Wine Pairing Weekend is a monthly collaborative event for wine/food bloggers started by David Crowley of Cooking Chat. It’s a great way to find food and wine pairings that work; along with tips on how to create your own food and wine pairing magic.
The theme for this month’s Wine Pairing Weekend is ““Fall Fruits and Wine Pairings“, and it’s all about making dishes prepared with the bounty of fall fruits and vegetable which come to mind when the air turns cool and tree blaze with color.
The Food
Ah…but Fall here in Northern California isn’t really Fall like it is elsewhere. This time of year we’re usually in the midst of Indian Summer.
It was 85 degrees and sunny last week. The last thing on my mind was apple, sweet potatoes and pumpkins!
I headed to my local Whole Foods Market and they were promoting “Last Tango” peaches (so named because they are the last peaches of the year). Since we were entertaining friends, and needed a dessert, I decided to make a peach cobbler. I’ve had wild success with a Paula Deen recipe, so I decided to make that.
Except with a twist – crystallized ginger! Why crystallized ginger? Just a hunch. Plus ginger is one of the aromas and flavor descriptors in my wine of choice – so I thought there might be some potential to bridge that with my wine of choice.
This is a pretty easy recipe. In fact, the hard part for me was peeling the peaches (click here for 3 easy ways to peel peaches)
- 4 cups peeled, sliced fresh peaches
- 2 cups sugar, divided
- 1 TBSP crystallized ginger; finely chopped
- 1/2 cup water
- 8 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- Ground cinnamon, optional
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Combine the peaches, 1 cup sugar, 1 TBSP of crystallized ginger, and water in a saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.
- Put the butter in a 3-quart baking dish and place in oven to melt.
- Mix remaining 1 cup sugar, flour, and milk slowly to prevent clumping. Pour mixture over melted butter. Do not stir. Spoon fruit on top, gently pouring in syrup. Sprinkle top with ground cinnamon, if using. Batter will rise to top during baking. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.
- To serve, scoop onto a plate and serve with your choice of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
The Wine
My wine choice for the cobbler is the 2012 Tablas Creek Petit Manseng. Not familiar with Petit Manseng?
Neither was I. But I’ve had this bottle of wine in my refrigerator for about 6 months and since I’m a wine drinker, not a wine collector I decided it was time. Beside, I love trying new grape varieties!
Petit Manseng is a white grape traditional to France’s southwest, where it has been used to produce the highly regarded, but not widely disseminated sweet wines of the Jurancon region for centuries. It’s a grape with naturally high acidity that can achieve sufficient concentration and sugar content to make naturally sweet wines without botrytis, or being fortified.
Tablas Creek was the first in California to produce a wine from the Petit Manseng grape variety.
Paso Robles AVA
100% Petit Manseng
$35 (500ml), 13.5% abv.
My tasting notes follow:
Pale gold color with appealing mango, pineapple, honey and hints of ginger, sweet spice and citrus aromas. On the palate it’s medium bodied, and off-dry with a supple, smooth texture and very good acidity. The flavors follow the aromas with spiced sweet lemon zest joining the party. Clean lingering finish.
The Food and Wine Pairing
When pairing wine with dessert there are three key factors to consider acidity (a wine with moderate to high acidity pairs especially well with fruit desserts which has its own natural acidity), intensity (the more intense the flavors in the dessert, the more intense the wine should be, and sweetness (a dessert wine should be sweeter than the dessert itself)
The pairing was three for three and very enjoyable. The acidity of the matched the acidity of the fruit and prepared the palate for the next bite of the cobbler. The slightly sweet and spicy crust moderated the sweetness of the peach/ginger filling and was a very good match for the moderate intensity, and tropical, honey, and citrus character of the wine. And last, but not least the wine was just a tad sweeter than the cobbler. Score!
I’m looking forward to trying this wine one of my favorite ethnic foods – Spicy Thai Pumpkin Curry. It will also pair well with spicy Indian curry, salty cheese, apple pie, sweet potato pie, and foie gras!
Here’s what all of the bloggers have created for the October Wine Pairing Weekend!
Savories
- Pumpkin Lasagna with Halter Ranch’s Côtes de Paso by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Squash and Sausage Soup with Pumpkin Cornbread and McKinley Springs 2010 Bombing Range Red by Tasting Pour
- Linguine with Roasted Carnival Squash and a Garnacha by Cooking Chat
- Pinot Vs. Syrah – Pork Tenderloin with Fig & Apple Sauce by Confessions of a Culinary Diva
- Apple Cider Pork with Red Cabbage and Oak Aged Apple Cider by Curious Cuisiniere
Sweets
- Wines for a Sweet & Savory Fall Harvest Meal by foodwineclick
- Fall Fruit and Wine Pairing by Rockin Red Blog
- Autumn Pumpkin Food Flair by Vino Travels — An Italian Wine Blog
- Butternut Squash Risotto: White Wine or Rosé by Pull That Cork
- Autumn Puff Pastry Tart and La Crema Chardonnay by It’s Okay to Eat the Cupcake
Join the #winePW conversation: Follow the #winePW conversation on Twitter throughout the weekend and beyond. If you’re reading this early enough, you can join us for a live Twitter chat on our theme “Fall Fruits and Wine Pairings” on Saturday, October 11 from 11 a.m. to noon Eastern Time. You can also visit our group Pinterest board to pin some great pairing ideas for later!
Sarah of Curious Cuisiniere (http://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/) will be hosting November’s #winePWwith the theme of Creative Thanksgiving Pairings. Join the fun on November 8th!
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Martin Redmond is a Financial Executive by day, and a certified wine geek with latent foodie tendencies the rest of the time. In addition to the wine lifestyle and food he enjoys family, fitness and traveling. He likes to get thoughts of wine off his mind by sharing experiences on his ENOFYLZ Wine blog, which features wine reviews, wine country travel, and wine and food pairings.
Follow me on Twitter @martindredmond for all things wine, and since I’m a wino, with latent foodie tendencies, you’ll also find food and wine pairings, and food related stuff! Become a fan and join ENOFYLZ Wine Blog on Facebook. Cheers!
This article is original to ENOFYLZ Wine Blog.com. Copyright 2014 ENOFYLZ Wine Blog. All rights reserved.
I had never heard of a Petit Manseng prior to this post. Thanks for sharing.
Last Tango peaches! I have never heard of those. Great name. This is a fantastic looking dessert, Martin. And the wine…there are no words for how much I love it!
I love peaches paired with ginger and this wine sounds interesting. Ah… to be in your neck o’ the woods for the season! I bet it is beautiful.
Take that Paula Deen! BAM! Love the crystalized ginger. Very creative.
Way to hang on to summer, Martin. Looks just delicious! Nice wine pairing too. Cheers!
Great description of what makes a good dessert pairing! This sure sounds like an interesting bottle. Tablas Creek has such a great variety!
What a perfect combo for a cobbler! The wine sounds quite tasty too!
Martin, I just noticed you are a financial executive by day. Love of wine seems to be a trait – I’m also in the financial industry.
I love that you use so many great pairings from Tablas Creek. They are one of my favorite producers of wine in California. I also agree that it is hard to get in the autumn mood with warm weather – we have finally dipped down to the 90’s in the Palm Springs area. I’m really hoping for a colder Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.