{"id":423,"date":"2022-03-24T19:40:29","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T19:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/havewinewillpair.com\/staging\/4627\/?p=423"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:20:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:20:35","slug":"2022-party-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/havewinewillpair.com\/staging\/4627\/2022-party-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 Southern Wine Pairing Party – Planning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exploring Southward<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s get down to it! \u00a0Our upcoming Southern wine pairing party is just two months away. The theme for this wine pairing event is Southern Hemisphere regions. I thought of the theme a while ago. Not sure how it would work, as these regions have been on the periphery of my personal wine experience. What a great opportunity to dig in and learn more about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We focused on Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile and Argentina.  It\u2019s interesting because as I go to the stores, I often hear these are \u201cgood value\u201d wines. You get high quality for the dollar I suppose?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most my exposure to SH wine has been a few Shirazes and Malbecs here and there.  It seems this round of menu creation requires quite a bit of taste testing. Yes, quite a bit.  Which means having my mom over to try out  a couple bottles with some appetizer flavors I\u2019m playing with. She is ever so happy to help out. You know, for the sake of research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, we have 3 of the 6 wines picked and a general idea of dishes. I still have some tweaking to do, but overall coming together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Southern<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Southern Wine Pairing Menu Shaping Up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the Run Down of ideas \u2013 this is not final, but we are closing in on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Course 1: New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with Grilled Prawn Cocktail.  <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a funny thing: when I researched Australian food and New Zealand food, there is a great deal of overlap of these two countries. Seafood, prawns and grilling are big in both countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Australians, Americans saying  \u201cthrow some shrimp on the barbie\u201d is a  cringeworthy clich\u00e9.  For one thing, they don\u2019t call it shrimp, it\u2019s prawn.  And another, that saying is all mangled quote from an old 80\u2019s tourism ad with the actor from Crocodile Dundee.  So, lets just leave Australia out of it for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Zealand houses some epic prawns and a bounty of langoustines <\/a>(part of the lobster family).  I won\u2019t have local access to those, nor the budget.  But, I will be looking for very large prawns to grill (bigger than the usual cocktail size).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We tested out a couple white wines and the Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc<\/a> had the right flavor. More minerally than sweet. And I tasted it with smoked paprika<\/a> and avocado. It may sound weird, but it\u2019s good. Give it a try. But use smoked paprika, not the boring plain stuff. These are key flavors I will incorporate into the dish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Course 2: South African white with Vegetable Curry of spiced rice<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an interesting mix of cultures in South Africa, with lots of influence from Malaysia. Curries are very popular. But I can\u2019t go too spicy, so looking for deeper spices like cinnamon with some fruit chutney\/apricot element.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went with vegetable because I have way too much meat already.  I am creating a vegetarian alternative for any meat based dish. For this type of slow cook curry though, the thought of doing two so one person could have a veg option, just made me mentally tired.  Its not just making a base and throwing in meat at the end. So veg for everyone \u2013 I mean they are getting plenty of surf and turf throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I plan to use cauliflower as it nicely absorbs spices.  Haven\u2019t tested this out this dish or the wine yet. I may have to change this up. We will see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Spices\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Course 3: Australian red with Lamb & Sweet Potato cakes<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Once again, this dish draws inspiration from both Australia and New Zealand.  It seems appropriate to do a lamb dish with a lovely red wine.  Australia has their traditional roasted lamb dinner as a staple. And Australian lamb in our supermarket is the fancy<\/em> lamb. Not to be out-lambed, New Zealand holds a higher sheep to people ratio – about a 6 to 1. That’s right, 6x more sheep than people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another interesting food find was learning about the Kumara<\/a>, an indigenous root vegetable in  New Zealand. A kumara is like a giant sweet potato. It supposedly looks and tastes close to one, though it\u2019s a different type of plant species. It is a part of various indigenous dishes. But there’s no kumara at my local store – so I resolved to just using sweet potatoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While sweet potatoes found their way to Australia (not indigenous), they now have several sweet potato farms in various regions.  