Dinner and Food Pairing #2

I did my second and most fanciest wine dinner blog with my girlfriend and her family. We used her dad as the cook and helped him prepare the three foods with the wine. For this wine dinner, we bought one wine from a wine store, and we drank two of her dad's wine from old family gifts. These wines were supposedly expensive and have been aging for several years. Upon looking the wines up, they were actually waaay lower price than I thought - which is a good thing, because I enjoyed them a lot. We made sure to choose wines that would go along well with the foods that we were going to make. This time, we took a decent amount of photos. Pictured below: Me & my girlfriend's family!

The first food that we made was a wonderful Salmon Ceviche. My girlfriend and I went out to the grocery store to buy the necessary ingredients, including the salmon.  Then, we brought it back to the home and prepared it with her dad. Here is the finished product: 

We had the salmon ceviche along with some tostada shells. Most importantly, it was paired with the Williamsburg Winery 2017 Governor's White American Riesling. My girlfriend and I love Rieslings, as we had some in our last dinner blog, and it was the best wine that we ever tasted. This Riesling was also amazing. Riesling are generally best prepared with raw fish and foods with "green" flavors. I think the Salmon Ceviche paired with the Riesling is pretty much the ideal combo. They did not overpower each other, and complemented each other very well. The Riesling was crisp but also semi-dry. It was weird to me that the Riesling was semi-dry because I associate Rieslings with sweet wines. However, this was probably the best semi-dry wine that I've tasted because of its fruitiness and refreshing qualities. I detected peaches and apples, and it was quite acidic, which I love about Rieslings. It is definitely my favorite grape variety. The Salmon Seviche was cut into bite sized chunks and had a lot lime, cilantro and other vegetables. Overall, an amazing combo that I would definitely love to try again. Pictured below: Me with the Riesling.

For the second pairing, we had a Santa Julia (made with organic grapes) Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 from Mendoza, Argentina. We paired it with Pork Tenderloin, which her dad is an expert at creating. Cabernet Sauvignon pairs best with nearly all red meats - making pork tenderloin an excellent candidate to select for the wine dinner pairing. The Cabernet Sauvignon had a quite tough dark berry flavor, and was quite acidic. It's medium-bodied and smooth to drink. It paired excellently with the pork tenderloin, with the Cabernet being slightly overpowering, but mostly complementary. This is probably the best Cabernet Sauvignon that I've had. I tend not to like this grape variety, but this was a good Cabernet. The pork tenderloin was very juicy, soft, and had a great seasoning.

We enjoyed it along with oven-roasted broccoli with seasoning. We also decanted the wine before enjoying it.

For our third pairing, we had Jim Olsen Angel's Delight Dessert Wine 2014. We paired it with a dessert. Specifically, brownies and cookie dough ice cream.

The dessert wine tasted almost exactly the same to the port wine that I tried in my last dinner blog. Sweet, intense, rich and full-bodied. This wine pairs well with equally intensely sweet desserts, for sure. It has the ability to complement with these sweets that are also sweet and intense. It basically combines and balances everything by having a lot of big qualities, such as big sweetness, richness, high alcohol, full-bodied. Overall, this was a highly successful wine dinner with excellent quality pairings. 

Tasting - Riunite Lambrusco

Name: Riunite Lambrusco
Variety: Fruit Blends
Country of Origin: Italy
Region of Origin: Province of Mantua
Vintage Year: N/A
Price: $6
Winery Review: Soft, breezy and eminently quaffable, with a light, natural frizzante.

Wine Folly: It's a red wine, so according to page 25 of Wine Folly, that means it will be likely to have a higher acidity. It's a It's a sparkling wine, so it will last 1-3 days in the fridge with a sparkling wine stopper according to page 42 on Wine Folly.

My Review: Probably the best wine I've tasted at this price point. The Riunite Lambrusco doesn't try to be anything. It's just a light and natural taste that allows the wine to be sweet and velvety. It's sparkling aspect adds another dimension to it. It tastes of berries and is your typical fresh, fruity wine with nothing special to it - and that makes it great.

