Six Bottles for September, and a Perfect Pairing

As I built this month’s wine recommendation newsletter, I wanted to give myself a challenge: build a dish that would work with all six of them. I popped into the PA Wine & Spirits Store closest to the Wine School for the bottles, and then rolled over to Trader Joe’s.

A few of our wine club members happened to be at the school at the time, and so I whipped up an impromptu dinner of roast pork loin. The trick to making this work is roasting mushrooms (I want to call them caramelized, but it’s really a Maillard reaction) and introducing the sweetly Tuscan flavor of sage.

As always, I found the six wines currently in the PA stores that are both great wines and great values. A personal favorite is the Cabernet Franc, but that is largely due to my love of how New York winemakers are adapting to whole cluster ferments for texture and moderating green pepper notes in this variety.

The Wines

Les Vignerons de la Calade 2023 “Maximilien Vieilles Vignes” Rhône Blend, Côtes du Rhône
PA: $10.99 · National: ~$19

Juicy blackberry and blackcurrant, with licorice, mushroom and lavender; bright acidity keeps it fresh. Old-vine fruit at a price that shouldn’t be possible. I’d buy this by the case.

Illuminati 2022 “Ilico” Montepulciano, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo
PA: $12.99 · National: ~$20

Blackberry, wild blueberry and fig, with potting soil, sage and milk chocolate; dusty tannins and a peppery finish. Those tannins want food. Open it with dinner, not before.

Clos Pegase 2022 “Mitsuko’s Vineyard” Chardonnay, Carneros
PA: $13.99 · National: ~$26

Caramel apple, ripe pear and peach, with plenty of toast and spice and a citrusy finish. A serious Carneros Chardonnay at a supermarket price. The twelve-dollar gap between here and everywhere else is the story.

RhonéA 2020 “Trias” Grenache-Syrah, Beaumes-de-Venise
PA: $19.99 · National: ~$20

Mulled cherry and ripe plum with lavender, clove, peppercorn, cigar box and a wisp of smoke. No PA discount, but it’s the most polished wine on the list. Beaumes-de-Venise gets overlooked because of the dessert wine. This is why it shouldn’t be.

Hermann J. Wiemer 2022 Cabernet Franc, Finger Lakes
PA: $26.99 · National: ~$27

Black raspberry and cherry with tobacco, dried herbs, pepper and oil-cured olive; silky, savory and chalky. The priciest bottle here and the one that tastes most like a place. Wiemer has been making the case for Finger Lakes reds for years, and this vintage makes it well.

Vinos de Arganza 2023 “Viña Século” Mencía, Castilla y León
PA: $10.99 · National: ~$20

Ripe blue and purple fruit with an earthy edge and faint floral note; fresh, balanced and easygoing. Mencía is still a bargain grape. Buy it while that lasts.

Roast Pork with Browned Mushrooms and Sage

Pork loin sits right in the middle of things. It has enough savory weight for the Montepulciano and stays mild enough that it won’t flatten the Mencía. The mushrooms and sage give the reds something earthy to grab, and the cream and polenta reach across to the Chardonnay.

Serves 4.

Pork: 2 to 2½ lb boneless loin, tied · 1½ tsp kosher salt · 1 tsp black pepper · 2 Tbsp neutral oil

Mushrooms: 1 lb cremini, or cremini and shiitake, quartered · 2 Tbsp butter · 1 minced shallot · 4 sage leaves, chopped

Sauce: 3 cups unsalted chicken stock · ½ cup dry white wine · 2 Tbsp heavy cream · 1 tsp Dijon · 1 Tbsp cold butter · 2 sage leaves, chopped

Polenta: 1 cup coarse polenta · 4½ cups water · 1½ tsp salt · 3 Tbsp butter · ⅓ cup grated Parmigiano

Garnish: 8 sage leaves · 1 Tbsp butter

Salt the pork 45 to 60 minutes before it goes in the oven. Not longer. Pat it dry, rub it with the salt and pepper, and leave it on a rack on the counter. Past an hour the salt starts pulling more moisture than it puts back, and loin is too lean to survive that.

While it sits, reduce the stock. Hard simmer in a wide pan until you’re down to about ¾ cup, glossy enough to coat a spoon. Takes 30 to 40 minutes. You can do this a day ahead.

Sear the loin in the oil over medium-high until it’s dark on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes. Then into a 325°F oven until the center hits 138°F, usually 35 to 45 minutes. Rest it 10 minutes on a board and it’ll carry up to about 145°F. Searing first instead of blasting the heat at the end gives you the crust without the gray band underneath.

Brown the mushrooms in a separate pan. Dry pan, no fat, until the water they throw off cooks away. Then butter, and keep going until they’re dark and crisp at the edges, almost past the point where you’re comfortable. Crowd them and they steam, and steamed mushrooms taste like wet paper. Two batches if your pan is small. Shallot and chopped sage go in at the end.

Polenta: rain it into boiling salted water, whisk, then drop the heat as low as it goes and stir every few minutes for 40 minutes. Butter and Parmesan off the heat. It should pour, not stand.

For the sauce, pour the fat off the pork pan and deglaze with the white wine, scraping up everything stuck to the bottom. Reduce by half, add the reduced stock and whatever juice collected under the pork, simmer two minutes. Off the heat, whisk in the cream, the Dijon, the sage and the cold butter.

One teaspoon of Dijon. Mustard takes over a plate if you let it, and the moment it does half these wines stop working. Same logic on the cream: two tablespoons, not a cup. A heavy cream sauce mutes tannin and buries acidity, while a reduced stock sauce with just a touch of cream gives the wine something to push against.

Fry the whole sage leaves in butter for 20 seconds and drain them. Polenta in shallow bowls, pork sliced half an inch thick over it, mushrooms alongside, sauce over the top, crisp sage to finish.

Why Each Wine Works

La Calade — The mushroom note already in the wine meets the mushrooms on the plate, and the lavender and licorice run straight into the sage. The most natural fit of the six.

Illuminati — Dusty tannins need protein and fat to resolve, and pork and polenta do exactly that. The sage in the wine mirrors the sage in the pan.

Clos Pegase — Toast and caramel apple against browned pork and buttery polenta. Same textures, same golden flavors. Serve it near 52°F so the acidity stays sharp against the cream.

RhonéA Trias — Peppercorn, clove and smoke want a hard crust. That’s what the sear is for. Don’t shortcut it for this bottle.

Wiemer — Dried herbs, olive and tobacco line up with sage and dark mushrooms, and the acidity cuts the cream before the plate gets heavy.

Viña Século — The lightest wine here, and the reason pork works: mild enough to leave the fruit intact, while the mushrooms pull the earthy edge forward.