Do your summer nights right with the delicious Silkbush Viognier from South Africa paired with our recipe for Grilled Lime Chicken and Avocado Caprese Salad!
Tell me more, tell me more...
We're trying something a bit new here today at Reverse Wine Snob, pairing a recommended wine with a delicious meal that you can easily make at home. Let us know on social media if you'd like to see more of this!
First up, let's talk about the wine (sample submitted for review). The Silkbush Viognier is 100% Viognier from Breedekloof, Western Cape, South Africa. The wine does not spend any time in wood and has residual sugar of 3.4 g/L. The SRP is $19 but it is available for as low as $16. Imported by Heritage Link Brands.
From the bottle:
Surrounded by 2000-meter-high mountain peaks, the grapes for this wine are grown between 400 and 700 meter elevations. Nurtured on hilly slopes, shale soils and pure mountain water, these grapes are grown beneath rugged mountain cliffs in the midst of wild fynbos and proteas.
14% Alcohol
The 2016 Silkbush Viognier begins with an inviting aroma full of floral notes, peaches, apricots, citrus and green apple. Tasting the wine shows more of the same delicious flavors, with added tropical fruit and even a hint of banana. It's quite tangy in the mouth with a lively texture and good acidity. It ends crisp and refreshing. It worked great with our Grilled Lime Chicken and Avocado Caprese Salad (see recipe below) but is also quite good on its own. Tasty stuff!
Ready to buy the Silkbush Viognier? Check your local retailers.
And now on to the recipe for Grilled Lime Chicken with Avocado Caprese Salad. First up, you'll want to marinade the chicken for a few hours. We used 4 chicken breast fillets that were quite large, so we halved them to make them thinner and a little easier to grill.
Lime Chicken Marinade:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 - 1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp salt
While the chicken is marinading you can easily put together the ingredients for the dressing. My wife doesn't tend to measure so these are all approximate amounts!
Avocado Caprese Salad Dressing:
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 T. honey
1 tsp basil paste or frozen basil cubes, thawed
1 tsp salt
When the lime chicken is ready, throw it on the preheated grill (my job). I like the low and slow approach, especially with chicken. I use the extra marinade or just plain olive oil to baste the chicken as it is grilling to help keep it tender. While that was cooking my wife prepared the salad.
Avocado Caprese Salad:
5+ oz. lettuce of choice (we used a combination of organic baby lettuce and baby spinach)
2 avocados, sliced
2 cup grape tomatoes, sliced
1 cup mini mozzarella balls
A bunch of fresh basil, sliced
Fill plates with lettuce. Place grilled lime chicken, avocado slices, cherry tomatoes, and mozzarella in quarters on top of the lettuce. Sprinkle basil and 2 T. dressing over the entire salad. Enjoy with your bottle of Silkbush Viognier!
