Yes! (But I promise this will be the last one for a while!)
My wife made a very pedestrian, yet delicious bean and bacon risotto the other evening (if you follow the link to her post, you can get the recipe). We were a bit skeptical about how it would work, but it turned out divine. Yet, when you pick up a little fat and extra juice from the bacon, you wonder “is there any wine that will go with that?”
The wine needed to be nice, but not overpowering, and this was a situation where many of the wines I would otherwise choose, would fit in that category – they would have dominating and minimized the risotto. I needed to open a red wine to be used in the cooking process, and figured that the wine I choose would have to work for that (pretty much most wines – even ones well past there peak do!) and for serving with the risotto.
The 2006 Gabbiano Riserva was a great match and the blending of the food and wine were perfectly balanced.
Wine Texture is a big part of of how I perceive how good a wine is, especially when served with food.
A wine can range from tepid (usually a very old wine or a poorly made wine in the first place with poor grape selection) to smooth (like some beautifully aged Pinot Noirs or Cabernet Savignons) to having a bit of friction on your cheeks (usually from the tannins in a wine built to last a long time, but where the tannins are not completely integrated yet), to gritty (where the tannins are big and far from integrated). A good example of a superb, yet ‘gritty’ wine was the 2006 Seppelts we had with lasagna. Both the food and wine were gritty and matched beautifully. I needed to accomplish the same with matching a wine to the bean and bacon risotto.
I needed a wine for the bean and bacon risotto which was smooth, yet still possessed some character and fruitiness, and would still compliment the bit of fat and extra juice. The 2006 Gabbiano Riserva was a perfect match. Like Goldilock’s, “not too big and not two small, but just right!”
A few weeks ago, my bride made lasagne for the first time and it was brilliant! Usually, I don’t post pictures of her food as the link will take you to the photo, but I needed to this time as it was just brilliant! Every time I look at it, I get hungry!
I mean, “how good is that?” Of course, I still needed to decide what wine to drink with it. A safe choice would have been Chianti, the light Italian wine made from the Sangiovese grape. Another easy, choice could have been a Cabernet Sauvignon. But I had a concern that with the richness I knew my bride was putting into the bechamel sauce in particular, that a Chianti or Cabernet Sauvignon might be a bland choice and not stand up to the lasagne. The lasagne was going to be heavy, meaty, spicy and deserving of a big wine to match, but not so big a wine as to overpower it.
I thought a Shiraz might be a decent, yet not perfect match, but a bold and potentially good choice. Shiraz is often highly influenced by it’s terroir, and I love some of the great Victorian Shiraz’ for that reason. However, I was concerned that a refined, delicate Shiraz would not be sufficient, and that some of the more robust aged Shiraz’ could be overpowering.
When I started to think about the lasagne and reviewed my bride’s recipe, I knew the lasagne was going to be very flavorful, have a lot of different tastes blended together with a bit of hot spice (we add chili to almost everything!), and have some crispiness in the baked pasta slices to give it a munchie and grittier texture to it. But this would be interlaced with layers of a rich bechamel sauce also. Therefore, I did not want a wine that was overly complex and mature, or one that was too elegant. I needed a wine I could chew on! One with lots of big tannins – but not completely integrated yet. A wine that had great flavor with both fruity and spicy tastes.
As I thought through my cellar (yes, I am sufficiently aware of the contents and placement to be able to do that in my mind!), I eliminated wine after wine, and then settled onto the 2006 Seppelt’s St Peters Shiraz. Year-in, year-out, this is an amazing Shiraz, but the 2006 was particularly good. The first time I tried it was at the end of ten days of heavy wine tasting and frankly my palate was destroyed. I think I had the tannins of the last several days affixed to the inside of my cheeks and could not pick up on how beautiful a wine this was. My lovely bride though insisted we buy some, but I only got six bottles. However, a couple of months later and with a restored and workable palate, I tasted it again and realized what a truly unique and wonderful wine this was. And as Treasury Wine Estates was trying to rationalize their inventory, I was able to pick up another 18 bottles at a really good price!
When eating the lasagne and drinking the wine, they provided a perfect combination in my mouth. As I state at the end of my blog on “Wine with Risotto”, a perfect match of food and wine is when both are fighting for primary attention, but neither wins. And that is what we achieved with my bride’s lasagna and the 2006 Seppelt’s St Peter Shiraz.
