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Wine: Cassegrain
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Type: Verdelho
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Country: Australia
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Region: Hastings River
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Rating: Very Good
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Price:
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Recommendation: Highly
recommended
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Thank you to all those who are
reading my blog and thank you for your comments, I really appreciate it. Please
feel free to provide suggestions for wines that you like and would like others
to try, or wines that you would like to try but have not had the opportunity.
Also please feel free to suggest recipes you think might be interesting to
others. While I can’t promise that we can do all of them due to availability
and other constraints, I would like to try to reflect as many suggestions as
possible.
This week, I am bringing you the
last of the wines from my recent trip to Australia from the Cassegrain Winery
in the Hastings River area of New South Wales (NSW). The food is chicken with a
Roasted Pineapple and Habanero sauce, with steamed Jasmine rice and a summer
salad.
Let me start by saying that this
is a great wine and has become one of my favorites. We have done a blog on a
Cassegrain Verdelho in the past and the difference in this case is that the
grapes are picked late in the growing season,
which makes them sweeter and the result is excellent. The wine is golden in
color and has retained subtle fruity characteristics, including hints of honey
dew melon and even white grapes. It is definitely sweeter than typical
Verdelhos but that does not detract from the wine, instead it enhances it. To
try to describe the results, I would say the wine is somewhere between a
Riesling and a Sauvignon Blanc. It would go well with many seafoods, chicken
and light tomato based pasta meals, chicken and salads. It would be
particularly good with spicy dishes which was why we chose the chicken with a mild
habanero sauce.
The winery, region, and the wine
type have been covered in more detail in previous blogs but the following is
quick summary. The winey is a small, attractive, privately owned winery in the
Hastings River region of NSW situated between Sydney and Brisbane close to the
coastal town of Port Macquarie. The climate is warm to hot with some summer
cooling caused by breezes from the Pacific Ocean. Some grapes are grown at the
winery and others are sourced from several regions in NSW, including the Hunter
Valley. The wines are generally of high quality and I have tasted some great
wines from this winery and highly recommend visiting if you are in the area.
Pineapple Habanero Sauce
Ingredients:
4 cups sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup pineapple juice
3 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp cornstarch (mixed with a bit of water to create slurry)
1 medium to large pineapple, roasted, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
1 yellow pepper, finely chopped
1 mango, finely chopped
5-6 habanero peppers, roasted, finely chopped
Create a syrup by whisking the sugar, vinegar, pineapple juice and lemon juice in a pot over medium high heat until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil for around 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit while you prep the remaining ingredients. Roast the pineapple and habaneros on your grill or using a grill pan on your cook-top. Slice the pineapple in rings and grill until the sugars begin to caramelize and creates grill marks on both sides.
Ingredients:
4 cups sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup pineapple juice
3 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp cornstarch (mixed with a bit of water to create slurry)
1 medium to large pineapple, roasted, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
1 yellow pepper, finely chopped
1 mango, finely chopped
5-6 habanero peppers, roasted, finely chopped
Create a syrup by whisking the sugar, vinegar, pineapple juice and lemon juice in a pot over medium high heat until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil for around 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit while you prep the remaining ingredients. Roast the pineapple and habaneros on your grill or using a grill pan on your cook-top. Slice the pineapple in rings and grill until the sugars begin to caramelize and creates grill marks on both sides.
Lightly char the skins of the habanero
peppers over an open flame or on a searing hot grill pan. Do not grill
your red and yellow bell peppers in order to maintain some
crunch and texture in the sauce.
Stir the remaining ingredients into
the simple syrup you prepared earlier. Stir in the cornstarch (mixing
with a few tablespoons of water first to create a slurry). Bring the
mixture to a boil and the turn down the heat to simmer for 5-10 minutes.
The consistency should be syrupy and chunky.
Pour the sauce on the chicken and bake at 350 F for
approximately 30 to 40 minutes until cooked through. Serve with your selected
sides. We chose steamed Jasmine rice and a summer salad.
Another quick and easy alternative for those in the USA is
to purchase the Roberts Rosthchild or Roberts Reserve Roasted Pineapple &
Habanero Suace or dip. They can normally be found at HEB and possibly other
stores in the USA. Other similar products may also be available in other parts
of the world.
Cassegrain Stone Circle Premium
Late Pick Verdelho
Rating: Very Good
Highly Recommended
Unfortunately the Cassegrain wines are not generally
available in the United States at the moment.
Winery Web Site
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