Welcome Back to the Tasting Room!
With the Pinot Noir Celebration just around the corner it is a perfect time to delve into our Pinot Portfolio. Here at Noble Ridge we have a passion for Pinot Noir and it shows. We have recently expanded our Pinot Noir Portfolio to include a French Provence Style Rose and a Sparkling Rose, each made with 100% Pinot Noir grapes and very limited productions.
Plans were made to get together for another food and wine pairing evening. As it so often happens to those of us in the hospitality industry, these best laid plans can go sideways. Due to some unforeseen circumstances this evening had to be postponed, and suddenly I found myself with a free evening. Now I had a decision to make, do I try to salvage the evening or wait until the following week when we could all get together. The shopping had been done and the wines were ready to go so I decided to take a different tack, I decided to just take the day for me. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and warm so packed up the car and took the pup for a great hike up McIntyre Bluff – Ollie almost got scooped up in Rattlesnake Lake from one of the helicopters grabbing water for the now under control Eagle Bluff fire. After that bit of excitement and a lazy lunch at the summit we headed home.
Back at the house I popped The Pink One and went about trying a new technique to me and spatchcocked the chicken (basically cutting out the backbone of the chicken and flattening it for a quick and even cook). Ollie was very interested in this process and quite disappointed that he couldn’t have the discarded bone. Seasoned simply with lemon, thyme and rosemary, into the oven it went.
Some simple sides – roasted baby potatoes and a salad with some grilled Okanagan peaches. Letting the Pinot Noir breathe and the chicken cook it was to the patio with The Pink One – normally I would pair this beautiful sparkler with a fresh seafood starter – but today it just seemed right to pair it with the pinks and deep reds of the sunset and some puppy scratches.
Dinner ready and the Pinot Noir sufficiently decanted it was time to dig in. The 2018 Rose paired wonderfully with the grilled peaches and the goat cheese in the salad with the crispness of the Rose balancing perfectly. The 2016 Pinot Noir’s multi-layered profile of subtle earthiness and dark berry flavours melded wonderfully with the roasted chicken. All in all, a decadent evening, stay tuned for part two and highlights from the Pinot Noir Celebration.
August 2019 | Preston Radford
