Delicious Bird Awaits

We've been invited by our friend Mahtab to partake in a holiday dinner in north Phoenix.   I'm salivating at the description of the turkey that Mahtab said in email:  "The bird is stuffed with raisins in white wine, mango, almond, sour dough bread, onion and saffron and the sauce is with white wine, saffron and curry."

Major Yum!  We've had Mahtab's cooking before, and it's always been a delicious, exotic blend of German, Persian, and other European and middle eastern influences.   I'm bringing the wine.  There will be white wine pairings - Bordeaux Entre deux Mers - as well as a Loire Valley Chinon.  And while reds don't typically go with poultry, the Loire Chinon and, Saumur as well as the white Sancerre compliment poultry very well. 

Both Chinon and Saumur are very mild, non-aggressive wines that I like to use to "introduce" to people who do not typically like red wine.  I've never had anyone outright reject a Chinon or Saumur - maybe they were just being nice, and didn't want to disappoint me.

The Domaine De La Semellerie Chinon, 2006, is an Alfio Moriconi Total Wine selection.  Moriconi has good taste in wine, and he's Total Wine's European wine buyer.  I've not had a bad bottle yet (and that's many dozens of bottles, from a wide variety of regions) that has borne his label.  We enjoyed this bottle (pictured above) last weekend with a meal of crab stuffed chicken breast that Dr Desert Flower felt compelled to prepare for our son's visit.  It paired nicely, and didn't last through the desert =)  I picked up another one of these yesterday at Total Wine yesterday, and it will be enjoyed tonight, along with the savory bird.