Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–so glad you’re here!
For Christmas, I served prime rib roast and with it, I served three wines. My menu consisted of prime rib, Brussels sprouts with bacon, cornbread dressing and beet salad. With each wine, I asked my guests to share their thoughts about how each paired with the food.
Here are the wines I selected for tasting:
Picayune 2019 Rive Gauche from the Napa Valley, which is mostly cabernet sauvignon with a little petit verdot. We all agreed that this gorgeous red blend wine was the best pairing with the prime rib: it was big and juicy with flavors of dark stone fruit, dark berries, herbs and some tannins. It was nicely balanced and had a nice long finish on the palate. A big cab is a classic pairing with a big steak, so not a huge surprise.
The next wine we tried was this lovely Zena Crown from the Willamette Valley in Oregon, which is known for its gorgeous pinots. This wine was no exception. It was a surprisingly big pinot and showed lush berries and herbaceous, earthy elements. While not the best pairing with the prime rib, it was delicious with the Brussels sprouts and the dressing.
And finally, we tried a Ridge Paso Robles 2017 zinfandel, which unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a picture of before it got cleaned up and tossed into the recycling bin :-/
This is a big, dark red wine with flavors of dark stone fruits, peppery spices and lush tannins that are balanced nicely with some acidity and herbs. It complimented all the foods nicely without overpowering any of them. Later in the evening, I also enjoyed it with the Bouche de Noel we had for dessert!
Tune in tomorrow for good luck with black eye peas!
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
