Wine Dinner!

 

The gang makes dinner! This week my girlfriend, Sydney and good friend JT (both who are taking the course) made a rib dinner to pair with some wines! This was a great time and being able to make some yummy food and drink good wine was an absolute blast!! 

Wine 1 

Name: Lapis Luna

Varietal: 100% Sauvignon Blanc

Vintage: 2021

Price: $14

Region: North Coast, CA

Label Description: Tropical fruits, white peach, and ripe pineapple perfume the nose. Juicy acidity, refreshing, with crisp citrus and stone fruit flavors finishing with delicious length. 

Notes on wine alone: I thought the sav blanc had a nice aroma with notes of pear, apple, and a sense of crispiness. For the tasting notes I found it to be warm, dry, and quite acidic. The acidity really came through but I was also able to pick up on the fruity flavors.  

Wine 2

Name: Chloe 

Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon 

Vintage: 2018

Price: $13

Region: Montery, CA

Label Description: Our Chloe Cabernet Sauvignon is a bold, sophisticated wine with luscious flavors of black cherry, ripe plum and dark chocolate, followed by delicate notes of roasted coffee and cinnamon bark. This well-balanced wine has a full-bodied mouthfeel and sturdy tannic structure that leads to a long, lingering finish.

Notes on wine alone: This big red had some strong berry aromas and I found notes of cherry when sniffing. For the tasting I found notes of blackberry along with the cherry flavors. It was very warm but really was not as heavy as I thought this cab sav would be. 

Wine 3

Name: Willm Alsace Crémant

Varietal: 100% Pinot Noir 

Vintage: NV

Price: $18

Region: Crémant d'Alsace 

Label Description: An Alsace Crémant that presents a lovely golden color, delicate bubbles and a nose of apples and fresh grapes. Long and fresh, the finish provides a rare feeling of elegance and harmony.

Notes on wine alone: I found that the wine had a fruity aroma with some notes of citrus. I was nice and light with a good fizz on the tongue. It was quite dry but was refreshing. 

Course 1

We started our dinner with a toasted pecan and almond spring mix with apples salad. The dressing was a thyme apple vinaigrette. 

It was not my favorite out of all of the courses but it was a nice appetizer for what was to come!

Course 2

Our main course were pork ribs! I will only describe the ribs when pairing with the wine but we also had baked potatoes as a side. 

The ribs were quite yummy and were cooked in an unconventional way. We were starting dinner at a later time so I did not want to cook them for 3+ hours so instead I chose to air fry the ribs!! I know some rib smoking experts would want my head on a stake but I thought they turned out alright!

Course 3

For our dessert course we had mini brownie muffin bites along with vanilla ice cream. 

It was quite delicious and a perfect treat to finish off the dinner meal!!

We heated up the little brownies which was a great decision!

Wine 1 with Course 1

The salad paired well with the sauvignon blanc and I thought that by pairing it with the salad the wine tasted better. The acidity of the wine was cut back from the salad, especially when eating the pecans and almonds from the salad. The dressing became a bit more creamy when tried with the wine, which I thought improved the taste. From the pecans specifically I was able to get more of the fruity flavors out of the wine than from tasting it alone. Overall this pairing went really well and made me enjoy the salad more!

Wine 2 with Course 2 

When going into this I thought that the ribs needed to be complemented with something that was also heavy and rich, which is why we went with the cabernet sauvignon. The ribs and wine honestly did not have as much of an interaction than I thought they would. I do not think that the wine was able to fulling cut through the heaviness of the ribs, however, I think the ribs did accentuate the tannins found in the wine. It was a 2018 vintage so it may have lost some of its young loudness, but the tannins were still very much there during the entire tasting. 

Wine 3 with Course 3

For our final pairing we went with some bubbly! We were at the Vintage Cellar trying to think of what we want for our dessert wine and came up with this interesting Crémant. When with the ice cream I found the bubbles in the wine to become more noticeable and prominent on the tongue. The wine really did not impact the taste of the ice cream or brownies but the dessert definitely had an impact on the wine. I thought that the brownie specifically kind of mellowed the notes of the wine a bit and made it a little harder to tell what the notes were. I thought the two paired pretty well but perhaps a dark port wine could impact the taste of the ice cream/brownies. 

This was an absolute blast and I can't wait to do another wine-dinner pairing in the future!!