I am so lucky to have a wife who loves to cook and provides me both the pleasure of her cooking and the pleasure of choosing wines to match. Thank you and love you hon (and you too Seppelt)!
One of the things I love about risottos is that (like curries) there are so many different ways to make and flavor risotto. My wife also has a method for making risotto now using the Thermomix, that produces a great risotto in 20 minutes instead of the hour it was taking before, using more traditional methods.
While this is not a blog on making risotto, I am going to take a minute to cover off making risotto the traditional way versus using the Thermomix as I did not believe risotto made in a Thermomix could be nearly as good, but it is. It did take her several trials to get it right in terms of exact timing and amount of ingredients to put in and some risottos work better in the Thermomix than others. However, for the working couple who does not have the time upon returning home from work later in the evening, using the Thermomix to prepare a mid-week risotto meal is a real treat!
You can look to my bride’s blog “DAZ in the Kitchen” to find out more on her risotto recipes and making them the traditional way and with the Thermomix. Now back to the question of “which wine goes best with which risotto?”
One of the basic principles I try to follow when selecting a wine to go with food is to ensure that the wine and food are “in balance.”
Risotto becomes creamier in texture as it is cooked and creates a bit of sauce to go with it. We often make a chicken and mushroom risotto using white chicken meat and button mushrooms. I have found that a medium-bodied Chardonnay goes well with it. I would recommend something like the 2009 or 2011 Two Rivers Reserve Chardonnay. While there are certainly many different Chardonnays in this category that would work, the Two Rivers is simply one of the very best Chardonnays you can get for the money. I would recommend it over all others for this type of risotto.
But if the risotto is made with a combination of white and dark chicken meat or dark meat only and you are using multiple types of mushrooms, such as portabella and shiitake, or you are mixing in a bit of truffle oil, then I would use a more aged and complex Chardonnay. Chardonnays in this league would include the Penfold’s Yattarna, the 2000 Waverly Estate Chardonnay, or even a Puligny or Chassagne Montrachet. But note these wines are three to ten time more expensive than the Two Rivers, which would still go very nicely with a more complex chicken and mushroom risotto!
Last night I tried the 2009 Pepper Tree Pinot Gris with the chicken and mushroom risotto and it did not match as well as the Chardonnays I have had with the dish previously, but I believe it was the particular Pinot Gris. I think a true Italian Pinot Gris such as the 2010 Jermann (which is a far better Pinot Grigio on its own!) would have matched beautifully as it is a bit smoother, yet much more intense and flavorful than the Pepper Tree.
However, the Pepper Tree, being a bit more bland and metallic, would have gone very nicely with a (non-spicy) pumpkin risotto, which is something I plan to verify the next time we make a pumpkin risotto.
My bride also makes a magnificent prawn and gorgonzola cheese risotto, with both the prawn and cheese bringing out a more metallic and sharper taste than the chicken and mushroom risotto. Therefore, I match up a nice Riesling with that risotto. I would recommend the 2009 Hugel Alsace Riesling or any good Riesling from the Clare or Eden Valley in South Australia. There are so many good Rieslings in the $15 – $30 range that would go well with the prawn and gorgonzola risotto.
The important thing again is “balance”. Had I matched the Riesling with the chicken and mushroom risotto, the Riesling would have overwhelmed the risotto and had I matched the Chardonnay with the prawn and gorgonzola risotta, the wine would have been overpowered by the food.
When eating and drinking wine, if either the food or wine is dominant, then you have made a poor choice in the matching, but if both are in balance and blending nicely together, then you have made good choice. And if they are competing back and forth without either one winning, then you have made the perfect choice!
Hunter Semillons are un-paralled anywhere in the world. A multitude of Hunter wineries make great, great Semillons, in three styles which really relate to their age in the bottle and when they are released. They are:
Crisp, new Semillons a year or two in the bottle
Semillons stored for 5 years before being released
“Museum” Semillons being bottled and stored 10 years before being released
While I like my young and medium-aged Semillons, “museum-released” and aged (10 years or older) Semillons are in a class by themselves. The older Semillons can still have a bit of acid, but have soften considerably, and developed a complexity and balance of tastes which is ethereal in experience. The golden color, followed by nosing such a wine (I actually use Riedel Montrachet glasses instead of the Riedel Semillon / Riesling glassware for my truly aged Semillons. See recent post on “What’s in a Glass?”) and flavors in your mouth provide one of life’s most precious pleasures!
