One of our favorite spots for a long weekend, my wife and I have unfortunately missed our annual visit to New Orleans due to Covid-19. But we fortunately stumbled upon an awesome remedy — Goldbelly delivers special foods from top restaurants across the United States. We were really pleased to see that they offered an expedited three course meal from Commander’s Palace, taking the best of the Big Easy to our doorstep. I immediately excited to take on the task of finding great wine pairings for a host of intricate classic New Orleans dishes. To make it more fun, I added a few out of the box wine pairings that I hoped might provide a good foil to the other choices.
FIRST COURSE: New Orleans Style Turtle Soup
The turtle soup was topped with a Cossart Gordon 10 Year Verdejo Madeira which was an incredible compliment to this dish, adding spice, citrus notes and extra layers of complexity. I was absolutely blown away with this dish, truly one of my favorites in New Orleans cuisine. This dish has loads of richness from the turtle meat and buttery tones with collard greens but the citrus accents really make Spanish Rioja a natural choice — especially a wine with a little warmth but good acidity to cut through the richness of the dish. I devoured every bite of this incredible, one of a kind, dish, reminiscing on many happy memories spent in New Orleans.
WINE PAIRINGS:
2014 Bodega Beronia ‘Riserva’ Rioja (WWB, 91); 2012 Vina Otano ‘Gran Reserva’ Rioja (WWB, 93); 2010 Bodega Carmen Rodriguez Mendez ‘Carodorum’ Toro (wild card).
The ’14 Beronia ‘Reserva’ is lighter than the two other wines. The growing season in 2014 was pretty moderate and this is definitely the lightest of the three wines showing more citrus rind tones than the other wines. I liked the balance here in which the pretty red fruits didn’t dominate the dish.
I adore the ’12 Vina Otano ‘Gran Reserva’ Rioja is rich and decadent almost bordering on toes of Hoisin sauce with an incredible texture from the oak treatment. There is something seductive I love about this warm vintage wine, marked by serious heat. But they citrus rind accents and great acidity still made this balance marvelously.
The 2010 ‘Carodorum’ Toro was our ‘wild card’ with nice earthy undertones but loads of dark fruits and chocolate. The mouthfeel here was gorgeous but overwhelmed the dish a bit. Yet there is an err of decadence of the dish that makes this work.
Final verdict: The key here was balance with one of New Orleans’s signature dishes. I think of all the possible pairings, there is no doubt that the 2012 Vina Otano ‘Gran Reserva’ Rioja really worked marvelously with the richness of the dish, still embodying citrus rind tones, yet offering something special in terms of texture and viscosity that mirrors the dish beautifully.
SECOND COURSE: Shrimp and Grits
I’ll happily admit that I am not always the biggest fan of this southern classic. However, this dish was nothing short of a home run! The shrimp were large and perfectly cooked, not overly salty. The roux really carries this dish with the incredible density and fantastic creole flavors. One thing I love about this comfort dish is it was not overly rich. The grits were creamy and wonderfully textured but the dish did not come across as heavy. I think we were both amazed by how good the dish was even though we weren’t actually seated at Commander’s Palace.
WINE PAIRINGS:
2017 Rasa Vineyards ‘Dream Deferred’ Chardonnay (WWB, 93); 2017 Groth Vineyards Chardonnay (WWB, 92); 2015 Dobbes Family Estate Grenache Blanc (WWB, 90) (wild card)
First, I’ll begin with our wild card, sourced from the Rogue Valley, the 2015 Grenache Blanc by Dobbes. There have been some somms who advocate for new world Rhone style wines matching this dish but I felt that although the wine had good weight, the astringency was a bit much in terms of sour green papaya and green apple tones. A good effort, and good wine, but lacking in overall balance for this particular dish.
The 2017 Rasa Vineyards Chardonnay is rich, opulent and beautifully textured. The wine has good freshness intact but the length and richness stands up to the rich. The creamy aspects of this wine really made this a great match.
Our final wine is from Napa, the esteemed 2017 Groth ‘Hillview Vineyard’ Chardonnay which shows really good poise and a slightly lighter creamy tones and viscosity but more towards wild mushroom, lemon rind and damp earth. I really enjoyed this pairing.
Final Verdict: As much as I absolutely adore the Rasa Chardonnay, the best pairing was the 2017 Groth Chardonnay with the lemon zest tones and earthy undertones, as well as the light saline streak that the wine offers. This made this simply incredible to stand up the richness and salty tones of the shrimp and grits.
THIRD COURSE: Pecan Pie
This was classic Pecan Pie at its best. For as rich and decadent that the pie was, there was this wonderful freshness to the dish that made it considerably lighter than one might expect. The pie was not overly sweet which made the Madeira choices really glisten. The nutty and buttery characteristic really shown. This dish was every bit as good as the other two which I think surprised us both.
WINE PAIRINGS
2006 Miles ‘Tinta Negra Medium Dry’ Madeira (WWB, 92); 2008 Miles ‘Tinta Negra Medium Dry’ Madeira (WWB, 92); NV Barbadillo ‘La Cilla’ Pedro Ximenez (WWB, 91)
Given the sweetness of the NV Pedro Ximenez, I considered that to be our wild card. We began the pairing with the 2006 Miles, this shows slightly more sour cherry and citrus fruits than the ’08 that is slightly more lifted but shows less in terms of roasted dates and figs in the profile but more Mandarin orange rind and Maraschino cherry. I think both the 2006 and 2008 Madeira wines were beautiful choices.
The final wine, the ‘La Cilla’ is made from Pedro Ximenez grapes and shows incredible viscosity and texture with considerable more decadence and sweetness than the vintage Madeira wines. As crazy as I am for PX wines, it simply overpowered the dish.
Final Verdict: Both the 2006 and 2008 Madeira wines had the impeccable balance and freshness that did not overpower the pecan pie.
FINAL THOUGHTS: This was one of my favorite pieces to write in 2020 confinement, not only due to the sheer decadence of the food and my massive longing for great New Orleans cuisine, but the fantastic pairings that accompanied the food. For many of us, this serves as our closest ticket to the Big Easy, and for us this was more than a gratifying night ‘excursion’ reveling in some top class food and wine.