Red wine suggestion

[VeraMasters]

I have been asked to bring a red wine to an informal dinner. Host will be serving pork tenderloin with horseradish apricot glaze, Brie with puff pastry & raspberries, not sure what else is on her menu. Any suggestions on red wines?

[Tripeler]

Your description of the menu was similar to a meal we recently had. The wine I chose was a cheap Chilean wine, a rosé made with Cab Sauv. Turned out to be a beautiful magenta color, almost hot pink, and was surprisingly good for the price. I believe the brand was Vistaña. Worth looking for something like this. It was not very sweet and matched the food perfectly.

[Michelle_C]

Hi VeraMasters,

Clearly you want red wine for a reason (even if white would go better with this meal). I suggest Taltarni's Three Monks Cab Merlot. It's a great red wine to pair with lighter meats and even goes great with chicken. The fruit-driven palate will go great with the pork and brie, raspberry pastry. If you need to know some info on where you can find it - go to: http://www.taltarni.com.au/buy/wine-o...

[Bill Hunt]

Lot going on here.

Apricot leads me to Viognier, but then, horshradish, and I am thinking Riesling, as a Spätlese.

The raspberries, and then your question on red wines, and I think a Merlot, but there are still those other flavors.

With many pork dishes, I lean towards Pinot Noirs, but those other flavors!

Brie, at room temp and especially if a double, or triple cream, and I think a bigger FR Chard.

In the end, and after some palate gymnastics, I lean toward the PN, or the Riesling, as others have mentioned.

Enjoy,

Hunt

[VeraMasters]

Thanks all of you for the great suggestions. Will go wine shopping today. Will let y'all know outcome.

[vanderb]

Sweet and spicy to me says Gewurztraminer more than Riesling but again an off dry and not semi-sweet version. Not sure what brand to recommend as most of my experience is with Canadian Gewurztraminer from BC, but of course there will be German and Austrian versions out there.

[Chinon00]

I think Gewürztraminer will work too. But I do not think that attempting to more mimic the flavors in the dish leads necessarily to a better pairing.

[vanderb]

It does depend on the dish but I do find Gewurztraminer goes very well with sweet/spicy Thai, Vietnamese and Indian dishes (not the same flavour palate as the dinner mentioned above) but I thought worth a try.

[Chinon00]

Yeah I don't think that it would be a bad pairing. I just fear that by trying to imitate flavors they might end up canceling each other out.

[Asomaniac]

White does work a lot better I am afraid. Either Riesling (Alsace, Mosel, Nahe, Franken, but avoiding the bone dry stuff) or a great Alsatian blend (Marcel Deiss does some amazing stuff - try for example Rotenburg). Alsatian slightly off-dry Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc woudl also work.

[Chinon00]

For red I'd suggest a fruity low tannic wine such as a Garnacha or a blend of Garnacha and Tempranillo particularly for the pork since there's little fat for tannins to compete with.

[bg90027]

I'm probably too late but I agree with this recommendation. I was also thinking a lighter Blaufrankisch would work well too but that's probably harder to find unless you have a really good wine shop.

[Asomaniac]

Ah yes! How I miss a great Burgenland Blaufrankisch. Not too many of those available where I live.

[goldangl95]

Agreed with the other posters that with all the sweet and spice, a Riesling (white wine) would be more appropriate.

If you do have to do red, a Pinot Noir from Russian River Valley would be best. Fruity enough to stand up to the strong flavors, not spicy/smokey/heavy enough to clash with the food.

[VeraMasters]

Thanks for suggestion will probably do Pinot Noir and a Reisling even though it was not asked for. Any Riesling suggestions?

[goldangl95]

If you are picking up from a wine store, I would ask for a rec for an off dry riesling (depending on the guests tolerance for sweet. I would prefer off-dry to semi sweet...semi sweet is pretty darn sweet).

Something from Mosel maybe?

[Chinon00]

To play it safe I'd choose one from Alsace. Plentiful fruit and a dry finish. But I think that a spatlese/halbtrocken would work better being fruity and bigger and rounder.

[Fozzie_Bear]

I guess I'd recommend a light-bodied pinot noir, but, yeah, I'd probably prefer a riesling also.

[Chinon00]

Yeah unfortunately that has riesling written all over it.