Pork Strips with Gorgonzola Red Wine Sauce

The wines:
- Bonterra Vineyards 2007 Viognier Mendocino County & Lake County, California
- Robert Sinskey Vineyards 2010 Pinot Noir Los Carneros, Napa Valley, California

The pork strips were served with a rice / lentils combo and sautéed Brussels sprouts wilth almonds.

Why two wines? The dish is complicated to pair due to the unusual food composition. Pork, Red Wine, Gorgonzola, ... The combination allows no straightforward decision. I thought that an off-dry white could work so I tried the Bonterra Viognier. It is not really off-dry but my feeling was it could work. On the other hand I tasted at Sinskey last year the Los Carneros Pinot with blue cheese. Wonderful. So I decided to try both.

Due to the Gorgonzola Red Wine Sauce the dish has a strong aroma. The rice with the lentils underlines the aroma where the medium prepared Brussels sprouts with the almonds give a nice counterpart. In total a very interesting dish with a lot of flavours. Both wines work - but on a different level. The residual sweetness of the Bonterra leads to a very interesting experience. Drinking the wine directly after some strips seems to kill the wine a little bit - the Viogner appears to be flat. But if you wait 5 seconds minimum a totally different view. Suddenly the fruity aromas harmonise with the dish. Nice thing.

However the Pinot works better. No difference if you drink directly or wait a little bit. Equal partners. The Pinot strengthens the aromas of the pork strips and vice versa. Another good example that a good prepared Pinot is a wonderful food pairing wine. Unfortunately my last bottle. I will be back to Sinskey during my next US trip definitely.

By the way: Tasting notes for both wines are also blogged.