Tonight, Jean decided to cook a meal out of Charlie Trotter's Kitchen Sessions cookbook: pork loin stuffed with dried fruit, roasted potatoes and braised radicchio in a bacon/shallot vinaigrette. In the book, he suggests a wine pairing of a Ridge or Ravenswood Zin, the reasoning being that the acidity of the dried fruit demands a spicier wine, to which I replied with a resounding WTF? Actually, I said that I agreed with his analysis but not with his conclusions. In response, I said that I thought that it'd pair best with a spicy, full-bodied white or a rosé or light, high acid red. Since we were being joined by some red-only friends, I went with the latter category. So, on to the Celebrity Wine Pairing Smackdown:
2004 Marcel Lapierre Morgon nose: ripe, black cherry fruit, minerals palate: medium body, good acidity, lush and smooth
2002 Ridge Ponzo Vineyards Zinfandel nose: jammy berries, oak, cedar palate: medium-full body, low acid, lush
In the end, the two wines weren't as different in style as I might have hoped, but the pairing still revealed major differences. The Ridge Zin simply overwhelmed the food, whereas the Lapierre Morgon provided a decent foil to the food, with the food helping emphasize the fruit in the wine. Neither match was superb and I still wish that I could have brought forth the '06 WSJ Bone-Jolly rosé for this meal, but nonetheless, I feel that my choice was vindicated. However, the two women at the meal preferred the Zin, so who knows?
Mark Lipton