Tag Archives: Owen Roe

St. Patrick’s Day wine pairing for potato ‘Pot o’ Gold’ soup

Yes we know that green beer will likely be the alcoholic beverage of choice for many of you out there celebrating the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day holiday Sunday.

And while we might have recommended this in the past, we’re raising the bar this year, offering instead an Irish-born winemaker’s wine for this week’s pairing.

We’ve recommended this winemaker’s wines before, but sometimes a good wine bears repeating.

For Ann Vogel’s Pot o’ Gold soup, Ireland-born David O’Reilly’s 2012 Crawford-Beck Vineyard Pinot Gris would offer you a chance to drink a glass o’ gold instead of fizzy, green beer.

The wine is aromatic with hints of honey, lychee and banana, according to its tasting notes. Fruits like grapefruit and pineapple are balanced with acidity and a clean finish. The wine was fermented in stainless steel, keeping a crispness in the wine.

O’Reilly has been making great wine for a number of decades from his winery Owen Roe, located in Dundee, Ore. He has an uncanny ability to find a magnificent source for grapes — he rehabilitated a 75-year-old Zinfandel vineyard 15 years ago.

Many of his fabulous red wines produced under the Oregon-based Owen Roe label are made from grapes sourced from the Yakima Valley. He recently purchased an old dairy farm in the Sunnyside area of Washington. In addition to 280 acres of the Outlook Vineyard, O’Reilly has a 50-acre vineyard in the Rattlesnake Hills AVA. This is great news for the Washington wine industry.

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Wine suggestions for pork chops

Pork chops are the perfect canvass for a wide range of food accompaniments.

Applesauce?
Dijon?
Onions and pears?
Sliced mushrooms?
Gingered apple compote?

These all pair perfectly with “that other white meat.” So what wine also goes well with all these options, and the chops? Look no further than Chardonnay.

Recognizing that there are several different styles of Chardonnay, here are some guidelines. The sweeter the sauce, the sweeter the wine needs to be. With an apple sauce, choose a wine that’s lightly oaked. If you have a ton of spice with the chops, lay low on the oak.

With Ann Vogel’s “Stuffed Iowa Chops” and their apple glaze and apple stuffing, we recommend Chateau Ste. Michelle’s 2009 Chardonnay. Head winemaker Bob Bertheau describes the wine as food-friendly, with bright sweet citrus fruit character, subtle spice and oak nuances.

Sounds like a perfect match for the apple-stuffed chops.

Now for the perfect wine for the Baked Potato Soup (see above link for the recipe).

We believe potatoes are the perfect vegetable (says the woman of Irish decent and her blond partner in crime who never met a carb she didn’t like).

But seriously, potatoes are the perfect vegetable because the can be paired with just about any wine. For this recipe, Chardonnay would work because of the butter, onions and cream. If you were planning to serve Vogel’s pork chops and the soup together, stick with the previously mentioned Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay.

If you’re looking for a different white, Sauvignon Blanc is another smart choice because it goes well with cream dishes, celery and parsley.

If red wine’s more your style, the recipe’s bacon and cream are two components that match up nicely with a Cabernet Sauvignon.

Irishman David O’Reilly of Owen Roe Winery, based out of St. Paul, Ore., has a great red blend that would match everything in the cream soup. His 2009 Abbot’s Table (from Washington vineyards) is a blend of Zinfandel, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Grenache. There’s also small amounts of Blaufrankish, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Merlot.

Owen Roe is going to be more expensive than the Chateau Ste. Michelle Chard, but it’s worth it.

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