When I passed my Level 1 Texas Wine Certification, my best friend decided he wanted to celebrate by making me something special for dinner. He decided on Chicken Tikki Masala with Lime Rice. Considering his aversion to Indian food, this was enough of a celebration. So he asked what wine to get to go with it and I said Pinot Noir. What Kind? he asked. Oh, I don’t know one from Oregon, Washington or California, I replied.
So after a trip to the local liquor store he came back with two, since while he was getting help finding a Pinot Noir, the person helping him suggested a Rosé instead. Being true to his nature he said “she said Pinot Noir.” Great upsell in the store with the comment ” get both and compare to see which you like better. It’s a Pinot Noir Rosé.”
So that’s what we did.
Rosé
This Rosé needs food. We tried sitting and sipping and watching the sunset and it wasn’t that good.
It has a strawberry scent, with nectarines and lemon. The flavor is harsh and it’s dry not sweet. The flavor for the nectarine is from near the pit, so it has that acidic biting quality.
We tried it with the salad. The cucumber made it very watery with almost no flavor and yet the tomato brought out a sweet tone of the wine.
The tikki masala went well with it and it made the wine sweet. It went pretty good with the lime rice too. Definitely not my favorite rosé, but not bad for a Tuesday night. My best friend will avoid it completely in the future.
Pinot Noir
The Pinot Noir had deep flavors. I got petroleum, dark fruit (plum/black cherry) and some type of spice – allspice or clove. My best friend got the spiciness of Thai basil, with a hint of oregano and some pine or noble fir. We both got oakiness.
Surprisingly, the wine went great with the Caesar salad dressing, but not the vinaigrette.
It was excellent with the tikki masala (and rice). And went well with the mini cupcakes for dessert.
This was definitely a celebration wine. Perfect for a date night or just treating yourself on a Tuesday.
Final Thoughts
My best friend really got into tasting the wine with other things. So we tried the pinot noir with pickle juice, Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (yes, just on a spoon) and I drew the line at trying it with mayonnaise. Had I not mentioned it was a work night and we both had to get up in the morning, we might have gone through other things in the fridge.
Regardless, it made me happy to see him become passionate about wine too.
Since we didn’t drink all of the rosé, I took it home with me and stuck it in the icebox. Halloween rolled around and I wanted a glass of something on the porch while handing out candy – so poured the rest of the rosé. It actually wasn’t too bad ice cold. Maybe we didn’t chill it enough when we first tried it or maybe it needed to breathe. Either way, it wasn’t as unlikable as the first time I tried it. The pinot noir on the other hand went on sale at the local liquor store, so a case came home with me.
[…] This Pinot Noir is also from Samuel Robert Winery, but it doesn’t have the depth of the other one (read review here). […]