The Humble Gourmand

Not the most kosher pairing this time, but good all way through. I chose a nice little pork tenderloin roast that was a great winter warmer with the wines.

Getting Hungry…

This was a Cook’s Illustrated recipe used in my company’s wine club. The dish was very easy to make. Just watch the temperature on the recipe. Pork roasts have a tendency to overcook, but consistently turning the roast over in the delicious maple syrup reduction helps to keep the juices guessing which way to escape.

Getting Thirsty…

This dish is a pretty nice winter meal, and as such, I wanted to use wines that had a little more heft. I chose to compare and contrast the different styles and weights of whites and reds interacting with the same dish. For the white, I chose the 2008 Seebrich Nierstiener Oelberg Riesling Spatlese Trocken … Germans love words with their wines. To boil it down, the wine is a Riesling that is left on the vine for a little while longer, a late-harvest wine (Spatlese), but produced dry (trocken). The wine carries a fuller body with notes of tangy lemon zest, and bold notes of brazen, honeyed white peach. The wine also has a little more acidity to help cut through the little, lean fat of the pork.

The second wine I chose — the red) — was a Spanish Garnacha, the 2007 Xiloca. It gave off crazy, complex spices when I first tasted it: loads of nutmeg, clove, and vanilla, with cool little collections of reduced Szechuan strawberries. Very far from the norm, like most Spanish Garnacha, it also had other notes of reduced raspberry balsamic and dried rose petal. It was funny — I had gone in with the idea of working with a Rhone blend, which is also mostly Grenache, but was convinced that the earth in the Rhone wouldn’t be as appealing with the dish as a spiced-laden Spanish Garnacha. I should have paired the two against the each other!

With the Seebrich Riesling

The extra acidity from the white played its part and provided a refreshing cleansing of the palate alongside the pork. A little bit of unripe pineapple also came off the wine, giving a sort of tropical component to the pork dish, like leisurely enjoying the lingering tastes of a luau. The white pepper from the wine complemented the earthen spices of the dish. These complementary spice combinations made the the Riesling jump out with a little heat from the cayenne kicking on the end. The maple sweetness was not as strong as I was expecting, but, as I mentioned, all the spices played their parts. A leaner pairing, but very poignant.

With the Xiloca Garnacha

The richness of the red wine gave a lusher note to the tenderloin and brought out more savory spices from the maple glaze. The entire dish seemed to have more to play with. – there were crazy connotations of cinnamon, cayenne, and a bit of blood orange pith. The wine itself did not carry much tannin so it didn’t overwhelm the pork. In fact, the red, with its richer offerings of spiced raspberry and dark cherry, gave a more appropriate pairing for a winter-warming dish. Needless to say, I was cold, and this wine with the pork did the trick.

Overall, the circumstances preferred a richer pairing, which is why I preferred the Spanish Garnacha. But feel free to try it out for yourselves – I’d love to hear feedback. Next, I’ll have to try it with a Rhone Grenache to see if my theory stands up, but that’s another meal for another thirsty time. Cheers!

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