Tasting - VieVite Rosé

Name: VieVite
Variety: Rosé blend
Country of Origin: France
Region of Origin: Provence
Vintage Year: 2018
Price: $19
Winery Review: With a beautiful translucent pink hue, VieVité exudes the colors of a true Côtes de Provence rose wine. On the nose, an expression of ripe tropical fruit is balanced with a pleasant bouquet of white flowers and a discreet touch of spice. On the palate, well-structured fruit and balanced acidity creates a crisp and delicate finish.

Blend: 30% Cinsault, 30% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 10% Carignan (Average age of the vines is 25 years old)

Wine Folly: In page 48 of Wine Folly, it speaks a little about Rosé wines. The Rosé wine was probably created through maceration. For this, the red grape skins were left in the juice for a short time (about 4-12) hours. The wine is a blend, which according to wine folly, means that it is made by blending several different varietal wines together.
My Review: (I forgot to include a picture of my face with the wine.) Although this wine was supposed to have a pink hue, it seemed to be more orange to me. At least for this wine bottle specifically. The wine was fruity and quite light bodied. It smelled of flowers and was refreshing. Tasted of red fruits, and had a juicy acidity. Definitely a fan of the wine, my dad bought it for me from Costco.

Tasting - Beringer Main and Vine Rose Sangria

Name: Beringer Main and Vine Rose Sangria
Variety: Sangria
Country of Origin: United States
Region of Origin: California
Vintage Year: 2018
Price: $6

Winery Review: Rose wine with fresh and fruity flavors. Notes of melon and berry in a slightly sweet rose wine. Perfectly paired with fresh fruit and great friends!

Wine Folly: Once again, there is no dedicated section for Sangria in Wine Folly. However, this is a highly sweet wine, which means that there is 72+ calories per serving, according to Wine Folly, noted in page 16. This is the calories per 5 oz. or 150 ml. serving. Color intensity is that of a rose, which simply means that the wine was macerated in grape skins for a certain amount of time, according to page 25 in Wine Folly. This wine is also a bit on the acidic side, which contributes to a lighter body, according to page 20 in Wine Folly.
My Review: This was a TERRIBLE wine. It tasted like cough syrup, and I'm not exaggerating. By far the worst wine I have tasted, and luckily it was only $6. It was a very light bodied wine with fruity flavors. I detected melon and berries, but it mainly just reminded me of cough syrup. The wine's flavor hit first, and then a wave from the alcohol afterwards - the finish lasted for a while, longer than you would expect from a light bodied wine.. It is a unique wine, but definitely one that I would not want to try again. It was see through red - just like a rose.

Tasting - Beringer Main & Vine White Sangria

Name: Beringer Main & Vine White Sangria

Variety: Sangria

Country of Origin: United States

Region of Origin: California

Vintage Year: 2018

Price: $6

Winery Review: White wine with fresh and fruity flavors. Tropical fruit flavors perfect for any season!

Wine Folly: There is no dedicated section for White Sangria on Wine Folly. However, this was a very sweet wine, which translates to higher calories per serving than average wine (72+), this information can be found on page 16. On page 14, there is information about wine body, and White Sangria was a white wine, which means that it doesn't have those tannins. 

My Review: This was the better of the two of the Beringer Wines that we selected. This was actually decent for the $6 price tag. There was nothing too special about it. It was very sweet, and tasted of many fruits, like pineapple and oranges. It was very light bodied, and fresh. The taste was basically just fruity flavors and then the alcohol as well. Fruity, light, and refreshing. There's not much else to say about this wine.

Tasting - Rosemount Estate

Name: Rosemount Estate Diamond Label
Variety: Shiraz
Country of Origin: Australia
Region of Origin: South Australia
Vintage Year: 2018
Price: $9

Winery Review: This Shiraz is full-bodied, well-defined and juicy-sweet with blackberry, plum and cherry flavours complemented by the subtle richness of oak.
The 2013 Diamond Label Shiraz was recently awarded Double Gold at the 2014 San Francisco International Wine Show and the Gold Medal at the 2014 Royal Queensland Wine Show.

