Wine Dinner Report - Potluck Dinner Party
The gang's all back together in Blacksburg.
For my our first Wine Dinner, my friends and I decided to have a potluck-style three-course meal. Since we would be hanging out together anyway, we thought a group dinner would be a great excuse to sample some food and wine pairings. Three people made a dish and the other three brought a bottle of wine to pair with the dishes. It was the first time all of us had been together since before Winter Break, so we really enjoyed catching up.
1st Course - Bruschetta with Manina Sauvignon Blanc
For our first pairing, we enjoyed an appetizer of bruschetta. My friend Jake toasted a baguette in the oven and topped it with fresh mozzarella. He then added chopped tomatoes and basil marinated in balsamic vinaigrette. The salty mozzarella went well with the fresh, aromatic basil and acidic tomatoes. The dark and sweet flavor of the balsamic glaze rounded out the flavors and gave this dish a harmonious finish.
Manina Sauvignon Blanc
The wine chosen to pair with this dish was a 2018 Manina Sauvignon Blanc. It was a Chilean wine from the Valle Central region and was about $13. The wine was lovely. It had a light sweet scent in the glass and was a beautiful medium yellow hue. It had a fresh and bright opening that was pleasant on the palate. The flavor was sweet and light with hints of lemon. This light white wine paired well with the strong flavors in the bruschetta. The saltiness of the mozzarella also balanced well with the wine's subtle sweetness. The bright quality of the wine went well with the herbal notes of the aromatic basil.
2nd Course - Baked Brie with Caramelized Onions and Red Diamond Merlot
Our second course was a baked brie with caramelized onions enveloped in puff pastry and baked to a gorgeous golden brown. The fatty, buttery brie was incredible and the sweetness of the caramelized onions brought out the subtle nuttiness in the cheese. The delicate puff pastry held together the melty brie beautifully and provided structure to the melty dish. This dish was amazing, albeit a bit messy to cut and eat. It was a crowd favorite and disappeared from the plate quickly.
Red Diamond Merlot
We paired our second course with a 2014 Red Diamond Merlot from Paterson, Washington. It was purchased for about $11. I have never tasted a wine grown in the Pacific Northwest, so I was excited to see what kind of terroir this region would express in the wine. This merlot provided a full, red, and fruity scent when I performed the initial sniff and swirl and was a deep ruby red color. I found this Merlot to be quite enjoyable. It had notes of red fruit and cassis and was subtly dry without being too offensive or deeply tannic. The wine was easy on the palate and possessed a smooth finish that was quite enjoyable. The subtly sweet flavor of the Merlot complemented the sweet buttery notes of the caramelized onions well. The delicious fatty flavor of the brie cut any acidity in the red and made it a great addition to this dish.
Our third and final course consisted of a Red Pepper Bolognaise over Spaghetti. This was the least complicated dish of the three prepared and the most reflective of our broke college student diets. When it comes to pasta, however, with good ingredients complexity is not always necessary. This dish married the sweet flavor of tomato sauce with the subtle spice of red pepper. These flavors were balanced well with the fatty, earthy flavor of ground beef sauteed with garlic. This was a great way to round out the meal.
Pinot Evil Pinot Noir
Our final wine of the evening was a non-vintage Pinot Noir from Pinot Evil. This Pinot Noir was also from Chile, like the Sauvignon Blanc from the first course, and was a great value at $8. This red had a sharper scent than the Merlot and I definitely noticed the difference between the two. This Pinot was a sweet and relatively light-bodied red with notes of strawberry jam. Its sweetness was balanced well with a light acidity that gave the wine an easy smoothness. The sweeter taste of the tomato sauce, however, made the less sweet wine taste more tannic in comparison. The garlicky, meaty flavors also seemed to bring out the deeper, more tannic notes of the wine. The outcome of this pairing was a bit unexpected. The dish definitely changed the flavor of the wine in a way that at first surprised me, but as I continued to drink and eat I found I enjoyed the new qualities brought out in the wine.
Overall, I really enjoyed this experience. Seeing how the different wines paired with the dishes was a very cool exercise. I learned that I really do not know the complexities that define which wines pair best with which food. For some reason, I think I have created an association between wine and food based on color, ie. lighter foods like fish and poultry go well with whites and darker foods like tomato sauces and red meat go well with reds. I will have to do more research to see if this association is necessarily true, but I have a feeling it is more nuanced than that.
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