Page 3 - Food

I'm gonna ruffle a few feathers here with this one and go MERLOT!!! Mer-what? I know, I know, merlot hasn't got the best of reputations these days but honest to god there are some crackers out there! Often massed produced and definitely overdone in California at least it has grown out of popularity somewhat. WELL, prepare to have your mind changed in a matter of mls!! 

Riesling would be my first choice for this salmon dish, winedirect.com.au came through with an absolute CRACKER! Patrick of Coonawarra 2012 aged Riesling, this has to be one of the best rieslings I've tasted in a while.

This stew is packed with earthy flavours filled with mushrooms, turnips and carrots. Tomato paste helps to add more body and those delicious herby dumplings on top make it a complete dish. Hungry yet?

The pairing isn’t necessarily for the sauce but more the sauce and the steak! It’s hard to pair a wine just with a sauce. Probably because it’s been a while I just ate sauce for dinner.

If you haven't got a beer in your hand or you're more of a wine fan like myself, then it's gotta be white with this bad boy. A lot going on in the sandwich so let's choose something that doesn't wanna play the staring role but will leave you talking about the role it played for a long time afterward! Today, that comes in the form of the beautiful Riposte 'The Stiletto' Pinot Gris from winedirect.com.au. I love the 'stiletto' term used for this wine because it does EXACTLY what a stiletto does with the chicken satay sandwich, as it does for many a leg!! It's gonna lift it, elevate it and leave you wanting more. 

We’ve been trying to get better at the sustainability thing here at winedirect.com.au... the wines you are ordering are now quite likely to arrive in a cardboard box that we’ve reused rather than just using recycled cardboard. It’s better for the planet and keeps our costs down which in turn enables us to spend a bit more on the delicious wines you’ve been receiving. If we’ve got sturdy enough cardboard in da house, we are using it to get your precious wines out to you... 

I went a little leftfield on this one. Lately, I’ve gotten into some Sparkling Shiraz wines. The wife isn’t a red drinker which is both good and bad, to be honest. Good as I can enjoy the bottle myself but bad because it makes it hard to choose wine together. She is, however, a HUGE bubbles fan, so I figured let’s give Sparkling Red a go! It feels like a celebration opening bubbles and to me, any day that tacos are involved is a HUGE celebration, so these guys are already a great match. 

I know it's colder and we are eating a bowl of hearty soup Potato Leek & Black Pudding Soup, but the wife doesn't drink red!!

Chardonnay ALL day! No better pairing than a beautiful Chardy to go with the rich flavours from the Chicken & Butterbean Cassoulet. 

This might seem like a strange one, but I can honestly say that this combo really works. Usually, when you think of burgers you lean towards a beer, or even a nice glass of red. The freshness of the apple, spice coming through from the tomato jam, and the addition of pork had me leaning towards a Riesling. 

It wouldn't be dinner if wine wasn't involved - would it??  No truer words spoken than these current times. 

A bromance was formed around their love of food and wine, between Dan and Gavin from Another Food Blogger. Since finding their new connection they have been collaborating to create the perfect wine pairings. Last week Dan tested out the Beef Cheek Ragu, let’s see how he went.