Skip to main content

An Aussie Sausage Sizzle + d'Arenberg The Custodian Grenache 2013 #WinePW


Welcome to the June edition of Wine Pairing Weekend. This month Gwendolyn, of Wine Predator, is hosting. You can read her invitation: here. And she invited us to explore and post about Australian wines. If you're reading this early enough, join us on Twitter - Saturday, June 9th - at 8am Pacific time; follow along with hashtag #WinePW.

The Down Under Offerings

An Aussie Sausage Sizzle

For this event, I thought: I could just "pull some snags out of the eski and toss them on the barbie for the blokes." Translation: "...pull some sausages out of the fridge and toss them on the grill for my guys." That seemed simple enough.


Then I read about the institution of the Sausage Sizzle and loved the idea of bringing people together for a quick meal with just sausages, bread, and grilled onions. I had some sausages from a local meat company and we are never without bread and onions in the house. So, I took it all over to our friends' house when they invited us over for an end-of-the-schoolyear barbeque.

In the Glass

Besides Italian reds, wines from Australia were the first that I drank on a regular basis. They were more affordable than their French counterparts. And, when I was a starving college student, we were more into quantity than quality. Still, I found most Australian wines easy-drinking. Most of the time we were pouring Shiraz.

I thought about tracking down one of those bottles I used to drink in college, but then I came across a selection of d'Arenberg wines. Founded in the early 20th centurey, d'Arenberg is an Australian wine company with most of its vines located in South Australia's McLaren Vale, though some of their grapes are sourced from the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula. The Osborn family has been heading the winery for four generations now. Chester Osborn produces wines by using basket pressing and leaving the reds unfiltered.


With my Sausage Sizzle, I poured the d'Arenberg The Custodian Grenache 2013. And I also paired  the d'Arenberg The Hermit Crab Viognier Marsanne 2016 with an Australian cheese. More on that soon.

The Story Behind The Name
I did some digging to find the story behind the name. So it goes...d'Arry Osborn refused to pull out his old Grenache vineyards. When Chester became the lead winemaker in the 1980s, he set out to plan even more old vine Grenache despite it being an unfashionable grape, at the time. So, today, d'Arenberg maintains nearly one-third of McLaren Vale's old vine Grenache. They have earned the moniker: Custodian of the Grenache.

Tasting Notes
The 2013 d'Arenberg Custodian is a beautiful, balanced red wine. On the nose, I get wafts of woody spices and moist soil, initially, but as it sits in the glass, it opens up with more fruity aromas. On the tongue, it had a nice dance of sweet and tangy. Overall, this was an appealing foil to the salty sausages.

Comments

  1. I'm glad I'm not the only one that asks hosts if I can bring food and wine when I'm invited over because I have a blog post due LOL...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! Like Wendy I've also been guilty of doing this. Looks like it was a good time though. 'Good on you, mate!'

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Connecticut Lobster Rolls, Canned Lobster Bisque, and a 2019 Henry Fessy 'Maître Bonhome' Viré-Clessé #Winophiles

This month the French Winophiles group is looking at affordable wines from Burgundy.  Host Cindy of Grape Experiences wrote: "Burgundy, or Bourgogne, is known for its wines of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir... as well as Aligote, Gamay, Sauvignon, César, Pinot Beurot, Sacy, Melon in lesser quantities. Many of the well-known wines are quite expensive, but there are plenty of values to be found." Read her invitation here. And there won't be a Twitter chat for this event, so you will have to dive into the articles themselves to read about our pairings and findings. Here's the line-up... Wendy Klik from A Day in the Life on the Farm enjoys Domaine Chevillon Chezeaux Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits, 2018 Paired with a Maple Pecan Chicken . Camilla Mann from Culinary Adventures with Camilla shares her love of Connecticut Lobster Rolls, Canned Lobster Bisque, and a 2019 Henry Fessy 'Maître Bonhome' Viré-Clessé. Jeff Burrows of FoodWineClick! explains why we should Look t

Meyer Lemon Custard-Filled Matcha Turtles #BreadBakers

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our  Pinterest board  right here. Links are also updated after each event on the  Bread Bakers home page .  We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. This month Stacy of Food Lust People Love  is hosting and she wrote: "Your bread can be large, as in one big animal, or small - animal-shaped rolls. Use your imagination! Points for flavor and shape!" If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to Stacy at foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com. Here's the animal-shaped bread basket from the #BreadBakers... Beef and Sweet Onion Dim Sum Pandas from Karen's Kitchen Stories Bird Bread Rolls from Ambrosia Easter Bunny Buns from Cook with Renu Ham and Cheese Elephant Rolls from Food Lust People Love Hedgehog Bread from Making Mir

Homemade Lorna Doone Cookies #SundayFunday

Today the Sunday Funday group is celebrating childhood favorites. Thanks to Stacy of  Food Lust People Love , Sue of  Palatable Pastime , Rebekah of  Making Miracles , and Wendy of  A Day in the Life on the Farm  for coordinating this low-stress group. Today Stacy is hosting and she's given us the following prompt: "Childhood favorites. Did you have a favorite dish growing up? It could be something your family cooked or a restaurant dish, even a Chef Boyardee canned good or packaged ingredients like Rice-a Roni or mac and cheese. Recreate THAT dish from SCRATCH for this event."  Here's the #SundayFunday childhood favorites line-up... Chili Mac from A Day in the Life on the Farm Ham and Mushroom Breakfast Burritos from Making Miracles Homemade Lorna Doone Cookies from Culinary Adventures with Camilla Homemade Wonder Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories K-Mart Sub Sandwiches from Palatable Pastime Kempakki Dosa from Sizzling Tastebuds Meat Chilly Fry by Sn