Crowd Pleasing Wins to Pair with Tasting Menu

Hi All!

I have been tasked with putting together the wine program for my in-laws retirement party. We are doing a 5 course tasting menu (15 guests) so was planning on get 10 bottles (2 White, 8 Red) that will please the group. A snob or two in the crowd, but mostly “non-serious” wine drinkers. Trying to keep it to ~$30 a bottle so can go a bit up or down. Looking for wines that can work across all courses (won’t be pairing by course).

Menu
Course 1: Butternut Squash Soup
Course 2: Tuna Tartare, Crispy Rice
Course 3: Burrata Salad, Champagne Vinaigrette
Course 4: Filet Mignon, Sea Bass duet with mushroom and artichoke risotto
Course 5: Pistachio Ice Cream and Blueberry Tart

Very curious to hear your thoughts. I am thinking White Burgundy (village), Gruner Veltliner, Pinot Noir (Oregon), Cru Beaujolais (Morgon or Moulin Vent), Chianti Classico or Rosso di Montalcino, Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfadel (Sonoma, Napa).

Thanks in advance,
Scott

Why so many reds, and why so many wines?

1 champers
2 champers
3 champers
4 rose champers
5 scotch

I would have said Pinot Gris on #1 and no wine on #3 but otherwise you nailed it.

Nice menu—what should I wear?

Raspberry Beret, second hand!

Fine, #1 can be a BdN.

Bedrock Old Vine meets your price criteria.

Thanks everyone for the responses! I love champagne, and agree would work nicely here. I will add that in to start.

Reading back on my original post, it does seem like overkill on varieties. I think I am leaning towards culling that back some and focusing on fewer, more interesting wines.

The guests skew towards red wine preference which is the reason for the imbalance.

one red I would suggest would be the Terre Nere Etna Rosso 2016 for course number 4, but it would be hard to go past a nice rose Champagne

If these guests are not too wine savey, I would serve a bold, fruit forward wine with the meat. If these people know and enjoy wine, an older bordeaux, or rioja. I like the champagne idea for the first two courses. I like a dessert wine, but with this sweet course I think it would be overkill. Maybe a brandy.

I saw what you said about the guests’ preference for reds, but I would be tempted to go half/half with white/red. Without concern for guests’ preferences, the only course with which I would serve a red would be the filet, and I’d go on the lighter side with that red.

By course:

1. Chenin Blanc (for geeks: Savenierres, which I don’t usually prefer, but have reason to believe would be absolutely awesome with this soup; for non-geeks: go to local wine shop and ask for a nice example from the Loire)
2. rose Champagne or Champagne; dry Riesling
3. dry mineral-laden white — Sauv. Blanc from Loire; any number of whites from Italy; Champagne
4. Rose; if red, Pinot or another lighter red; rose champagne could be nice here, too
5. geek choice: Palo Cortado, all.day.long; non-geek choice: tawny port, Tokaji, or Sauternes

The menu really begs for whites, imo.

If forcing reds is a must, by course:

1. Barbera; Zinfandel; Grenache
2. a light Pinot Noir (e.g. Bourgogne)
3. • just don’t -
4. Pinot Noir
5. Zinfandel; Cabernet Sauvignon; Syrah

I agree with the folks who say that traditional pairing logic would dictate more whites than reds. That said, it’s also my experience that people who specially call out that they prefer red wines are also used to some of those clashing flavors and aren’t bothered by it. For instance, my in laws regularly drink young Napa cab with fish, and it doesn’t seem to bother them.

Personally, I’d pick a few bottles each of Champagne, Chardonnay (new world producer but balanced style), RRV Pinot, Chianti Classico, and Napa Cab and call it a day. Let people pick their own wines and don’t worry too much about course pairings since the ship has kinda already sailed on that one.

Thanks all for the feedback! While a specific exercise, this is a microcosm of the challenge I constantly find myself facing in balancing my own more adventurous taste with simpler ones of those around me. Ultimately, if the guests are happy I am happy. I’m sure you all have experienced the same thing…

I will be sure to update thread with final selections to close loop

I’d go Jaffurs Syrah all day long for those doing that filet and risotto dish, $28 a bottle and readily available, even with a few years of age.

