Easter Dinner Wines

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lyndalou

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I am hosting Easter dinner at my home. There will be 8 of us. The menu will be a baked ham, sweet potatoes, spinach souffle marinated cherry tomatoes and capers. We will have corn bread , also.

My friends consist of some red wine lovers and also white wines. For the red, it is usually a Cabernet and the white a Pinot Grigio. How do you think these will go with my menu? Any suggestions for something different?

We are going to the wine store this afternoon and would appreciate any comments/suggestions.

Lyndalou
 
I usually get a slightly less dry white for Easter. The saltiness of the ham is nicely offset by a Johannesburg Riesling.
 
I read that "ham works well with the Vacquerays, a bright and lively red from the southern part of France’s Rhone Valley. The sweet spices and blackberry jam notes of the wine blend with the richness of the ham."

My personal favortite is the french white wine, 2007 Louis Jadot "Pouilly Fuisse"...yesss
 
I am hosting Easter dinner at my home. There will be 8 of us. The menu will be a baked ham, sweet potatoes, spinach souffle marinated cherry tomatoes and capers. We will have corn bread , also.

My friends consist of some red wine lovers and also white wines. For the red, it is usually a Cabernet and the white a Pinot Grigio. How do you think these will go with my menu? Any suggestions for something different?

We are going to the wine store this afternoon and would appreciate any comments/suggestions.

Lyndalou

I love your menu (what time is dinner? :LOL:) but I don't think Cabernet Sauvignon will complement it at all. The wine is too tannic. With ham, I prefer something much softer. For red, a Dolcetto (Italian), or a Beaujolais Villages are really nice, or a dry Rose wine (from Provence). Your wine guy can help you find a good choice in your price range.

For a white wine with that menu, Pinot Grigio would only work if it's from Alto Adige region of Italy, but I still don't think it's nearly as good a choice as Riesling... preferably from the Mosel (Germany).
 
I love Sauvignon Blanc for a nice light white wine.
For an affordable choice I have this unconventional shopping method that works well for me but would make a wine connoisseur shudder:
I go to a well respected grocery store where they put their most expensive wines on the top shelf and lower the standards and price as your eyes scan down to the bottom shelf. I start at the top and look for the best sale coupled with the most depleted stock (that tells me others in the know have chosen it because they know something i don't know ;) ). Then I look for the oldest date too because they say white wine is better after 5 years. If the final sales price is under say like $12 then bingo (under $10 even better...but sometimes i stretch it upwards as much as $20 if i'm feeling particularly flush that day)...i try it and am usually happy
 
...good point...almost never. But, I often find 2007 and then try to wait it out another year or two.

Honestly, I'm not sure your 5 year rule is the best one. I'd say that white wines are good UP TO five years and only if they have been properly stored.
 
I I start at the top and look for the best sale coupled with the most depleted stock (that tells me others in the know have chosen it because they know something i don't know ;) ).
Or more likely, they have seen it advertised in some newspaper or magazine. They may not even know as much as you do about wine. That is a funny surmise, imho.

Then I look for the oldest date too because they say white wine is better after 5 years. If the final sales price is under say like $12 then bingo (under $10 even better...but sometimes i stretch it upwards as much as $20 if i'm feeling particularly flush that day)...i try it and am usually happy
I am VERY curious about this one. Where did you learn that? and what white wines were they talking about?

SOME white wines are better after 5 years, but I don't know of any that are sold in grocery stores.
 
I generally prefer Sauvignon Blanc to Riesling, but I think Riesling would work better in this case. For a red, I'd probably go with a vin de pays Pinot Noir, but that's just me.

I just recently picked up a 2006 white wine from a regional producer at the grocery store. Overall, I don't recall seeing a lot of vintage dated wine at the grocery store, but I may just not be paying attention.
 
Where did you learn that? and what white wines were they talking about? SOME white wines are better after 5 years, but I don't know of any that are sold in grocery stores.
Andy M. said:
Honestly, I'm not sure your 5 year rule is the best one. How often do you find a 5 year old wine in a grocery store?
I actually did not say that grocery stores have 5 yr old wines. I said I look in grocery stores for the oldest that they have because I once read that a white wine is best after 5 years (wasn't my rule). I have no idea where I read it as it was years ago (stored trivia). The source could have well been wrong and I apologize for the confusion if it was. I admit that I'm a novice with wine and always learning :)
 
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