Sardinhas Assadas

D

Dan McQ

Dan McQuillen
A group of us converged on the back room at Portugalia in Cambridge this week for an evening of excellent northern Portugese dishes featuring grilled fresh sardines. Thanks to Tom for calling ahead to arrange the sardines and the dinner with the owner.

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Other standout dishes included the grilled squid, grilled vegetables, and red bliss potatoes parboiled then sauteed in olive oil and garlic.

We had a mess of wines too, including a phenomenal Chateau Pajzos 1993 Esszencia, described by one diner as potentially the perfect accompaniment to blueberry pancakes. Amazing how a wine can pack in so much sweetness yet remain so light and well-balanced. Again, phenomenal (my camera phone did not do justice to it).

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Two other standouts:

(Remoissenet Corton-Clos du Roi Grand Cru 1996 Les Poyeux; Clos Rougeard 2004)
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We also sacrificed a bottle of Paolo Bea San Valentino 2007 which had an amazing nose and was ready right out of the bottle although clearly on the young side. As usual, an extremely generous group of wines made it along with their owners.
 
The Bea actually went well with the sardines (which I'd never had before). I didn't take pictures of the bevy of rieslings, the chablis, and Bollinger Grande Annee we had at the beginning. We didn't dive into the reds until the sardines were long gone and the grilled meats started showing up.

Yes, the Pegau had alcohol. No, it was not too much and no, I did not write the percent down.

The Remoissenet was also phenomenal (it was the Les Poyeux bottling, BTW). Really drinking beautifully.
 
originally posted by David M. Bueker:
Yes, the Pegau had alcohol. No, it was not too much and no, I did not write the percent down
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If you don't write it down how will we know whether or not you liked the wine?
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No, no, no, it's not about whether he liked the wine, it's about whether the wine was any good.
 
The engineer at the table has retired, so we don't pay attention to alcohol levels any more. Although the Pajzos was lighter than the 7.5% rumored to be in the bottle.

The Pegau was 1998. I'm sure you'll find data here or here.
 
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