And a nice gruner would be great for almost all the dishes. Alzinger has the Durnstein for $26 a bottle.

Enjoy!

The menu looks very appetizing! Not sure if you have control over it, but if it were me, I would move course #1 to 3rd in the lineup. Then, you could pair a champagne or a racy white with courses #1 & 2 and a lighter red with #3 &4.

At $30, I would lean toward Chablis, Bourgogne blanc, or balanced oregon chard. Not sure what’s available on the shelf in your market so I left a few suggestions below.
For the red, perhaps a Sonoma or central coast pinot noir
When I first read the menu, I thought about a demi-sec champagne for dessert, now leaning toward Sauternes. A single bottle or even .375 goes a LONG way with stickies, so If 6 people or less, my friends would just split a half bottle. Tons of good value plays there, and leaves you with more cash to upgrade one of your other choices.

Course 1: Tuna Tartare, Crispy Rice : Budget - Domaine Carneros Brut; Splurge - Vilmart 1ere Grand Reserve, Chartogne Taillet “St. Anne”
Course 2: Burrata Salad, Champagne Vinaigrette : Lingua Franca “Avni” chard, Walter Scott “La Combe Vert”, Liquid Farm “White Hill” are all around your price point. 2017 Bourgogne Blanc (Etienne Sauzet, Bernard Moreau, PYCM, Vincent Dancer would all crush if you can get your hands on some)
Course 3: Butternut Squash Soup - At budget: Talley PN, Rivers Marie or Failla Sonoma Coast PN
Course 4: Filet Mignon, Sea Bass duet with mushroom and artichoke risotto - Continue red from Course 3 or 2nd glass of chard for the Sea Bass
Course 5: Pistachio Ice Cream and Blueberry Tart - .375 from Ch. Climens, Guiraud, or Suidiraut, as old as you can find.

Remember, Pairing is a “know your audience” game. If you have some folks who are interested enough, it can be really mind opening. If your group is just not that into wine, I would stop sweating it entirely and strongly take your cues from their known preferences for reds. There are tons of posts around thanksgiving from folks who open great wines and are disappointed with the response.

Good luck! Be sure to post your photos here afterward

This is probably the right answer, though in the interests of the group’s acceptance, I’d probably replace the Chianti (which I personally like but may not catch hold in the group in question here, especially since the wines will just be on the table and not poured as pairings) with something a little richer, maybe zinfandel.

This is such good advice, it’s worth repeating. In your mind, the holiday dinner calls for brut nature Champagne, Spanish rose, dolcetto, Chinon and brachetto. What your actual company would enjoy is probably zin, cab, chardonnay and pinot, maybe shaded towards relatively better matches for your food but still staying in their likability zone.

But maybe you live in an artist’s loft in Brooklyn and when you host Thanksgiving dinner for your friends, the first set of wines would in fact be the right one – you just have to know your audience.

I’ll push back gently on the idea that non-wine geeks will only enjoy the common grape varieties. Just because they’re scared to buy less-common varieties or try them on their own (because they don’t know what they’re all about) doesn’t mean you should avoid them here, and it doesn’t mean they won’t like them when they are offered at the appropriate time, in a laid-back manner, with complementary cuisine. Expand their horizons!

(but have some basic backups on standby)

I agree, the extent that you pick non-mainstream wines that are, in fact, the kinds of wines that regular folks would like. I pour Huet Vouvray and Curran Grenache Blanc to civilian company all the time, and they always love them, even though they’ve never had Vouvray or Grenache Blanc before in their lives. But those are actually types of wines most civilians would easily like.

In the event discussed in this thread, if you start picking wines that regular folks usually don’t like just because of your ideas about ideal pairings and so forth, you’re probably unlikely to have it be a success. At least, that would be my guess – knowing the audience is the real key.

I agree this is a great whites menu, and my apologises for pimping my own wines, but:

I have a low 13% alc, nicely structured, very red fruited Primitivo that would go well with course #1…and another 13% alc (higher 13s) zinfandel, darker fruited in a claret/CdP-ish style that would be good in #5 (note: Zin and Primitivo are the same grape in the same/similar way that Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris are the same!).