Yesterday morning, while I was waiting the coffee from the moka pot, I sleepily started scrolling my Instagram to find out that all my friends’ pics were about yummy Easter meals. I instantly felt hungry and found myself thinking about a decent lunch to celebrate the ‘postponed Songkran’, when I realize that the fridge was almost empty. So I went at the nearby Or Tor Kor Market to buy some fresh fruit, vegetables and some delicious ready to eat meals.

In the evening when hunger kicks in again, I used some of the lunch leftovers to make a nice meaty sauce for the pasta. Inspired from a classic roman recipe, I put some pork leg stew (kha moo) and one Thai sausage in a pan with tomato sauce. The outcome was a tasty, delicate and extremely tender pork meat spiced up by sharp sausage flavors.

For the pairing I choose a Merlot-driven blend from New Zealand which I remembered being complex and intense enough for this Pasta dish.

Craggy Range Te Kahu Gimblett Gravels 2017

This 66% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Cabernet Franc blend shows a powerful structure and vibrant acidity as well as an intense aroma of black fruits and spices that allow to guess a potential very nice development of the wine.

The nose reveals blackberry and dried plum notes at the beginning to open up (please let it breath quite a bit in the glass) eventually in a well balanced medley of mulberry, strawberry, sour cherry, black pepper and tobacco. The first sip confirms this complexity, highlighting mostly sour cherry, spices and toasty notes supported by a vigorous acidity and fine tannins. It evolves in a swing between leather, a strong mulberry jam and spice notes.

Pasta with khao kha moo and thai sausages.

The different cooking methods of the pork and several spices used from the stew and the sausage makes this sauce intense and slightly spicy. The subtle acidity of tomatoes and saltiness of the pasta turn out the wine smoother and richer, bringing out the black fruits which pair very well with the stew pork pieces. The similar intensity level of food and wine produces a pleasant matching experience with many diverse flavors and tastes playing together. There are just random hot sensations when the spicy thai sausages meet the alcohol (that now seems a bit higher) in the glass, but eventually well mitigated by the persistent black fruit jam note.