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Getting together with wine drinking buddies is a ripe opportunity for wine tasting so when our friends invited us over for a jambalaya dinner we eagerly offered to bring some wine for tasting. When we turned to our bible What to Drink with What You Eat we found two wines that looked good, Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc. Visions of sausage and shrimp in a spicy sauce filled our heads but the prospect of choosing a wine that could stand up to the spiciness that is our host’s specialty was daunting. No problem, off to The Caviste, our favorite wine shop, where owner Russ Anderson was quick to recommend two special wines, one with a tad of sweetness and one not:
Rene Mosse Magic of Juju ($18.90) and Le Rocher des Violettes, Negrette 2010 ($26.10, both with a 10% case discount).
Both of these wines are from Chenin Blanc grapes grown in the Loire Valley of France. They were both nice fruity wines with a delicious finish that paired well with the jambalaya; but the Le Rocher des Violettes had no sweetness and a complexity that went VERY well with the strong flavors of the jambalaya. In addition it had lots of mineral in the taste that we all liked and commented about.
These wines were excellent with the dinner but the all time favorite was Le Rocher des Violettes. Turns out all of us shy away from sweet wines so this is no surprise. Not an inexpensive wine, but it made OUTSTANDING jambalaya even better. Unequivocally, a memorable wine to pair with jambalaya.