stainless steel did not. The wine rested en tirage for four years before disgorging.

Additional details here.

BTS Notes: The grapes for this wine were grown during a drought year, which yielded really concentrated grape. The wine definitely reflects the vintage and site.

Tasting Notes: Toasty brioche, smoke, crisp gold apples, lemon, a touch of cinnamon, and nutty almond notes on the nose. It’s toasty on the palate, with marzipan and smoke, and a stony minerality comes in on the finish.

Pairing Notes: The chorizo had a delicious smoky flavor from the pimentón (smoked paprika) and pepper used in the recipe. The flavor of the chorizo actually elongates the flavors of the wine and smooths it out, but then the pimentón flavor pops again on the finish. The richness of the wine and chorizo matched really nicely, and the combo brought out the smoke and toasty notes in the wine. 

La Jefa Brut Late Disgorged 2013 with Salchichón

Blend: 52% Pinot Noir, 48% Chardonnay | ABV: 11.5% |  Price: $100

Winemaking: The primary fermentation was completed in a combination of stainless steel (60%) and neutral barrels (40%), for added layers of complexity to the base wine. In April 2014, the wine was placed in bottles along with a proprietary tirage to induce secondary fermentation. The

wine rested en tirage for 7 years and was disgorged in early 2021. Additional details here.

BTS Notes:  Ana noted that this was from her first vintage at Artesa, so it can’t help but be one of her favorites. This vintage also yielded very tiny, concentrated grapes. In the winemaking, she wanted to maintain a tension in the wine that would hold through the long aging process. 

Tasting Notes: Sweet smoked apples and cherries with a squeeze of lemon on the nose along with a bit of toast. On the palate, there was a mix of savory herbal notes along with sweet white peach, but with a crisp, minerally finish with a hint of salinity and a touch of pepper. 

Pairing Notes: The salchichón had lots of peppery and smoky notes. It somehow managed to bring out the fruitier side of the wine, and the peppery notes in the salchichón really popped. The salinity in both the food and the wine really spoke to each other. 

This tasting was such a treat. It was so interesting to see how the charcuterie brought out such different aspects of the wine – but that is exactly the fun of wine pairing! Greg and I both love charcuterie, so when the tasting was over, I added some cheese, bread, salad, and additional goodies to make it a meal. In this batch, I particularly loved the chorizo and the salchichón – they were both incredibly flavorful and had a wonderful, rich, meaty texture

The timing of the tasting couldn’t have been more perfect as well, since it happened to fall the night before our anniversary (of when we got together), so it was a lovely prelude celebration. The next evening, we enjoyed the rest of the bottle La Jefa to toast the actual day, before enjoying our dinner of duck and Barbaresco – I think the wine would’ve also worked beautifully with the main course. Truly, all three of these bubblies had the richness to stand up to weightier food like this, but that is particularly true of La Jefa.

We enjoyed one more night of bubbles the next night as we finished the Grand Reserve Brut with a creamy white bean pasta with butternut squash, chicken, and parmesan. 

By coincidence, not long before we had enjoyed the Artesa Block 92 Estate Vineyard Chardonnay 2018 with lobster bisque topped with lobster chunks. The wine showed a similar balance of richness and vibrancy as the sparkling wines. That too was a fantastic pairing, and I’m sure the bubblies would have made a great as well, but perhaps in particular Grand Reserve Brut Barrica. 

Hopefully, I’m leaving you with a few ideas for Valentine’s Day, since it’s just around the corner . . . 

The wines and book in this post were provided as media samples. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

A recent read, What’s Good?: A Memoir in Fourteen Ingredients by Peter Hoffman, has gotten me thinking about the ingredients I use and is encouraging me to be more curious about them. Of course, I regularly try to look into the wines I drink and how they’re made and share those explorations on this blog, so I see many tie-ins there. I also try to regularly buy organic produce and meats and shop at the farmer’s market to support local farmers, but adding an extra element of curiosity can add layers to the experience.

