After 16 days on the west coast it was time to fly home, write articles and rest a few days while researching Cava producers for our next long trip. I always like to try the wine on mid-day and evening flights. Fortunately, Delta likes to change things and I seldom get the same wine unless i’m on two flights on the same day. We had lunch on the first leg of our flights home from Portland. Both Kathy and I selected a salmon salad with a white wine. The wine was an Elmgrove Estates 2012 Chardonnay. The yellow colored wine had 13% alcohol. The wine reminded me of pears with a hint of citrus and caramel. The full-bodied Chardonnay had a refreshing finish.

The salmon salad had a small piece of salmon (over cooked), green beans, potato pieces, hard boil egg pieces, red onions, olives and greens. The crisp acidity of the wine paired well with the salad as well as the cheese that was a side for the lunch. The cheddar and brie also paired well with the Chardonnay.

On our last leg home, the flight was delayed because we did not have a flight crew. They were delayed in another city. We kept watching the status monitor and our 20 minute delay turned into 25 minutes then proceeded to about 45 minutes. Actually this is good timing. The last time I flew this route the delay for the Baltimore flight was five hours. I need some wine.

Since I had white wine for lunch I decided to go with red wine for dinner. Delta was serving a 2011 Rindleway Zinfandel. The translucent dark red wine was 13.8%alcohol. The wine offered blackberry, black cherry, spices and leather. For dinner I had a southwest chicken salad. The cilantro in the salad added spice and earthiness to the dish. The spice from the wine was more of a baking spice like cloves and cinnamon. If I were serving just the salad I would have gone with a white wine. There was a maple oatmeal cookie for dessert. The Zinfandel matched well with the cookie since the spices were similar.

Cheers,
Terry