You can look up Australian sweet potatoes, there\u2019s a web site. So it\u2019s a pretty popular starch vegetable there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It came down to the fact that I could not find a New Zealand red at any of our standard wine places. So, Australia it is. We are still testing out the dish and wine though\u2026..so never say never.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Course 4: Chile Carmener \u2013 Empanada<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Carmenere grapes grown in Chile were very unique to that region. Long ago, vitners brought grapes over from Bordeaux, France where they flourished in Chile. They have since died out in France, so the only ones left were in Chile. These days, they\u2019ve shared these vines with others (bless them!) so there are some other regions trying their hand with these grapes. Chile makes lots of other wine as well, but I like the wine and history of the Carmenere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empanadas are a Chilean staple and they have their own take on it. For one, they are huge (mine will not be). They use a pino mixture of ground meat, onions, and spices (including cumin, one of my favorites). Plus they add in raisins, olives and boiled egg. Though the combination was interesting, I was concerned it may not work well with wine. But I tried it, played around with the spices and it goes lovely with the wine.  I will leave out the egg for downsizing sake, and increase the cumin. Traditionally this dish is served with a rather spicy Pebre salsa. During some earlier events, some complained about a dish or two being \u201ctoo spicy\u201d. So I will have the salsa on the side. Maybe I\u2019ll put a big warning sticker on it “Caution: flammable mouthfeel”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chilean<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Course 5: Argentina Malbec \u2013 Steak with Chimichurri<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Yum and yum. I love Malbec, but we were picky on which one to use. The dish is very straightforward, so the Malbec had to elevate the dish more than me elevating the wine. It\u2019s was no hardship trying out various Malbecs. I made a lovely grilled steak dinner (full size) with chimichurri and grilled corn. Everyone really enjoyed it. So we can give the stamp of \u201ctried and tested\u201d to this pairing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Course 6 : New Zealand with Pavlova and Lamington.
Bonus: South African Amarula Dom Pedro<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For this dessert course, I\u2019m probably overdoing it a bit.  This round, I really paired back each course, so I fell I can make a big finale at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off, when research South African food and drink I ran across several mentions of the favorite cocktail there, a Dom Pedro.  Amarula liquor \u2013 described as a exotic, fruity baileys \u2013 blended with icecream and a bit of chocolate shavings on top. So it\u2019s basically a boozy milkshake. I\u2019m sorry, I can\u2019t resist trying that out. But, there needs to be more than just a shot of milkshake on the dessert plate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to our Australia vs New Zealand food wars, I got two more desserts on the list.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pavlova is a meringue-like dessert with whip cream and fruit topping name after the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who toured Australia and New Zealand in 1926. The story is a chef created the dessert in her honor \u2013 the nationality of the chef varies based on which country you are in.  Both Australia and New Zealand claim the Pavlova as their national dessert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pavlova\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s another one. Lamingtons are little iced sponge cakes that are Australia\u2019s national dessert. They are also New Zealand\u2019s national dessert and recently declared as invented in that country. It\u2019s a shocker no doubt, an ongoing controversy.  Hmmm, so two national desserts each claimed by both these countries. Can\u2019t wait to try them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Lamingtons\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So again this comes down to the wine. We tried a pink Moscato from Australia that was just way too sweet. I couldn\u2019t drink it, though it got really good reviews.  Some people just like really, really, really sweet wine. Next, we are trying a sparkling rose from New Zealand that I have super high hope for. I love the backstory of the sister winemakers, so that would be a great find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plating Practice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beside the recipes and wines, I have to start thinking of plating. I\u2019ve done some initial  pencil sketches so far to get ideas flowing.  It also helps me get to thinking about supplies and equipment. I don\u2019t want to get too far ahead of myself, but there\u2019s only two months left until showtime!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Southern<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Southern<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Southern<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

More Planning Posts<\/p>\n\n\n