Wine Dinner Blog 2
For this wine dinner, I invited my friends Noah and Emily to join. Neither of them are taking this class, but I definitely wasn't about to make 3 courses by myself, so I told them each to bring a dish. The 3 courses were as follows:
To start we had freshly warmed pita with salt, olive oil and hummus, brought by Noah.
Next
we had the main course, a homemade crispy garlic gnocchi with cherry tomatoes, made by yours truly.
Lastly, dessert: an assortment of chocolate and vanilla chocolate chip muffins, homemade by Emily.
Obviously
we weren't going for any particular theme, so the wines are just about as random as the dishes. We had a Bay Bridge Peach Moscato, Sutter Home White Zinfandel and a concord grape Manischewitz Jewish wine.
To start I will be talking about the Peach Moscato.
My review by itself:
Peachy on the nose. Acidic and peachy with a slight aftertaste of mandarins, slightly sweet with a light body. No tannic component or astringency.
Review of the wine with the foods:
Doesn’t enhance or detract from the pita or vice versa, the sweetness pulls through even though the bread absorbs most of the wine.
The gnocchi doesn’t pair well at all, the sweetness of the wine clashes with the spicy and savory of the gnocchi sauce and makes it seem more acidic than it actually is.
The sweetness and peachiness of the wine pairs really well with the chocolatiness of the muffin, wonderful pairing and almost makes the wine feel like it has a more full body.
Winner: Muffins
Loser: Gnocchi
Second I will be talking about the White Zinfandel.
My review by itself:
Orangey nose with a bit of peach. Slightly sweet and barely acidic, medium body with a taste of strawberry, peach and watermelon. No tannic or astringent component despite being a rose. Light body.
Review of the wine with the foods:
Not great with the pita and hummus, the bread absorbs the wine and takes away the sweetness which makes the wine enjoyable.
Terrible pairing with the gnocchi, took away all of the sweetness of the wine and left all of the acidity and alcohol aftertaste while distracting from the slight spiciness of the gnocchi sauce.
Better together with the muffins than the other combinations, the sweetness of the wine and the muffin work well together and enhances the chocolate and strawberry flavors.
Winner: Muffins
Loser: Gnocchi
Thirdly I will be discussing the Manischewitz.
My review by itself:
Concord grape on the nose, smells just like regular grape juice. Tastes sweet and not acidic or tannic, with an overwhelming taste of regular ol' grape juice and blackberries, with a blueberry aftertaste.
Review of the wine with the foods:
The pita and hummus enhances the sweetness of this wine, leaves a pleasant aftertaste despite the wine being absorbed in the bread.
The sweetness of the wine clashes with the slightly spicy gnocchi and leaves a strong unpleasant astringent aftertaste, which this wine does not exhibit nearly at all when on its own.
The sweetness of the wine and the muffin enhance each other well and the fruity taste of the wine matches the chocolatiness of the muffin perfectly.
Winner: Muffins
Loser: Gnocchi
This dinner went way better for me than the first one. I really overthought the first dinner, tried to stick with a theme and bought wines that I didn't have any expectation of liking. This time around, I let my friends bring whatever they wanted, made a dish that I myself love for the main course (even though it was the loser 3x over due to not pairing with the wine well) and had a great time hanging with people that I love. I learned that sometimes, the wines that you expect to like with certain things end up not pairing well at all, and muffins that were *accidentally* made without eggs might just come out on top.
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