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Is a Chateau Ste Michelle 1998 wine good with chicken?

Quick! I'm trying to prepare a nice dinner for my boyfriend tonight & I've got a bottle of Chateau Ste Michelle 1998 Columbia Valley Merlot wine on hand. Will it go well with a creamy baked chicken & rice dish? I know most say that white wine goes well with chicken but I want to explore other options before having to go shopping. Thanks for your answers.

Public Comments

  1. the merlot will seriously overpower the delicate flavor of the chicken entree. seriously go for a white. Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, even Gewurztraminer.
  2. I will make you a wine expert. Hang on now, here it is. Select a color then go down the aisle looking at that color for the highest alcohol content at the lowest price. I guarantee everyone will think it is great. The reason is simple, only the best grapes will produce high(12 percent and above) wine. Do not let the ego trippers trip you up. It is one of the biggest cons in the world. Be clever and decant the wine ito a carafe before serving and do not let anyone see the bottle. If you serve a cocktail before dinner, there is not a person who can tell the taste of one wine over another.
  3. No, get a white wine. Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, or Gewurztraminer would be good. But you should probably find a use for that Merlot soon. Most Merlots don't age that well, and this one may already be too old to drink.
  4. Easy rules for wine: Chicken, turkey, fish and other white meats go with white wine. Red meat, red pastas, red sauces, go with Red wine. These are good rules but you can bend them. A basic chicken may be okay with a red, BUT, since you are doing the creamy chicken I would highly stay away from red. My boyfriends favorite food is chicken with cream of mushroom soup, so I make this a lot and we pair it with a Sauvignon Blanc or a Riesling (personal preference). Any white can probably be fine though. Overall, he is going to appreciate your dinner and probably wont know the difference if you have red or white, but if you really want to do it "right" then I would go for the white with the creamy chicken. Good luck!
  5. The key thing here is not whether it's chicken, fish or steak but that you're using a creamy sauce. Typically, it's best to match the wine to the sauce as that's the dominant flavour, particularly with chicken. For that reason a nice white such as, depending on your budget, a good white Burgundy, a good oaked chardonnay, a gruner veltliner, a mid-weight pinot grigio or a really good pinot gris, an albarino, a semillon - oaked or not, or a chenin blanc. Perhaps too many choice but CSM make some pretty good whites, as I recall. Dermot Nolan MW http://www.dermotnolan.ie
  6. I love Merlot with Chicken. I don't know how heavy or light your sauce is. If it is a light sauce, perhaps a white would be better. If it is a hearty sauce, I would think the Merlot would be fine. .
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