Bottle Bracket - June and July - Pinot Noir

I'm very excited to be collaborating with the team over at Bottle Bracket on pairings for their monthly wine shipments.  If you're not familiar with Bottle Bracket, here's a description of what they're all about:

Bottle Bracket is an interactive wine club centered around a wine tasting game, where members taste wines with friends and rank them by price in a tournament-like competition. The catch? The labels are covered.

Every other month we'll ship you four bottles of wine varying in price. We focus on finding small wineries with great quality wines and interesting stories, so you’ll only receive wine locally sourced directly from wineries we’ve visited and from winemakers we’ve met and loved.

While wines in Bottle Bracket are ordered based on perceptions of price, the true goal of Bottle Bracket is to discover new wines from various regions and varietals at different price points while having fun with friends.

I will be coming up with one recipe and one cheese recommendation that I find balances or enhances all four wines. Since the game is meant for multiple players to try all the wines, I will scale the recipes to 6-8 servings.  Here is my philosophy on pairings.
 
Pinot Noirs

This month features Pinot Noirs from Northern California.  Unlike their Pacific Northwest neighbors, NorCal Pinots tend to be bigger, bolder and thus, pair better with stronger flavored dishes.  Just in time for cherry season, this recipe features Bing cherries which should be readily available at your local market.  


My recipes are meant to be guidelines. Feel free to try different amounts and types of aromatics (i.e. shallots, ginger, fresh herbs) as these wines should hold up just fine.  

Wine Varietal: Pinot Noir
Cheese Pairing: Herbed Chèvre (Goat Cheese)
Recipe: Pork Tenderloin with Bing Cherry Pinot Noir Compote 

Hope you enjoy!

-ChefBarrs