Wine that pairs well with "beautiful" love songs

What are some of the common things paired with wine?

Cheese. Chocolate. Fruit. All kinds of food, really.

One friend of mine says it pairs well with air.  Indeed, it does!

 

But you know what else I find that wine tends to pair well with?

Music.

Just the right music or song can be a perfect complement to a glass (or bottle, who am I kidding?) of wine. Sometimes, you know it will work. Sometimes it catches you off guard and surprises you. That was last night - a "beautiful" surprise of wine paired with music.

 

 

2010 Simi Chardonnay

Sonoma County, California

 

 

I have seen this Chardonnay in many stores but never tried it. Well, last night, I gave it a shot and am so glad I did. Regularly $24.99, I grabbed it for $11.99 and, after one glass, I realized I should have grabbed two bottles!!

 

 

 This wine's pretty, pale yellow hue has aromas of butterscotch, tangerine, pineapple, vanilla and a slight hint of butter. It was very crisp and clean, reminding me of how the air smells in the spring after a light rain shower.  What I smelled definitely made my anticipation for tasting it rise!

 

A very pleasing taste of peaches, green apple, vanilla, and nutmeg with a little tartness mid-palate but quickly developing into a creamy aftertaste.  At first, I was hesitant when I came upon that hint of acidity but then the vanilla creaminess showed up balancing out the light toasted oak happiness at the end. For such a light wine, it has a lot going on and my senses of smell and taste were definitely intrigued and pleased!

 

 

 

After leaving the Tuscan hills in 1849, brothers Guiseppe and Pietro Simi produced their first wines under their last name in California in 1876. In 1904, both brothers tragically died suddenly, and Guiseppe's daughter, Isabelle, took over the winery at 18 years old (what a sweet gig!). After prohibition was repealed, Isabelle established Simi's first tasting room in 1934. Thirty-six years later, she retired, sold the business to an Alexander Valley grape grower who completed a major renovation and in 1979 started acquiring more vineyards.  In 1990, Simi celebrated 100 years of wine making in the same stone cellars where the first harvest was completed!

 

I love a great story behind a winery with tons of history. I know the Simi family is watching over their creation of so many years ago, from above, hopefully with smiles on their faces. I know their Chardonnay definitely made ME smile!

 

Now, I don't JUST drink wine.

 

I typically open a bottle while I'm cooking. I typically have music on while I'm cooking as well. It's a package deal in my house - food, wine, music - a great combination.  I usually enjoy creating my "concoctions" with Big Band/Swing music. However, this time, I was feeling like something different. I found the "Love Songs" channel on my Comcast guide and thought, why not try it out. To my surprise, a really good collection of songs was played over an hour's time.

 

First was Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful". Then came Mariah Carey and Miguel's "Beautiful". Not much longer after that came James Blunt's "You're Beautiful".  See a theme here?  With all these "beautifuls", I noticed the wine was also becoming quite beautiful.

 

So is this sweet boy who showed up to check on his Momma.......very beautiful.

 

 

 

In between the "beautiful" songs, though, was Rhianna and Eminem singing "Love the Way You Lie". Now, Rhianna annoys me like no other (ok, not as much as Beyonce) but for some reason this song is very powerful to me. And no, it's not the wine talking....... 

Gavin DeGraw's "Best I Ever Had" came on too. I assumed that was the Simi brothers coming to "visit" and hinting around at where their Chardonnay should land on my wine list.  Sure, they liked that I thought it was "beautiful" but they want it to be the "best". Spirits visit me often so why wouldn't this brother/winemaker pair? I don't discriminate- all spirits are welcome, until they cause problems and then I'll ask them to leave. That story will come in another post... maybe, one day.

 

For this evening's dinner, I decided on trying an oven-roasted potato recipe that I had found online because I needed to use the fresh chives and rosemary that I had on hand.  I often will look for recipes online as a base but then switch up some things to my liking.  This was pretty simple and while I tried to go by the recipe, the recipe wasn't written well. We'll see if this is any clearer. No promises....

 





 

First, cut up some fresh sprigs of rosemary and chives.  You could really use any fresh herbs you like, but these are ones I had on hand and go well together.

 

Make sure to put your potatoes on to boil first because it may take a while for them to cook. You just want to boil them until they are "fork-tender". Don't let them fall apart but make sure the fork can pierce just about all the way through.

 

 Heat your oven to 450 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with foil and drizzle olive oil over the foil. When the potatoes are fork-tender, put them on the baking sheet. Use a potato masher (which I do not have or I'd post a picture of it) to smash the potatoes. You don't want to "mash" them; just "smash" them.

 

 Confused yet?

This is when I switched up the recipe and did what I wanted.

Hey, it tasted delicious and I wasn't trying to entertain anyone, so who cares what it looks like!

 

 

 

Because I didn't have a potato masher, and what I used wasn't really the approriate utensil, I decided to push all of the smashed up potatoes together as you can see above.

 

Drizzle olive oil over the smashed potatoes. You don't want them to swim in olive oil but the olive oil will help add that crispy crunch on the potatoes.

Sprinkle black pepper, a TINY bit of garlic salt (I don't EVER put salt on anything I cook but didn't want to use minced garlic so this worked), and the cut-up herbs over the potatoes.

 

Cook for 20-25 minutes. This may not look very pretty but it tasted absolutely amazing!!! There are so many possibilities of dressing up these potatoes with spices and other herbs, even cheese on top! Have fun with it!

 

To pair with the oven roasted potatoes, I chose roasted garlic chicken sausages with onions and herbs. I have always wanted to try these and they were on sale so I grabbed a pack. To my delight, they were really yummy!!  Very easy to make - already cooked - and I just threw them in a pan to heat them up and give them a crispy outer coating.

I forgot they were onion and garlic and once I started preparing them, someone wanted to go outside. He HATES when I cook with garlic and onions and always prefers to be outside where he can't smell it. In the winter, with tons of snow on the ground and 20 degrees, he still asked to go out on the deck.  He got close to the door to come inside but there was no way he was breaking that barrier until that smell was long gone! He wouldn't even look at me!! 

At this point, everything was coming together, the wine was flowing, the food was prepared, an inner calm was filling the atmosphere and as if it couldn't get any better, what music comes on?  A song I hadn't heard in a really long time and one I have always loved - "Broken" by Seether with Amy Lee. If I had a cake that song would have been the chocolate shavings on top of the icing on that cake (I hate cherries.) Amy Lee has such a magically ominous "beautiful" tone to her voice and whenever I hear a song of hers I stop in my tracks and just listen and become one with the song.

Simple lyrics with so much deep meaning that resonate with me:

 

I wanted you to know I love the way you laugh
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain away
I keep your photograph, I know it serves me well
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain

'Cause I'm broken when I'm open
And I don't feel like I am strong enough
'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away

 

 

 

"Were it not for music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is dead". ~Benjamin Disraeli

 

Sir Benjamin, the music, wine and "Beautiful" were definitely alive and well this evening in my home!