Do you drink much New Zealand Pinot Noir? Though the variety is a favorite in our house, we don’t often come across bottlings from New Zealand. That’s why I was so excited to try a sample of Craggy Range Martinborough Pinot Noir. Read on for my take on the wine and accompanying escapades in pairing.
The grapes of this Pinot Noir are hand-harvested from selected blocks at Craggy Range’s Estate-owned Te Muna Road Vineyard. Due to its higher elevation, harvest takes place about a week following other nearby Martinborough sites in order to reach the desired ripeness.
From the 2023 vintage, the youthful wine is light, fresh, easygoing and food friendly. It’s totally quaffable on its own, but it was fantastic with our dinner!
Food Pairing for Craggy Range Pinot Noir
A pairing of chicken pot pie was recommended. With Thanksgiving on my mind, I substituted turkey. Also, since we’re in the midst of holiday season with plenty of temptations and indulgences, my preference was for a lightened up pot pie preparation to balance things out. I turned to the Chicken Pot Pie Nouveau recipe in the New Basics cookbook for guidance.
Part of my plan was to substitute fillo dough for the puff pastry called for in the recipe. The thing about fillo is that it needs to be defrosted overnight. What could possibly go wrong? If you’re guessing that I forgot, well, you’re right! So, we ended up having pot pie filling which is pretty much turkey soup!
The good news is that I bought Diestel smoked turkey for convenient preparation. It also delivers on flavor. Thyme was my preferred herb so as to complement the wine and not overpower it. Most of my efforts went into the vegetables. Prepping the pearl onions, boiling and skinning each one, was rather labor intensive. Since sugar snap peas aren’t in season, I left those out and relied on carrots. Sure, you could use frozen vegetables for ease, but I knew the outcome wouldn’t be the same. If you prefer a more traditional pot pie, check out the Chicken Pot Pie recipe on The Wooden Skillet site.
Though the recipe doesn’t call for cream, the end result was rich and satisfying. Due to the omission of the crusty topping, I served the dish with sourdough bread from Sea Wolf Bakers, one of our favorite Seattle artisan bakeries.
Poultry and Pinot are easygoing pairing partners, and a go-to in our house. Unsurprisingly, the Craggy Range Pinot Noir and turkey soup were a marvelous pairing. The brightness of the wine cuts through the richness of a dish like this. It just goes to show, you don’t have to rigidly follow a recipe or panic about pairings. Tweak things as you like and things can still come together.
Would you try this pairing? Head over to my account on Instagram and let me know!