The book is a unique look at the world of food and of the world through food. Over the course of the book, Hoffman not only shares with us his personal story and a look inside his now bygone restaurants Savoy and Back Forty, but also takes us on explorations of our foodways by digging deep into some of his favorite ingredients. He takes us along to tap trees at a maple syrup operation, inside seafood and meat systems, and shows us a view of the world from the point of view of various fruits and vegetables. He also examines the challenges facing those in the food world wanting to support sustainable practices and choose varieties of plants bred for flavor. Along the way, he also shares what the items mean to him and introduces us to some of his favorite producers as well. I love that he shows how interdisciplinary food can be. In short, food geeks have many journeys waiting for them in this read. 

These explorations the book takes inspired me to be more inquisitive about the foods I buy, and I thought I’d start by taking a closer look at one item I’ve been regularly buying to get to know it better.

Early Girls

In one chapter of the book, Hoffman shares his love for Canestrino tomatoes, an heirloom variety he loves for their density and exceptional flavor. While they’re a hybrid and not an heirloom variety, I have been bringing home pounds and pounds of Early Girl tomatoes every week from the farmer’s market these past few weeks, as seems to be the case at certain times of the year the last few years. You might notice that it’s nearly November right now, which might lead you to say “Really, tomatoes? Right now?” Well, I am in California, and here in the Bay Area it does tend to stay warm until late in the fall, and with global warming, that seems to get further extended every year. So yeah, there are tons of tomatoes at the market right now.

Early Girls tend to be round and range from golf ball to tennis ball sizes (although I generally find more of the former. They’re like little bright red globes. They’re juicy, sweet, and have a good concentration of flavor. They’re a dependable variety that ripens early and they continue to ripen and set fruit throughout the season, probably one of the reasons I’m seeing so many of them late into the fall. I learned that this characteristic of growing new fruit throughout the season makes them an “indeterminate” variety of tomato, which yields a slow and steady supply, rather than one big harvest. It can withstand large temperature shifts, and they do particularly well when dry-farmed (the ones I buy are dry-farmed) which forces these vines to develop deeper roots and produces more concentrated flavors –– much like with wine grapes! This attribute makes them particularly attractive for areas like California that are experiencing more and more drought conditions. We’re definitely water-conscious around here.

This variety was brought to the US in the 1970s by horticulturalist Joe Howland. He discovered this tasty, early-season variety developed in France. He served as chairman of Pan American Seed Company and on the board of directors for PetoSeed Company, and he secured the rights to sell the seed in the US, nicknaming it the “Early Girl.” Some modifications have been made by US seed breeders, and the tomato has been gaining in popularity ever since. So while not an heirloom, this tomato has a lot to recommend it from sustainability, economic, and flavor standpoints, with many people finding the flavor to be on par or even surpassing that of some beloved heirloom varieties. These gals are winners on many levels.

They’re also super versatile. These tomatoes are considered slicing tomatoes, so they’re great on salads and in sandwiches. However, because they’re juicy and sweet, I really like to roast them, which further concentrates the flavor and makes them jammy or slightly candied and oven-dried depending how long you let them go. They’re great like that to use as a topping, or I then use them for sauces and soup. I’ve been buying up tons of these, roasting them, and will be storing them in the freezer to use during the winter.

In the book, Hoffman combines the Canestrinos with eggplant for Pasta all a Norma, and I thought these would be perfect in that dish. I switched up the techniques slightly from the recipe he shared by roasting both the eggplant and tomatoes. This creates a few more dishes, but means you don’t have to stand by the stove for as long, and seems appropriate during this time period here that is half summer and half fall. It worked out beautifully and we got a delicious and hearty vegetarian dish where we didn’t miss the meat for a second.

The Wines: A Trio of Merlot

As it’s #MerlotMe month, I have quite a few bottles of Merlot about and the plummy red fruit flavors and moderate tannins of many make this variety a good candidate to pair with a dish like this. However, this pasta has a couple of wild card elements. First, tomatoes can be tricky to pair at times because they’re high in acid which can flatten the flavors of wine that’s less acidic. However, eggplant is pretty low in acid and can mitigate the effect. The bigger variable is the spiciness of the chile peppers in the sauce, which can also cause pairing problems. The fruitiness of New World Merlots stand a good chance of mitigating the heat, but of course, individual cuvées will vary. We had 3 bottles that I received as samples to play against to see what worked. All three are made sustainably, which only seems appropriate to pair with a recipe inspired by a book that deals so closely with issues of sustainability.  

