Tastings and Pairings: The Best of the Best of the height of wine tasting season.

This time of year the invitations for wine tastings are coming fast and furious. This week I had four on my calendar (I made it to three).

As incredibly useful as the huge tastings that I go to are, in terms of tasting a lot of different styles and quality from dozens of producers, I honestly prefer the more intimate invites I get. Here hosts organize a very thorough, guided tasting with the winemaker. And there is nothing more engrossing (or enchanting) than listening to a winemaker passionately describe how the wines you drank came to be. Details like what the weather was like that year in the vineyards make for a riveting seminar.
Yesterday I was invited by the owner of the Chilean winery Montes Premium wines, Aurelio Montes, to taste through their new introductions, which included their Kaiken Mai 2007.

Along with the information on aging techniques, and descriptions of the terroir where the grapes were picked, Mr. Montes offered food pairing tips with the wines we were tasting (with the exception of his Montes Alpha M 2007---which he said he would take to his room and drink alone.)

When the tasting was complete, we were invited to stay and have lunch with Mr. Montes in a private room of Aureole. After hearing about how well Kaiken Mai's would pair well with big meat dish, I couldn't pass up the chance to have that experience (especially since in our highly vegetarian home---deer, venison and wild boar have never been on the menu.)

The first course was a Montes Alpha Chardonnay 2008, which they nicely paired with sweet, moist Nova Scotia lobster.  This soft gold colored wine showed banana and tropical fruits on the palate and nicely balanced the rich, sweet lobster meat.

The next course, Pork Belly Pastrami, served with a Raclette cheese and cole slaw and the powerful 100% Malbec, Kiaken Mai 2007 was a good pairing, but I liked the combination of the Star Angel "Aurelio's Selection" 2007 even more. The Star Angel's smoky spiciness was a great combination with the smoky pastrami.

The third course, a Flat iron Steak in a sauce Au Poivre dotted with floating English peas and delicately sliced smoked fingerling potatoes went well with the Kaiken Mai 2007, a bold wine, with plenty of structure and tannins to stand up to this hearty meat dish.

Although their premium wines that I tasted fall into the $60 to $90 category,  Montes also produces a lot of wines in the under $20 price point.

---Monica Forrestall