First and foremost, I’m really chuffed with myself for the patience this week. I sat there and let the stew cook on a low heat for 5 hours. It smelt awesome, and along side my first effort of mashed potatoes in the Bimbi, the food couldn’t be anything but awesome!
We started with the food and wine together, cos we couldn’t help but dig into the grub. The wine had a gorgeous dark red colour, looking really tempting to just sip it down there and then.
There was a massive blackcurrant smell, definitely from a warm country, but not necessarily full on jammy (if grapes are from hot countries, the fruit flavours tend to be more jammy than fresh). This one is from Clare Valley, which does have slightly colour areas.
There was a bit of sweet spice from oaking, I thought nutmeg, the missus thought cinnamon. It’s her birthday weekend so we’re saying cinnamon.
On the mouth it was a big mouth filling wine. Do get that Shiraz pepperiness. With the food it was perfectly balanced and I wondered what the fuss was.
We’re trying to have smaller food portions at the mo, so I’d soon finished the grub and still had three quarters of the bottle left. Then I worked out what people were saying. The tannins did come through more, and the acidity I thought was there in spades had buggered off into the ether. Not terribly unpleasant still, but maybe not an easy afternoon drinking wine.
The food went well cos of the sweetness of the carrot and tomato undertone to the sauce, the richness but chilled out flavor of the beef, and the salt pepper seasoning that lifted the acidity of the wine and matched the pepperiness as I was aiming for.
Quite glad I didn’t put any mint in in the end, as I didn’t get any of that mint/eucalyptus taste in the wine. It would have just made the stew a bit weird. So we lucked out there.
Overall, a nice wine, very drinkable, and with the current offer price of £6.66, that’s pretty great! A very respectable and passable 10/20 without food, and a lovely 14/20 with the food pairing.
Monkey officially off my back!
Cheers
Other posts in #NWTW Week 35
#NWTW Week 35: Aussie Shiraz (Part Two)
#NWTW Week 35: My Nemesis, But I’ve No Idea Why?!