Matanzas Creek Merlot Alexander Valley 2018

Blend: Merlot | ABV: 13.8% |  Price: $40

Matanzas Creek was founded in 1977 on the site of a retired dairy farm in the Bennett Valley region of Sonoma County. All of the winery’s fruit is sustainably grown, certified under the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance. They focus primarily on Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc, although they do also make some limited quantities of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Bordeaux-style reds. In addition, to their grapes, they also have fields of lavender gardens. Matanzas Creek is a part of the Jackson Family portfolio of wines. 

Winemaking: The grapes for this wine were picked sourced from 14 blocks in mountains and benchland areas. (86% from Alexander Valley, 14% Bennett Valley) The wine was cold-soaked for five days and then fermented on skins for an average of 15 days. Élevage occurred over 533 Days in 32% new French oak. Additional information can be found here.

Tasting Notes: Aromas of black cherry, red plum, and black tea hit on the nose and then continue on the palate, along with flavors of sour cherry, a touch of chocolate, a little bit of pencil led, and cinnamon. The wine had medium+ body with moderate, smooth tannins, and plenty of brightness. 

How it Worked: This was our favorite of the three wines with the Pasta alla Norma. It was the most red fruited of the three, which matched nicely with the flavors in the food, and it had the most moderate tannins and the medium body worked well with the weight of the dish. It also worked the best with the spiciness in the sauce, and it become more savory and more peppery in the pairing. 

Seavey Vineyard Merlot Napa Valley 2018

Blend:  Merlot |  ABV: 14.5%  | Price: $65 

Seavey Vineyard’s history goes back to the 1870s when it was commonly known as the Franco-Swiss Farming Company. After about thirty years of producing great wines, the dual punches of a phylloxera infestation and Prohibition led the company to fold. The land was used to raise cattle and for growing grains for the next half-century until Bill and Mary Seavey acquired the land in 1979 and began to revive the original vineyards. Vines are planted on steep, rocky, south-facing hillsides in Conn Valley near Lake Hennessey. They only produce estate wines from their 40 planted acres. The grapes are farmed sustainably, certified under Napa Green as well as by Fish Friendly Farming. You can find more information on their sustainability practices here.

Winemaking: Grapes from each vineyard block were harvested and vinified separately. Grapes were harvested in the morning and promptly de-stemmed and the uncrushed berries were gently transferred into fermentation tanks to carefully manage the tannins and resulting wine texture. Following whole-berry fermentation, the wine was aged in 100% French oak barrels (35% new) for 20 months before bottling in June 2020. Additional information can be found here. 

Tasting Notes: This wine showed darker fruit notes, with black plums, blackberry, and cherry on the nose. Chocolate, a touch of iron, and licorice joined in on the palate and led into a savory finish. The wine was a touch more structured than the last, and had a fuller body and showed a little more grip on the finish, and still had plenty of acidity. 

How it Worked: This was our next favorite with the food. The tannins and fuller body competed a little bit with the weight and spice of the dish, but in general, it made a very good match. 

L'Ecole No. 41 Estate Merlot Walla Walla Valley 2018

Blend:  84% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon | ABV: 14.5%|  Price: $36

L’Ecole No. 41 has made several appearances on the blog before. They’re a third-generation family-owned winery and the third oldest winery in Walla Walla Valley. The winery gets its name from the historic Frenchtown School building in which the winery is located. Marty Clubb is L’Ecole N° 41’s Managing Winemaker and co-owns the winery with his wife Megan. Megan’s parents, Jean and Baker Ferguson, founded the winery in 1983. L’Ecole has been at the forefront of leading the way on sustainability in Washington. They are certified by VINEA as well as Salmon-Safe. You can find more info on their sustainability and farming practices here.

