What wines pair with marron? Join us cooking and pairing in the vineyard.
An easy recipe I learnt from Mum.
Ingredients: All you need is butter, salt and pepper and a good pan, and of course fresh marron! And I thought where better to prepare this dish than in the vineyard. It was pouring that scheduled morning, so I nipped into Bunnings and got a gazebo!
Method: Put a knob of butter into the pan, then add seasoned half cut marron facing down onto the melted butter and let it sear and do its thing. Turn over once you have browning on the white flesh and red heady parts. Once the shell has turned red, then they are cooked and ready.
Wine and Marron Tasting: The wine line up was a young and old SBS/ SSB blend and Chardonnay and a couple of reds to explore the pairings. You can see how the age of a wine – can completely change what it pairs well with. Here are highlights from the tasting.
2019 Sauvignon Blanc Semillon - the wine is youthful and lighter so the wine was a little lighter than the buttered marron but the pairing was fine. A pass. I would expect the wine would go better with steamed marron with less or no butter.
2019 Chardonnay - lovely and harmonious. Weights identical. We were wowed. Yummy perfect!
2005 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc - amazing pairing! The richness from the aged blend shone through and the evident but pleasant acidity worked well with the richness from the butter.
2006 Chardonnay - the wine is stunning and luscious but over powered the marron. Would need the marron to be more jazzed up to pair well. But in wanting the marron to be showing at their own flavour best, best not pair with this wine but instead a younger vintage like the 2019. The wine challenged the marron!
2019 Shiraz - the spices from the wine were too much for the seared marron. This isn't a surprise, just wanted to check it out. The floral, fragrant, spicy characteristics outweighed the marron. Would need more spices and dressing for the marron :) like
2019 MacAnn Cabernets (Bordeaux Blend) - the wine overpowered the white flesh part of the body. But with the creamy heady red part, the pairing was heavenly. Colin had not tried the red heady part till then and absolutely loved it. Highly recommend if you haven't tried it before.
Below is the video of Vineyard Guru Colin and I marron-ing and tasting through the pairings at the vineyard.
Fancy trying the cookout inspired 6 pack to discover the pairings at home? You can find it here (enter link).
Please see my guide to pairing incase you need some ideas or tips. Cheers Charmaine