Wine Folly: I can find information about Shiraz on page 172 of Wine Folly. Shiraz is an alternative name to Syrah. Syrah is a "rich, powerful, and sometimes meaty red wine that originated in the Rhone valley of France. It's the most planted grape of Australia, where it's called Shiraz." Just like what Wine Folly said, this wine is from Australia and called Shiraz. It is big bodied, very dry, decent tannins, acidity, and alcohol.
My Review: It's a quite cheap wine, so I thought I would pick it up. As soon as I smelled it, it had a strong jam scent. Tasted of dark berries, and stays in the mouth for a while. It's on the dry side, but I've tasted drier wines. Very bold and big bodied, with medium tannins and acids.

Drink This Now: Lesson 1

Drink This Now! Lesson 1.
I used a port wine that I had - R.L. Buller & Son NV Tawny Port (Victoria). I know it isn't one of the wines listed in the book, but I have spent a lot of money recently, so I was hesitant to go out and buy another wine when I had a new one right here. This wine is a dark red, and it was see-through. I used the cheese from the wine and cheese pairings, and for the meat replacement, I used the food I got from the 7-11 mix and match 5 for $4 deal.

The first step is to open the bottle and try immediately & make observations. Here are my observations:

Name: R.L Buller & Son
Variety: Port
Country of Origin: Australia
Region of Origin: Victoria
Vintage Year: N/A
Price: $15

Wine Review: "This young tawny, actually garnet in color, is warm and supple. And although this easygoing tawny lacks a bit of complexity, it boasts ample, mouth-filling flavors of black cherry, plum and chocolate."

My Review: One of the bigger body wines I have tried. I would say that it is between medium and full bodied, which makes sense because it's a port wine, with the highest alcohol percentage of any wine I have tried so far, at 18% alcohol content. It is quite sweet, and the alcohol is quite strong. I detect cherries, and it is fruity overall. It has a unique, fruity smell. I would describe it as a fruity, chocolate sharpie smell. While the wine is very sweet, it is rich & intense, which is what I think other port wines would share in common characteristics. It is definitely powerful, and my girlfriend didn't want to finish it. I found it to be enjoyable, but definitely strong.

The second step is to wait two hours for the wine to "open up" and try it once again. After waiting for two hours with the alcohol exposed, it seemed a bit faded, not as strong as I remembered. It was fruitier, and less strength of alcohol. Definitely smoother, with less effects overall, and easier to taste. Still tasted fresh, with good acidity. The wine still shared the same characteristics as my review above, it was just less vigorous.

The third step was to try the wine with cheese. I did this step by starting with eating the cheese, and then sipping the wine, and mixing the flavors while continuously chewing and tasting the flavors. As soon as I started chewing the mozarella balls, my palate was yearning for wine. I wanted a sip, because the cheese was quite tasteless. I tried it with other cheese and it produced a similar result. The cheese makes the wine easier to taste thoroughly, it also made the cheese flavorful. Overall, the wine fulfilled the desire for anything more, it was a satisfying combination.

The fourth step was to try the wine with food. I drank the wine with food from 7-11, specifically a chicken taquito. I did the 5 for $4 mix and match deal to buy a couple hot dogs and taquitos. The Port and the Taquito did not overpower one another. The taquito had individually strong flavors, and so did the port wine. The port wine along with the taquito made my mouth water, but then dry up at the end. Overall, the wine made the taquito sweeter, but the taquitos saltiness was also quite apparent. I could only taste the majority of one or the other at certain points.

The fifth step was to let it sit for several more hours without the cap on the bottle. I left the wine out overnight, and then some. I tasted it and my immediate reaction was that it tasted worse. While it had a smoother mouth feel, it tasted stronger in a different way. If I had to explain it, it would be like drinking apple cider vinegar, but not that extreme.