Winemaking: The grapes for this wine come from the winery’s estate vineyards in Walla Wallas, split evenly between their Ferguson Vineyard with fractured basalt soils, and their Seven Hills Vineyard with wind-blown loess soils. Each lot was hand-harvested and gently crushed into 1.5 ton stainless steel fermenters. Then the wine was cleanly racked to small French oak barrels, 35% new, with four rackings over 18 months. Additional information can be found here. 

Tasting Note: This wine showed notes of dark cherry, black plum black tea, and savory herbs. Notes of black pepper, cedar, and charcoal join in on the palate. This was the most structured of the three wines, with the darkest flavor profile, due in part to the blend in the wine, and likely from volcanic soils, the grapes were grown in adding to the smoky impressions. 

How it Worked: While it didn’t make for a bad pairing, this is a wine that wants a meatier, richer pairing. The tannins and flavors competed a bit with the spice in the dish and just felt a little heavy alongside it. Have this with a peppery steak or a braised meat dish. We also enjoyed the rest of the bottle with a big juicy burger, and that was a hit!

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pasta, vegetarian, tomatoes, eggplant

dinner

Italian

Servings: 4-6

Adapted by: Nicole Ruiz Hudson

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Pasta alla Norma (Oven-Roasted Variation)

Prep Time: 20 MinCooking Time: 60 MinTotal Time: 1 H & 19 M

This recipe was adapted from the recipe in What's Good? by Peter Hoffman.

Ingredients

• 2 Japanese eggplants (each about 9 inches/20 to 25 cm long) sliced into ½-inch/12 mm rings (If rings are large, slice in half or in quarters)
• 1 to 1.5 lbs (454 to 567 g) of tomatoes, sliced in half or quartered (Early Girls were used here, Canestrinos recommended in the original recipe)
• 3 dried chile peppers, such as guajillo, Thai, or arbol chiles, chopped up (If you desire a less spicy sauce, remove the seeds before breaking up the chiles.)
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• ½ cup loosely packed basil, roughly chopped
• 1-16 oz (455g) package of dried pasta of your choosing
• 4 ounces, ricotta salata
• Olive oil
• Salt, as needed
• Pepper, as needed

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Generously coat the bottom of two large roasting pans (or sheet pans with a rim) with olive oil. Place the eggplant slices and the tomatoes on the pans in a single layer and season with salt and pepper. (In this version roasted the eggplant and tomatoes separately, but it should be fine to combine them, but the eggplant will likely not brown as much.) Place the pans in the oven and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the vegetables have begun to brown, flipping them halfway through. Remove the pans from the oven and set them aside.
3. Lightly toast the chiles and garlic in more oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the tomatoes, eggplant, and most of the basil (reserving some to use a garnish) and stew for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the vegetables have softened further, the flavors have melded, and excess liquid has cooked off, and a sauce consistency is achieved.
4. Meanwhile, set up a pot of salted boiling water for the pasta. Cook the pasta to al dente, drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
5. Add the pasta into the pan with the sauce and toss well to combine. Add some of the reserved cooking liquid as needed, a little at a time, to achieve your desired sauce consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Garnish with the remaining basil leaves and grate or crumble to ricotta salata on top.

https://www.sommstable.com/2021/10/whats-good-pasta-alla-norma-merlot.htm

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @thesommstable on instagram and hashtag it #sommstable

For more #MerlotMe content, check out these posts:

• 5 #MerlotMe Nights
  
• 5 "Treat Yo Self" Napa Merlots 
• Exploring California in 5 Merlots 
• Cooking to the Wine: Mt. Brave Merlot with Tagine Inspired Pot Roast    
• 2 oz Pours: #MerlotMe Moments   
• #MerlotMe Again: High-Low Duckhorn Burger Night 
• Many Merlots Make Marvelous Mediterranean Meal
• Experiments with Salmon and Merlot
  

Additional sources used for this post:

• Specialtyproduce.com: Early Girl Tomatoes
  
• Tomatodirt.com: Early Girl Tomato
  
• Californiawineryadvisor.com: Matanzas Creek Winery
  

I’ve long believed that Merlot is one of those red grapes that has the potential to work well with seafood meatier seafood like salmon, trout, and arctic char, as well as richer preparations for shellfish. Not every red grape can do it, but there’s a lot about Merlot that recommends it as a candidate. Today we’ll put the theory to the test by taking a look at three bottles with three different salmon dishes to see what works and what doesn’t.

