Sommelier Critiques Wine Pairings at Fine Dining Restaurant

My name’s Garry, I’m a WSET Level 3 qualified sommelier, and in this video, I’m breaking down the wine pairings for an 11-course meal at a fine dining restaurant.

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Time codes:

00:00 – Sommelier critiques wine pairings at fine dining
00:22 – Seaweed with Argentine shrimp + Australian Chardonnay
01:24 – Mussel pate with edible silver + Marsanne-Rousanne
02:18 – Donut with smoked sour cream and black caviar + Pouilly-Fumé
04:10 – Raspberry tartar in caramel sphere + Pinot Noir
05:20 – Ravioli with scallop + Australian Riesling
05:53 – Apple gratin with foie gras + Gavi di Gavi
06:37 – Polenta with halibut + California Zin
08:21 – Duck breast in fermented apple sauce + DOCG Chianti
09:04 – Fish and chips + Muscadet Serve et Maine
09:54 – White mushroom in chocolate + German Riesling
10:11 – Mango mousse with coconut foam + Tokaji

I visited a fine dining restaurant
recently and Frankly Speaking there were
a couple of hicups in pairing wine with
food there my name is Gary and I’m a W3
qualified Sam and today I’ll break down
the entire 11 course meal wine pairings
and we’ll disc discover together what of
them were perfect and what were a
complete disaster the first course was
an amuse Bush made from different kinds
of seaweed added with some shrimp puree
for me the start of the meal was totally
clear Seafoods starting light with
seaweed some shrimp I expected the
course to be paed with some easy
drinking low alcohol white wine just to
kick off the evening and start the whole
meal really easy but the sell decided to
PIR the course with some Australian
Chardy from
kunara quite a courageous decision right
I wouldn’t say that it was a complete
disaster this Chardon has seen no Oak
fortunately because if it had it would
be too big too full boded for just a SE
tarlet but anyway it’s an Australian
Chardy it’s rather full bodied 12.5%
alcohol again I would have started with
something even lighter like 11% probably
but at the same time it was not too bad
I understood that asalia had a more
straightforward palette than I and I
prepared myself for an intense evening
full of flavors and strong pairings the
second course was also an amose Bush
which continued the same Seafood theme
it was an edible shell made of protein
and maltodextrine with a pearl of
muscles on top Frankly Speaking I Was
preparing myself for something even more
bulky than the Australian chardonay but
no the pairing was a pleasant surprise
to my palette a nice simple marsan
rousan blend from the own Val was a
perfect pairing for this course it was
not too heavy had a nice round body not
too big and with characteristic flower
and Blossom Aromas of the indigenous
Rome varieties the wine wasn’t too
expensive actually all of the wines from
this pairing are not expensive because
it is the most basic pairing not the Top
Line the price point for this wine in
retail is about $20 us per bottle but
anyway it’s a nice wine and a nice
pairing the third course was the last
amuse Bush of the evening a Bak with
flour donut with smoked sour cream and
black cavar decorated with edible gold I
love the dish very much despite its
simplicity in fact it was just a
doughnut with sour cream but it was a
well-made doughnut with sour cream that
is why I liked it so much and for the
wine pairing I really had some doubts
here the restaurant s pairs it with pu F
100% Savon Blan from thear Valley France
I absolutely love wines from the L
Valley I know that probably the top
burgundy and bordo deliver more on the
palette but I cannot help myself I just
love wines from the L Valley and they
know normally have a very good price
ratio value also but to pair smok sour
cream and rather fatty dut with subtle
greenish Savon Blanc I’m not sure if he
had changed the first and the third
pairings if he had paired donut with
Australian chard and C with tartlet with
the L Valley samum Blanc I wouldn’t have
any questions but he decided to do it
the other way which to me seems a bit
strange probably he thought that pu f f
in French means smoked would pair well
with smoked sour cream I’m not sure but
he could why not of course not for May
the the wine makers from the L Valley
call The Grapes smoked F because of the
grape Bloom which covers the grapes and
it has a color similar to smoke this
great Bloom but yeah t Blanc with donuts
it was quite unconventional to me by the
way if you love wine as much as I do
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description down below and the four and
the fourth pairing was the biggest
hiccup of the evening to me the course
was a rather ambiguous raspberry tartar
in a caramelized sphere quite a bright
move don’t you think so but the bearing
what what was it any suggestions P Noir
from the L Valley uhuh I I I don’t know
I I have wines from the L Valley but a
subtle fruity Pino with a tartar
basically raw beef that was very
unconventional and if for the first dish
it was a bulky big wine for a subtle
dish this time it was vice versa tender
fruity wine for a full weight appetizer
which severely needed some more full
bodied wine again I don’t know maybe
theia decided that raspberry IND the
should P well with the raspberry hints
in Pinon Noir but yeah I would
personally do it with some light
Cabernet Sav Cabernet Fran for tartar
yeah Cabernet Fran from thear valy it’s
