pairing food with mourvedre

Pissaladiere (Provencal “Pizza”)…Perfect with a Bandol Rouge from Provence

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Pairing: Pissaladière Paired with a 2011 Château de Pibarnon Bandol

Food: Pissaladière is a classic pizza-like dish that originated in the city of Nice in the region of Provence in Southeastern France. We make ours with our normal pizza dough, though it can be made with a puff pastry as well. The topping is a generous helping of caramelized onions, anchovies, and black Niçoise olives. Sometimes we’ll add fresh rosemary or thyme to the topping. View different versions of Pissaladière here.

Pissaladiere with Bandol

Wine:  Bandol is seen by many as the premiere red wine of Provence. We count ourselves in that mindset. Bandol is a blended wine composed primarily (at least 50%) of the dark, full bodied Mourvèdre. The remaining is part Grenache and Cinsaut. This combination of grapes produces a rich, full-bodied, satisfying wine that pairs nicely with richly flavored foods. Chateau de Pibarnon is a well-regarded producer of Bandol, not only for the excellence of their reds, but also their whites and rosés.

Bandol - Chateau de Pibarnon

Tasting Notes: A deep garnet hue, almost black. A complex nose with distinguishing elements of blueberry, violet, cinnamon, and plowed earth. Delicious layers of blueberry, blackberry, wild cherry, and earth emerge on the palate, and extend into the finish. This wine is an exemplar of an earthy, old world wine with just enough fruit to keep it balanced. The wine is made mostly from Mourvèdre which can be dark, brooding wine, but this terrific Bandol has a lightness to it that makes it highly drinkable. The pairing with the Pissaladière is inspired, even brilliant (he says modestly). The sweet, caramelized onions and salty olives and anchovies really bring out the great earthiness of the wine.

Other Wines That Pair Well with Pissaladière: Chablis (France), Semillon (Australia), Super Tuscan (Italy), Tempranillo (Spain)

Other Food That Pairs Well with Bandol: Grilled Sausage, Wild Boar or Venison, Calf’s Liver, Pizza

View the Stunning Mediterranean Site of the Chateau de Pibarnon winery: https://www.pibarnon.com/en/

A Source:  www. klwines.com

 

 

 

 

 

Pizza … Paired with a Spanish Jumilla

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Pairing:  Napoletana Pizza Paired with a 2011 Bodegas el Nido “Clio” Jumilla

Food:  Homemade pizza is a staple in our household … we have it almost every Saturday night. So you will see pizza on this blog a few times a year, but the pizza will have different toppings, sometimes made with different crusts, and paired with a variety of wines. The crust for this particular pizza (and the one we use most frequently) is from Peter Reinhart’s wonderful cookbook American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza. It is his recipe for Napoletana Pizza Dough made with no oil or sugar, only all-purpose flour, salt, yeast, and cool water. My wife makes one recipe’s worth of dough, enough for six personal size pizza (about 8 to 10 inches each), rolls up 6 balls of the dough, two for that night’s dinner and freezes the four remaining balls for use on the following two Saturdays.  The topping is just a simple tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, Italian herbs, pepperoni, and green peppers. I like a generous shake of red pepper flakes with mine. Close your eyes … you’re in Naples!

Pizza with Spanish Red

Wine:  So … I know what you’re thinking … pair this pizza with a nice Italian red wine. Barbara, Chianti Classico, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo … all great choices. But let’s get a little adventuresome. We’ll leave Italy and and seek out something promising in nearby Spain. The “Clio” is a big, powerful wine made from 70% Monastrell (Mourvèdre) grapes and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon grown in the Jumilla wine region, a small region on the Mediterranean coast of southeastern Spain.

Clio Jumilla Spain

Tasting Notes:  A deep, almost black, cherry red in color. A word that comes to mind in describing its look is “brooding”. The aromas don’t disappoint … bold black cherry, leather and earth.  The flavors carry that same theme of earthiness, leather and jam, with a touch of cedar and expresso. Though clearly a bold-flavored wine, it has a surprising element of lightness to it. Really works well with the tomato, pepperoni and green pepper of the pizza. Wow!

Other Food That Pairs Well with This “Clio”:  Pasta with Meat Sauce, Sausage, Cheeseburgers (especially with Blue Cheese), Osso Bucco

Other Wines That Pair Well with This Pizza:  (since we’ve already identified some great Italian wines, let’s continue our travels outside Italy) Côte du Rhône (France), Merlot (California), Malbec (Argentina), Shiraz (Australia)

Read About:  http://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-jumilla

A Source:  www.klwines.com