I find an aged Semillon is best matched by scallops, either fried in butter, or made into a scallop boudin. The food needs to have some richness to balance the richness of the aged Semillon.
My favorite three Museum Semillons are the 1999 Tyrrell’s Vat 1, the 1999 Meerea Park Alexander Munro, but top of the list is the 1990 Waverley Estate Semillon, their second vintage. Unfortunately, there is no more to be found and I have only two bottles of the 1990 Waverley Estate left in my cellar. However, the 1992 and 1996 Waverly Estate Semillons are magnificent also, and the 1998 and 2000 vintages are coming into their own.
A 10 – 20 year old Semillon can be truly magnificent. The only problem is that there is some variability in the taste caused by difference in cork. I had to pour a 1994 Waverley Estate down the drain because of a poor cork. They have been good and always replaced a bad bottle for me, but is can still be a disappointment when you have had one great bottle and open a second one of the same vintage to find a small and discernible difference. That is why I am a fan of moving from cork to screw-top.
As so often is the case when researching material for a post, I came across something already written which does a good job of describing what I wanted to say. A review of the Semillon grape from Wine Knowledge is worth a read and entirely matches my view on Semillon.
I have not recommended any Semillons from regions other than the Hunter Valley. There are certainly some great Semillons produced in Margaret River and the Barasso Valley, and certainly some magnificent Semillons produced in the Sauternes and Barsac regions in France, but my deeper knowledge and appreciation of Hunter Valley Semillons makes me favor the Semillons from that region over all others. My only exception to that would be the great dessert wines made from Botrytis Semillon from Sauternes such as Chataeu D’Yquem. (See my post on “Why I think Chauteau D’Yquem is the Best Wine in the World”, my most-viewed post of all time!)
In my post entitled Overview of Australia’s Wine Regions – Part 3 where I described the Characteristics and Grapes of Australia’s Larger Wine Regions, I extol the unique and symbiotic relationship between The Hunter Valley and the Semillon grape. Hunter Semillons are un-paralled anywhere in the world. A multitude of Hunter wineries make great, great Semillons, in three styles which really relate to their age in the bottle and when they are released. They are:
Crisp, new Semillons a year or two in the bottle
Semillons stored for 5 years before being released
“Museum” Semillons being bottled and stored 10 years before being released
Because of the many different faces and tastes of Semillon, it has a multitude of uses. It can be enjoyed on its own, with cheese and crackers, with Indian or Thai food, with eggs such as when serving an omelet or fritatta (one of the reasons I think of Semillon as the ultimate breakfast wine!), a Tandoori chicken pizza, or many other foods. I also find when you need that 100 ml of white wine for cooking that Semillon fuses beautifully and enhances, but does not overpower the food with which it is blended. My bride has a number of recipes in her great blog DAZ in the Kitchen where wine is required to cook the perfect meal.
But the real question is “Which age Semillon goes best with what type of food?” With sharp cheeses such as a Blue Cheese or a Gorgonzola (which my bride uses when making a prawn Risotto and is outstanding!) demands a newer and crisper, more acidic Semillon. I personally would almost always rather drink an aged or Museum-released Semillon. However, with a sharp cheese and when a bit of acid is required, you should try a younger Semillon. I have found two younger Semillons that in my opinion stand out (the rest are just not that interesting yet). They are the Andrew Thomas Braemore Semillon and the Tyrrell’s Johnno Semillon.
Andrew Thomas is one of finest wine makers in the Hunter Valley, if not one of the finest in the world. And he is a really nice guy also! I have had the pleasure of sitting next to him at a degustation affair with matching wines a few years back, and others have told me how pleasurable he was to meet and talk to when watching sport in a bar! A great guy making great wine!
I have been surprised to to learn after buying some excellent Shiraz’ such as the 1998 Tyrrell’s Vat 9 Shiraz and the 2007 Pokolbin Estate Shiraz, that Andrew was the wine maker for both of those wines. But that is a topic for another post. Back to Semillon.
I have had the 2009 Braemore and it is brilliant. Crisp, a touch of acid and a bit of lemon flavor. Many young Semillons taste flat to me, but the 2009 Braemore is ripe with flavor.
