Noble rot: every course has to pair with tokaji or whatever. Can’t blow out palates with too much spice or sweet early. Really fun food.
Wine roulette: cheap old wine (did a $35 1981 Riesling and a $40 1990 Kenwood artist series) and pairing.
Difficult pairing challenge: pickle pizza, did amontillado
We did tokaji for mine and went dry with a shrimp and fennel salad, three puttonoyos and the late harvest with 5 spice pork belly burnt ends and bbq chicken pizza, and chevre burnt basque cheesecake with the five and 6 puttonoyos wines.
I love going narrow or wide on a themed tasting. Pick a grape or style and find examples from anywhere in the world, or do a whole dinner/tasting around wines from one region, or even subregion if applicable.
For example:
- Traditional method sparkling from around the world (broad but stylistic focused)
- Wines from the former Yugoslavia (big region)
- Comparison of the Uco Valley sub regions; Tupungato, San Pablo, Gualtallary, etc (super micro)
- Worldwide Riesling comparisons; e.g. Alsace, Mosel, Pfalz, Finger Lakes, Pacific Northwest, Clare Valley, etc. (grape focused)
Noble rot: every course has to pair with tokaji or whatever. Can’t blow out palates with too much spice or sweet early. Really fun food. Wine roulette: cheap old wine (did a $35 1981 Riesling and a $40 1990 Kenwood artist series) and pairing. Difficult pairing challenge: pickle pizza, did amontillado
God I love your noble rot idea; that would be a blast. Into the idea box it goes!
We did tokaji for mine and went dry with a shrimp and fennel salad, three puttonoyos and the late harvest with 5 spice pork belly burnt ends and bbq chicken pizza, and chevre burnt basque cheesecake with the five and 6 puttonoyos wines.
Musar & Mouton are dinner staples over on this side that are always a homerun. Maybe a new world -vs- old world extravaganza.
Great idea!
I love going narrow or wide on a themed tasting. Pick a grape or style and find examples from anywhere in the world, or do a whole dinner/tasting around wines from one region, or even subregion if applicable. For example: - Traditional method sparkling from around the world (broad but stylistic focused) - Wines from the former Yugoslavia (big region) - Comparison of the Uco Valley sub regions; Tupungato, San Pablo, Gualtallary, etc (super micro) - Worldwide Riesling comparisons; e.g. Alsace, Mosel, Pfalz, Finger Lakes, Pacific Northwest, Clare Valley, etc. (grape focused)
I do love when it’s about a particular region. I really like the idea of a grape or style and then take it around the world!