Last night Don and I hosted a potluck at our house for our wine tasting group. We had a great evening with delicious food and some excellent wine pairings. Of course the company was stellar as always. Don and I were in charge of the main entree. We decided salmon would be a good crowd pleaser and something fun to grill. Since it was for our wine club, I also searched for a recipe that featured wine in the cooking itself. MyRecipes.com features a five star user rated salmon recipe with a Blackberry Cabernet sauce so I started with that as my base recipe. I had a hard time finding blackberries, however, so I ended up picking up a flat of fresh raspberries instead. Then I went to the Co-op with recipe in hand and asked their wine expert for advice on what wine would work best with the recipe. As soon as I said raspberries his eyes lit up and he had the perfect suggestion. They had just gotten in a new 2007 Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley called Second Floor with light body and strong raspberry undertones. The recommendation was spot on and the sauce came out deliciously with many requests for the recipe. Below is a link to the base recipe but feel free as I did to explore with various berry and wine combinations. I still am quite interested to find out what the Blackberry-Cab tastes like and can even imagine a blueberry sauce might be fun to try as well.Grilled Salmon with Blackberry-Cabernet Coulis