The Tyrrells’ Johnno is the other young Semillon I enjoy. I have had the 2010 and 2011 vintages and both are exceptional. It is a bit more edgy and acidic than the Braemore in my opinion, even though Tyrrell’s positions it as a smoother type of Semillon. However, it is a most enjoyable drink when you need to pick a Semillon right from the bottle shop.
I really start to enjoy my Semillons though when they have 5 or more years in the bottle. They become less acidic (even thought many still have a lot of acid and a lot of life in them yet!) and more complex. Both the Thomas Braemore and the Tyrrell’s Johnno Semillons are worth keeping in the bottle for a few years if you have the discipline and patience!
These “medium-aged” Semillons go really well with egg dishes. I had about a third of a bottle of the 2004 Meerea Park Teracotta left over one Sunday morning and heated up some leftover quiche for a late breakfast at about 11 am and a glass of the Semillon to go with it. I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Since I rarely drink in the morning, my bride and I now look for reasons to make egg dishes (such as a Salmon Fritatta or Quiche Lorraine) so we have the excuse to drink a medium-aged Semillon with dinner! I also like my medium-aged Semillons with Indian and Thai food.
As so often is the case when researching material for a post, I came across something already written which does a good job of describing what I wanted to say. A review of the Semillon grape from Wine Knowledge is worth a read and entirely matches my view on Semillon.
I have not recommended any Semillons from regions other than the Hunter Valley. There are certainly some great Semillons produced in Margaret River and the Barasso Valley, and certainly some magnificent Semillons produced in the Sauternes and Barsac regions in France, but my deeper knowledge and appreciation of Hunter Valley Semillons makes me favor the Semillons from that region over all others. My only exception to that would be the great dessert wines made from Botrytis Semillon from Sauternes such as Chataeu D’Yquem. (See my post on “Why I think Chauteau D’Yquem is the Best Wine in the World”, my most-viewed post of all time!)
My wife’s beef stroganoff is very rich and creamy. The mushrooms are cooked in butter and the gravy is very rich. The richness and creaminess of the gravy, mushrooms and fettuccine noodles almost demand a similar style white wine like a big, buttery Chardonnay. There are several choices for this including a decent aged Montrachet, an aged big, rich Hunter Valley Chardonnay such as the Alexander Munro Chardonnay from Meerea Park, or the aged Chardonnay from Waverly Estate, or a Chardonnay from Margaret River such as the Leeuwin Estate Art Series or one from Pierro.
But one of the classics is the Penfolds Yattarna, otherwise known as “White Grange.” We had the 2006 vintage with the beef stroganoff. This is such an easy drinking wine, we often wonder where it went. Sometimes we think it must have evaporated! My wife claims that the sign of a good wine is that it goes down so easy that she can not believe having drunk all of it when it is gone!
The point is “rich and creamy” gravy and “rich and creamy” white wine go very well together. The gravy and noodles contributed more to the overall taste of the meal than the beef (mildly seasoned) did.
Therefore, while it is generally a good and safe rule to match “white wine with fish” and “red wine with beef”, you are missing out on a great combination if you are not willing to try to match the more subtle flavors and textures involved. Next time you have a heavy, rich, creamy gravy made from mushrooms cooked in butter, try a big, rich Chardonnay.
BTW, never drink a Montrachet before its time – it is absolutely sinful – but then again, don’t wait too long or you will be pouring good money down the drain – literally! But then if you are buying Montrachet, I expect you are careful about this and know what time frame in which to drink the wine.
The Chianti, a 2006 Gabbiano Classico Riserva was a perfect match for the pizza. It was soft, but with enough complexity to mix beautifully with the various pizza flavors.
We were thinking of also trying a 2001 Rosemount Traditional, but after tasting the Chianti, realized that the Chianti was perfect and decided to save the Rosemount to go with corn beef. (A separate blog on that will follow.)
As with all Italian Chiantis, the Gabbiano was made from the Sangiovese grape. While Sangiovese is considered a secondary grape, it has real stature in Italy and is popular globally. There are a number of Australian makers of Sangiovese now and one of the very best is Tintilla, in the Hunter Valley. The do a great Sangiovese and a Sangiovese / Merlot blend and some of the older vintages are nicely smoky and a bit rustic in tasting.
If you really want to have a good time, check out the Tintilla website and write them about their annual Sangiovese tasting. I believe it just passed for this year, but there is always next year.