a nice pairing if he do L valy as much
as I do but P Noir for me was not the
best move and frankly I barely managed
to finish the dish with such a faulty
pairing the fifth course was tender
ravioli with scallop in creamy sauce I
swear to God I almost expected him to
bring me some cherry wine for it to to
destroy completely the whole dinner but
he decided to have mercy on me this time
it was once again rashki Winery
Australian wine but from rling this time
it was not bad actually this rling to me
had some naughty tertiary hints probably
not very common for Australian reings
which normally are more on patrol gas
station side but on the whole the
pairing was successful next we went for
an apple Graton with fuagra on top with
some seach Thorn cavar as a decoration
the dish itself was rather grassy yet
acidic and in this case wine was P
impeccably to my taste it was gabgab
100% Cortez grape from pamon Italy I’m
not a huge fan of Gabby actually but if
there is a great paing for this wine
it’s a dish like this one acidic yet
grassy containing fruits which add
freshness but with fuagra to add some
structure to the course and gav deave
for me was almost the excellent pairing
for this one and if you love the video
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a lot thank you coming up next was some
fried palenta with crab meat and peino
cheese sauce very intense dish full of
umami flavors very salty especially to
me because I try to cut down salt and
spices to take care of the taste bumps
for them to be ready to taste wine but
yeah it was a big dish not that there
were a lot of food on the plate but it
was definitely full of flavor and guess
what was the pairing California Zin
fundel even though I would not name it
Zin fundel it was Zin clearly Zin and
not a very high quality one on top of
everything Zin fundel Most Wanted it is
very popular almost like bareo or Yellow
Tail wine probably a bit less popular
than these two but definitely it is not
the level of wine we want to see in a
fine dining place it is not completely
cheap the price is also around the same
to $20 per bottle but the quality of
this wine is way less compared to the
Australian chard for instance the grapes
for this wine are harvested no one knows
where the grapes are harvested some
people even say that they import
Primitivo grapes from Italy and then it
becomes Zin fondel in the US yeah it is
the same grape just different names but
yeah to me it is just a lowquality wine
a lot of residual sugar which is not
appropriate for for this course I
believe I don’t even want to discuss the
paing itself because I think it is not
the wine that should be served in fine
dining you can say that I’m too strict
but I just want to be totally
transparent with you I paid for the meal
myself I have no obligations I just
share what I feel about the meal and
about the wine parents the next course
was actually better and beta pet with
wine to me it was the best pairing
probably of all of the course because it
was a breast with fermented applesauce
with dog keti that is the classics
kianti passs extremely well with fatty
dishes like this one the only thing I
would improve if I had to is to elevate
a little bit the quality of this kti
wine because this one actually was not
very expensive and it was not probably
the best guanti ever created in Italy
but I think I’m being too strict now
probably for more pricey pairings they
have something more sophisticated but
this candy was also okay it was a good
pairing the ninth course decreased the
intensity of the flavors a bit it was
some illusion to the traditional English
fish and chips some potato chips with h
but cooked with extremely low
temperature only 45° C which even for
Dish is quite unusual the pairing was
mus seen 100% muscade grapes I don’t
know what to say here mad is bearing for
oysters fresh just from the ocean is not
aaring for fish and chips the only
excuse could be that this mad was made
Surly which means some maturation on the
Leist which contributed some structure
and some complexity to the wine to cope
with this grassy potato chips but
definitely it was not a classic one and
quite a risky one I’d say and also not
the one I’d love to recommend to my
customers and then for the desserts the
first one was fermented white mushroom
with chocolate topping unfortunately I
forgot to shoot a video of this one the
wine pairing was some sweet German
rasling which was totally fine no
complaints and the last course was mango
Mose with coconut foam the chef said it
was aimed to clean our taste bumps
refresh them and prepare for some
digestive the pairing was Hungarian toai
wine may I finish the review right now
like light coconut foam almost without
any notable sugar and Bam huge lashes
toai wine overwhelming the palette with
some apricot and Jammy notes I think
there was a huge misunderstanding
between the chef and the SM this evening
Wine and Food didn’t complement each
other but tried to compete sometimes
wine was way heavier than the course
sometimes it was vice versa but I’m
definitely not a fan of such an approach
I think that wine should just compliment
the food be a part of the meal helping
to uncut all the nuances of flavors in
food
but that is only my wine pairing
philosophy I don’t insist on anything in
particular I just say that I would
probably do it a bit differently see you
in the next video bye