2 New Zealand Wines (& Meals Pairings) to Serve All Winter

We’ve teamed up with our pals at Wairau River Wines that will help you plan the season’s greatest and most festive dinner events.

With cooler climate right here to remain, it’s time for lengthy, boozy nights with all our nearest and dearest to have fun the vacation season. After all, no banquet is full with out wine, and I’m loving Wairau River’s Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir from Marlborough, New Zealand for the event. Right here, I’ve curated two five-course dinner menus that spotlight the flexibility of every selection. Whether or not you’re in search of a brilliant seafood feast or one thing excellent to your Francophile pals, there’s a Wairau River wine for each event.

I can’t get sufficient of seafood, and for those who’re something like me, that is the proper menu to pair with Wairau River Sauvignon Blanc. This wine balances fruity notes of grapefruit and nectarine with acidity for a crisp, elegant, and supremely drinkable wine.

Kick off dinner with a platter of Broiled Oysters with Sriracha Lime Butter. Broiling oysters helps focus the briny taste whereas concurrently poaching them within the punchy, buttery sauce. For our vegetarian pals, I like serving Burrata and Olive Tapenade Crostini. The tapenade may be made as much as one week prematurely, making this snack particularly simple to assemble proper earlier than the occasion—simply high toasted bread with a hunk of burrata and your required quantity of tapenade.

For the primary course, serve a traditional Bouillabaisse with a facet of asparagus with Hollandaise and a few crusty bread. If you happen to’re unfamiliar, Bouillabaisse is a conventional dish from Marseille, France which mixes a myriad of seafood, like mussels, shrimp, clams, and white fish, in a tomato and saffron-based broth. My excellent chew entails dipping a bit of bread into the broth after which by means of the Hollandaise. This hearty French dish is extremely flavorful and calls to be married with the crisp, refreshing notes of Wairau River’s Sauvignon Blanc. The important thing to this pairing is that the wine tempers the fruit focus with delicate herb and floral notes, which stability the Bouillabaisse.

Finish the meal with my all time favourite dessert, Berries and Cream Pavlova. There’s a couple of issues to bear in mind when making a profitable pavlova. First, meringue is greatest made on cool, dry days which assist hold the sugars intact and stop the pavlova from weeping. The finer the sugar the extra secure the meringue shall be. If you happen to can’t discover caster sugar, add common ol’ granulated sugar to a meals processor and pulse till advantageous. What makes this recipe significantly particular is the addition of crème fraîche to the whipped cream, which concurrently helps stabilize it whereas including some tanginess to chop the sweetness of the meringue.

The second menu takes inspiration from chilly, cozy nights with comforting, French-inspired dishes that pair completely with Wairau River’s Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir is thought for being a wine that everybody loves, and Wairau River’s is very great. With deep notes of cherry and crimson berries, this wine has smoky oak undertones that makes it the proper associate for a wealthy meal.

Baked brie falls excessive on the high of my favourite snack meals—it’s laborious to beat dragging a bit of bread by means of a puddle of oozing brie. Enter Brie Bites, which mix all the enjoyment of a baked brie in, you guessed it, one chew. Mini wheels of brie are brushed with scorching pepper jelly for a punch and enveloped in puff pastry. The ultimate result’s an addictive snack that’s positive to maintain the entire desk coming again for extra.

Consistent with the French theme, begin the meal with a salad of French “Peasant” Beets. This recipe cleverly makes use of each beets and their greens, which get cooked collectively in a single pan. End the dish with a bathe of black pepper and a wedge of Bucheron cheese. It’s the proper palate cleanser after these baked brie bites.

For the primary course, serve two of my favourite cold-weather dishes: Duck à l’Orange and Mushroom Bread Pudding. Whereas duck could seem intimidating, I promise for those who take it step-by-step, it’s a very doable banquet entrée. This recipe riffs on Julia Youngster’s traditional recipe whereas taking cues from Peking duck preparation, guaranteeing crispy pores and skin with a brilliant, orange taste. To counter the extra laborious features of making ready duck, the bread pudding comes collectively rapidly. Custardy hunks of challah are studded with crispy mushrooms and pockets of cheddar cheese for a downright scrumptious facet dish. Sipping Wairau River’s Pinot Noir, with its brilliant, fruity notes, is the perfect sidekick to the acidity of the orange and the savoriness of the bread pudding.

Don’t neglect about dessert! This occasion-worthy meal wouldn’t be full with out a candy deal with, and these Olive Oil Blondies With Salted Caramel are the proper technique to wrap up the night. Studded together with your nut of alternative (I like these with pistachios), these blondies are further particular due to an olive oil-caramel that will get swirled all through the batter. Professional tip: I like to chop the blondies in bite-sized items so everybody can have as a lot or little as they need.