The Gabbiano comes in a Classico and a Classico Riserva, which is a better wine, using a more select collection of premium grapes. The Riserva has a DOCG appellation in the Tuscany region which means it is ‘top of the line’ Sangiovese. If you like Chianti, but you are not aware of the different brands and which one is best, you can usually be safe in picking up a very good quality Chianti by choosing one with the “Rooster” label (picture to right) which ensures it is of DOCG quality (unless of course, it is a counterfeit.)
I was originally debating between a Shiraz and the Chianti, but decided the Chianti was a better choice and I was right. Pizza crust goes better with Chianti than a Shiraz for starters. Additionally, we had a pizza with salami, green capsicum, Spanish onion, mushrooms, garlic, chili and cheese. The salami on its own would have fought a bit with the Shiraz, whereas it worked beautifully with the Chianti. And it worked great with our guests, Ric and Cris, as Ric is Italian (Cris is Venezuelan) and the maker of the fine salami we used on the pizza. Since having started to use Ric’s salami as a topping, it has been impossible to use other salamis or pepperoni. Ric’s family made another 140 kilograms of salami today and we will be joining them in two weeks to help with the next batch.
My friend Jeff, who lives in California, suggested that a Red Zinfandel would also be a great match for pizza and he is correct. I tend to forget about what a great wine Zinfandel is for many occasions, and pizza would be one of them. We do not see much Zinfandel in Australia, but Cape Mentelle makes a great one. I had a 2008 Cape Mentelle Zinfandel at Bistro Molines in the Hunter Valley several months ago and it was the first Zinfandel I had had in 15 years (since moving to Australia). I also had a 2009 Cape Mentelle Zinfandel at The Cut Bar & Grill a little while ago with their slow cooked prime rib. Cape Mentelle is in the Margaret River region which makes truly outstanding wines. And if you are looking for the finest steak house in Sydney, you need look no further than The Cut Bar & Grill. And the sommelier at the Cut, Gustavo Kroneis, is the finest around and has been outstanding at recommending great wines to go with our steaks.
It is easy to just break open a few beers when you are having pizza, but if you want to wine to go with pizza, try a Chianti or Red Zindfandel.
And BTW, here is a picture of one of the pizzas we made tonight. Deanna will be posting a blog entry in DAZ in the Kitchen with the recipe if you want to try it.
This is always a tough question since there are so many different ingredients that can go into pizza. We have gone from buying pizza to making our own, which is quite easy and allows us to create exactly the taste we want. It also means we have a healthier pizza. Some times we make the base and other times we buy it, but that choice has no effect on our choice of wine.
We alway use a tomato sauce / paste to cover the base, and almost always a spicier sausage such as pepperoni or the spicy home-made Italian sausage our great friend, Ric and his family make annually (so glad to have a private stash of that sausage – it is magnificent for a pizza topping!). We also tend to put a lot of garlic and chili on our pizza. Therefore, a Hunter Valley (spicy, pepper flavored) Shiraz is always a good choice. However, something a little lighter such as a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Italian Chianti (made from the Sangiovese grape) is always a safe choice to bring out the flavors of the pizza.
Interestingly enough, some white wines will also go well with pizza, since a number of white wines match well with the various cheeses used. And if you are using chicken, pineapple, or something similar for toppings, a white becomes even a better choice. I would recommend a crisp (2 or 3 years in the bottle, before it smooths in taste and texture) Semillon to match up well with cheese, but overall believe a Gewürztraminer, or Riesling would be best. If it is plainer tasting pizza, a Pinot Grigio would be good. A Gewürztraminer works well with a lot of different spices such as with Indian food or Thai food, so it will work well with a well seasoned pizza also!
It is rare that I would recommend seven different types of grapes as being a good match for a food, but that says a lot about the diversity of pizza! Then there is always Merlot, but I rarely drink Merlot if given almost any other choice.
And if this is all too difficult, then grab a beer or two! But overall, it is usually a Shiraz or a Chianti for me. The only question is – “which one”?
BTW, I am making the pizza tonight and Deanna, who writes the blog, DAZ in the Kitchen, will be creating a post soon with the pizza recipe we use.
One of my wife’s famous dishes is her olio spaghetti with garlic and prawns. The dish is relatively easy to make, and outstanding as a starter or main. Tonight we are having her Garlic Prawns with Spaghetti as a main with a side salad.