Red wine and seafood?

So, why does the old rule of thumb tell us to pair red wines with meat and white wines with seafood? The answer is tannins. Tannins are phenolic compounds that are found in the skins, seeds, and stems of grapes. Because the juice used to make red wines have more contact with these parts of the grapes to take on more color and structure, they have a more tannic profile when compared to white wines that are generally pressed right off the skins. In fact, tannins are a key part of what we call structure. They create an astringent or bitter effect on our palates. They can feel a little bit like sandpaper on our tongue, or I’ve heard some people describe it as little socks on their teeth. 

Meat proteins have a smoothing effect on how tannins hit our palates that makes the whole combination feel more silky and delicious. By contrast, tannins tend to compete with the oils in fish, and the combo can make the whole sensation more bitter and sour. That’s why we have the rule of thumb; however, if you know that tannins are the main issue, you can try to work around it in some cases – delicate seafood preparations will be a real challenge. This is very useful to know if you’re a red wine drinker who loves seafood. (My mom falls into this camp, so I often think of her in these cases.) 

The other key component to consider is the body of the wine since a big robust wine can just completely overpower the flavors of seafood. 

Why Merlot?

Some red grapes are more tannic than others. For example, Pinot Noir and Gamay tend to be lighter in tannins and also tend to be light to medium-bodied, so they tend to be among the first red grapes people go to when pairing with seafood. Other red grapes can work as well if you're selective – Grenache, Tempranillo, Barbera,  and Cab Franc, can all be good candidates, as is Merlot, as you might've already guessed. Merlot has some things going for it. Merlot’s tannins are usually in the more moderate spectrum, and those tannins are also usually on the smoother side –– so even if the proverbial sandpaper is there, the grit is less rough. Merlot just tends to have an overall plushness that suggests it won’t be as combative in a seafood pairing than reds with more aggressive tannins. 

Of course, not every Merlot is the same. The expression of an individual bottle will depend on where it’s grown, the blend, and how it’s handled. For example, wood also contains tannins, so wines that spend a lot of time in new oak will tend to be higher in tannins.

By the same token, not every seafood dish is a good candidate. Salmon has a meatiness that makes it a good crossover fish, so we’re going to look at three different salmon dinners to see what worked and what didn’t. I’m sharing the pairings here in order of how well they worked, starting with the most successful match-up. We’ve explored all three of these wines in previous vintages, so there are also additional pairings to share for them. 

Note: The wines in today's post were provided as media samples. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

J. Lohr  Merlot Paso Robles 2019 and Salmon with Mushrooms and Grilled Polenta

Price: $15 Blend: 85% Merlot, 14% Malbec, 1% Cabernet Sauvignon    ABV: 13.9%

Find additional details here. 

J. Lohr has been a family-owned winery since 1974. Jerry Lohr began the company, first planting vines in Arroyo Seco in Monterey, then later expanding to Paso Robles. His children – Steve, Cynthia, and Lawrence – now work with him and are partners in the company. J. Lohr is a Certified California Sustainable Vineyard & Winery and received the Green Medal Leader Award from the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance in 2020. (More info on their sustainability practices here.)

Tasting Notes: Raspberry, blackberry, plums, and violets greet you on the nose and continued on the palate, where they were joined by a touch of chocolate. The wine was smooth, fruit-forward, and rode the line between juicy and a richer, saucy texture. Tannins were very supple and smooth. 

How it worked: This was our favorite experiment. The wine worked very well with seared salmon topped with mushrooms sauteed with herb, and a bit of wine, all topping crispy polenta rounds. The wine’s moderate, smooth tannins were pretty much exactly what I was looking for in a red wine to pair with salmon. The wine was made using moderate amounts of oak (it spent 12 months in barrel, of which 17% was new), and the wine’s smooth, easy-going profile and medium/medium+ body all helped ensure that it did not overwhelm the salmon. Mushrooms tend to be friends with most red wines (a fair number of whites as well) thanks to their meaty texture and earthy, umami flavors, so bringing them into the mix really helped tie the flavors of the food and wine together, while the grilled polenta also added texture to the food that further helped the dish as a whole stand up to the wine. 

