New Release Dinner

The weather turned spectacular on Sunday in this area, from hot, sticky and humid with temperatures in the mid-80 degree range and a lot of rain to no humidity, temperatures in the low 70 degree range and beautiful blue skies.  It was enough to make one hungry and thirsty.

It was time to open a bottle each of the two new releases from Kinkead Ridge  discussed below.  There were some wonderful looking mussels at the market yesterday so we steamed them in some wine and shallots and saffron, cooled them, reduced the cooking liquid and made it into an emulsified sauce with olive oil, garlic, parsley and some lemon juice.  The cooked mussels marinated in some of this sauce for about six hours. 

I put a chill on the River Village Cellars white wine and threw some oysters on the grill and along with the mussels we had a shell fish appetizer that was near perfect.  With its acid  the wine stood up well to the shellfish, and it had a real affinity for the flavor in the mussels. 

The main course was fillet of Alaskan Copper River salmon.  The Copper River salmon is vastly over-priced at $30 a pound, but it is so good that a .65 pound fillet pleaded to come home. That made two small portions. 

The fish was dusted with some shallot pepper and a bit of smoked paprika and grilled outdoors to a wonderful medium rare state.  There were some super thin ribbons of zucchini, yellow squash and carrots sauteed in olive oil, butter and tarragon resting under the salmon.  The 2009 Viognier-Roussanne more than stood up to the rich taste of the salmon and it even picked up somewhat on the fresh tarragon in the veggies. A bit of fish and veggies, a sip of wine, a bite of a crusty roll, and repeat again and again.  Perfect way to spend a gorgeous evening.