On its own, we would have considered drinking a Riesling, but felt a better match with the food was a 2010 Pierro LTC. For those of you who do not know of Pierro, it is a great winery in Margaret River. They make a wonderful Chardonnay and a wonderful Sauvignon Blanc among other great wines.
The Pierro LTC (which interestingly enough stands for ‘Little Touch of Chardonnay’) is a 75% Sauvignon Blanc and 25% Semillon blend. The Semillon adds some structure and lasting power to the Sauvignon Blanc, but this is still a wine you want to drink while it is fresh and not more than a couple of years old. It is a good wine to go with all sorts of fish and seafood. We will only drink half the bottle tonight and I will use the rest to go with the entree for lunch I plan to have this Thursday at Fish on the Rocks before getting into the 2009 Bouchard Pere & Fils Puligny Montrachet to go with either lobster or the Moreton Bay Bugs.
The real question of what wine goes best with this dish depends on how much garlic you put into it. With less garlic (and the prawn being more prominent), the Peirro LTC is a great match. However, tonight we put a lot of garlic into the dish – about 10 gloves for two servings! We love our garlic, and loved the food tonight, but it ended up being a little over-powering for the wine. Next time we put this much garlic into it, we will use a Riesling instead as it ‘compares to’ or balances the wine with the food better.
With less garlic, the Pierro LTC matches the dish best, but with more garlic, you need a more powerful wine and I think a Riesling would be a better choice.
First of all, my wife makes a mean Shepard’s Pie, and I am providing the recipe for you here from her great food blog, DAZ in the Kitchen. She publishes a lot of great recipes for food and article on food lifestyle. Her meals are a joy to me because (1) they taste good and nourish me in their own right, and (2) provide me an excuse to pick out a nice bottle of wine to go with dinner! My friends who have had her Shepard’s Pie love it and fight over ‘take home’ if there is any leftover.
While there are a number of secondary red grapes (see my post on Malbec as an example and what constitutes a ‘secondary’ grape) that may match well with Shepard’s Pie, I only focused on considering a Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, or Pinot Noir. Merlot could have also been a good choice, but I never really think of Merlot, plus I like to have a glass of the wine we are having with dinner beforehand (I am drinking it as I write this!), and would rarely consider drinking a glass of Merlot on its own, when there are so many other great wines from better grapes (at least in my opinion) to choose from.
The main ingredient in Shepard’s Pie is lamb mince and that means a decent Pinot Noir could match up well. However, a good Pinot Noir is so refined and elegant, and Shepard’s Pie has a lot of other ingredients in it such as bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, and a lot more. A good Pinot Noir deserves to be matched with lamb shanks or some other lamb dish other than as mince.
The same is true of Shiraz. It deserves to be matched with a large slab of beef, well seasoned of course, but with the structure and thickness of the beef intact. This left a Cabernet Sauvignon as a splendid choice. But then there was the question of ‘which’ Cabernet Sauvignon?
Shepard’s Pie is a very pedestrian dish. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love it and drinking wine with it, but it has a lot of different good, yet cheap flavors involved in its creation. (In fact, I always like to have some leftovers because once Shepard’s Pie sits for 24 hours, the flavors co-mingle so beautifully and I love it even more the next day!) That means an aged or too refined a Cabernet Sauvignon would overwhelm (or possibly even embarrass) the Shepard’s Pie. Therefore, I need to find a decent, yet pedestrian Cabernet Sauvignon also to compliment the Pie.
My choice was the 2002 Stonefields Vineyards from Wrattonbully, a region in South Australia, south of Adelaide and just west of the Victorian border. Wrattonbully is known for its great Cabernet Sauvignons. This is a $25 bottle of wine, nicely aged with a bit of complexity, but most importantly it is evenly matched with the Shepard’s Pie and will not overwhelm it.
While I have had better (and much more expensive!) Cabernet Sauvignon wines, this one is very good for the money and also matchings very well with lamb mince infused with the variety of flavor the rest of the Shepard’s Pie provides.
I must admit though, now as I write this that while I would not match up a 100% Merlot with Shepard’s Pie, the thought of a Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot blend could be a very good match, and I think I will marry the Shepard’s Pie with a Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot blend the next time to see how it goes.
I am looking forward to dinner and wine once again this evening and will let you know how the combination works in the near future.