Additional Pairings: The last time we tried this wine, we paired it with sausage pizza and it also worked very well. I can also see this being a great burger wine. The winery also recommends this with grilled sausage and veggie shish kabobs or creamy spinach and tomato tortellini. This is a good all-purpose red at a very reasonable price.

L'Ecole NO. 41 Merlot Columbia Valley  2018 with Salmon with Black Beans and Grilled Peppers and Onions

Price: $25    Blend: 80%, 14% Cabernet Franc, 4% Malbec, 2% Petit Verdot    ABV: 14.5%

Find additional details here. 

L’Ecole No. 41 is a third-generation family-owned winery and the third oldest winery in Walla Walla Valley. The winery gets its name from the historic Frenchtown School building in which the winery is located. Marty Clubb is L’Ecole N° 41’s Managing Winemaker and co-owns the winery with his wife Megan. Megan’s parents, Jean and Baker Ferguson, founded the winery in 1983. L’Ecole has been at the forefront of leading the way on sustainability in Washington. They are certified by VINEA as well as Salmon Safe. Their website goes into great detail on their sustainability and farming practices, which is always great to see.

Tasting Notes: Chocolate-dipped cherries and raspberries and light floral notes hit on the nose. On the palate, the fruit notes were bright, with red plums joining the berries and cherries, along with hints of espresso and smoke. The wine had a silky mouthfeel with fine tannins that gripped lightly on the finish.  

How it worked: This was a good pairing with the salmon with black beans, grilled onions and peppers. I had the benefit of trying this wine in advance, alongside L’Ecole’s Walla Walla Merlot, which is much bigger and more structured, so I knew this would be a good candidate. It’s an elegant wine and while it does have some tannins, they aren’t aggressive. Similarly, while this wine does see more oak (18 months in small oak barrels, 30% of which is new), it’s well integrated. The wine didn’t overpower the salmon, and I have no doubt that it would have worked quite well with the mushroom and polenta combo above as well. 

While the black beans and veggies didn’t have quite the same level of umami and meatiness, the black beans brought earthiness and some rich texture that worked well with the wine. I also seasoned the salmon lightly with cumin, paprika, and pepper which also tied in nicely with the wine.

Additional Pairings: I shared the 2014 vintage of this wine during my first year participating in #MerlotMe month in this post, during which we compared Merlots from Washington, California, and Bordeaux, and paired them all with a feast that included duck rillettes, a porchetta roast with green beans with miso butter, and wild mushroom and butter bean pasta. Last year, I also paired the 2017 vintage with Hominy and Beef Chili. Over time, the wine has proved to be a versatile player across the board. 

Peju Merlot Napa Valley 2018 with Salmon in a Soy-Honey Glaze with Mushrooms and Sweet Potatoes

Price: $55    Blend:  80% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petit Verdot    ABV: 14.5%

Find additional details here. 

Tony Peju and his wife Herta purchased their 30-acre property in Rutherford in 1983. Today, they’re joined in the business by their daughters Lisa and Ariana. Today, Peju owns five properties totaling 558 acres, 232 of which are currently planted. The original property in  Rutherford was certified organic in 2007 by the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). The rest of their vineyards farmed sustainably (certified by Napa Green) with the goal of becoming organically certified within a few years. All of the properties were certified Fish Friendly Farming in 2019.

Tasting Notes: Aromas of cherries, red licorice, chocolate, along with a few red flower petals start on the nose. On the palate, the wine was plush, showing predominantly red fruit notes with a few blackberries and blueberries mixed in. Notes of tobacco, dark chocolate, pencil, and spice box joined in as well. This was a structured merlot with grippy tannins – a Cab lover’s Merlot.

How it worked: This was the most robust and structured of the Merlots here, and I knew this wine was going to be a bit of stretch for salmon, in this case, served with mushrooms and sweet potatoes in a soy-honey glaze. (I based mine on this recipe from Serious Eats, but roasted the mushrooms and sweet potatoes instead of using bok choy.) Nonetheless, I was up for experimenting and wanted to challenge the common wisdom for myself. While it wasn’t a great pairing, it also wasn’t too bad -– it was just ok. The flavors of the food worked generally well with the wine, although I do recommend going heavier on the soy and lighter on the honey, as sweetness can challenge dry wines, whereas soy brings umami notes that tie together nicely.  

It came down to the tannins. As might be expected, they were a bit grippy for the salmon, so it overpowered it just a bit. This wine saw the most oak (17 months in French and American oak, 40% of which was new) and was generally made to be more robust in style. The back label does describe it as a “richer, bolder style of Merlot” which should be a good warning if you’re looking for a bottle to pair with salmon. That said, we opened this on what was kind of a rough day and I thought we could use a treat, and while the pairing was just ok, the wine was thoroughly enjoyed.

Additional Pairings: The last time we tried this wine (2013 vintage) it was paired with a dinner of brisket and fall vegetables and roasted potatoes in this post, which certainly better matched the wine’s structure.

5 Takeaways for Pairing Seafood and Merlot 

(and red wines in general)

• Look for indicators on the bottle’s label that would suggest it’s higher in tannins. If you see words like “robust” or “highly structured,” the wine might not a great candidate for seafood. 
• Entry-level Merlots are often better bets for pairing with seafood. The wines made for this tier tend to be made to have a more fruity, less structured profile with less time spent in wood, making them better candidates. They'll also tend to be a little lighter in body, which also helps in matching the weight of the dish.
• Similarly, look for examples that spent little to no time in new oak as wood can add more tannins to the wine.
• Earthy and savory flavors like mushrooms and soy sauce will create additional ties between the wine and the food, making for a better match. 
• Including sides with additional depth and texture like beans and grains will help the overall texture of the dish match the richer body of red wines. 

*****

This is my 5th year participating in #MerlotMe Month, so there is quite a bit of Merlot-related content to explore on this blog, with more coming soon:

• 5 #MerlotMe Nights
  
• 5 "Treat Yo Self" Napa Merlots 
• Exploring California in 5 Merlots 
• Cooking to the Wine: Mt. Brave Merlot with Tagine Inspired Pot Roast    
• 2 oz Pours: #MerlotMe Moments   
• #MerlotMe Again: High-Low Duckhorn Burger Night 
• Many Merlots Make Marvelous Mediterranean Meal

• 2012 Ridge Estate Merlot + Reverse Sear Ribeye Steak by ENOFYLZ Wine Blog
• Bonterra and Creamy Lasagna Soup by Our Good Life
• California Dreamin’ for #MerlotMe Month, Part I by My Full Wine Glass
• Celebrate #MerlotMe with a Wine that Hits the Mark by Supporting Veterans by Exploring the Wine Glass
• Experiments with Salmon and Merlot by Somm's Table
• Ground Beef and Kale Recipe with #MerlotMe Wine by Cooking Chat
• I Melt for Merlot and Chocolate by What's in That Bottle?
• Kicking off #MerlotMe with 2 Rutherford Hill Merlots and Decadent Burgers with Chocolate! by Crushed Grape Chronicles
• Merguez Sausages and a Debut #MerlotMe Wine from Gürbüz by The Quirky Cork
• Merlot with Chicken in a Mushroom Wine Sauce by Vino Travels
• #MerlotMe and Meaty Asian Sandwich by Chinese Food & Wine Pairings
• Mushroom Madness Paired with Merlot by Always Ravenous
• October Means #MerlotMe Paired With Instant Pot Bacon Mushroom Merlot Chicken by Wine Predator........Gwendolyn Alley
• One of the Oldest Foods on Earth + 2019 Bonterra Organic Merlot by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Tri-Tip Steak and Duckhorn, a #MerlotMe Classic by Food Wine Click!
• Won't You Please #MerlotMe? by A Day in the Life on the Farm