Last weekend, my group of friends
and I decided to get together and share a few bottles of wine with a dinner we
each contributed to. We decided on a menu and paired various wines with each
dish. It was a great evening with friends!
 |
| Peppercorn Brie and Smoked Gouda cheeses |
To start with, we had an appetizer of
cheeses: peppercorn brie and smoked Gouda. Grayson Cellars 2012 California Cabernet Sauvignon was paired with both
of these cheeses to compare the differences. The brie had a delightful, creamy
texture. It was hard on the outside, with flakes of black pepper on the inside.
When I tried the brie with the Cabernet, it was good although it made it taste
slightly more acidic than the cheese did on its own. On the other hand, the
Gouda cheese gave the Cabernet wine a very smooth texture. It was delicious!
This wine also minimized the acidity in the palette with the Gouda cheese as
compared to the brie cheese. Overall, I enjoyed both cheeses with the Cabernet,
but I preferred the Gouda cheese with this wine. I believe this can be
accredited to the harder, sharper flavor of the Gouda, rather than the creamy
texture of the brie.
 |
| 2012 Grayson Cellars Cabernet Saugivnon |
 |
| Stuffed red bell pepper with basil, feta, olives, and tomatoes |
As an additional appetizer, we had
a red pepper that was stuffed with tomatoes, basil, olive oil, olives, and feta
cheese. This was paired with Leese-Fitch's 2011 California Merlot. The wine was a great complement to
the basil and tomatoes of this dish. The feta cheese was also delicious with
the Merlot because of the cheese’s creamy, powerful flavor.
 |
| Leese-Fitch 2011 Merlot |
 |
| Corin and Rachel enjoying the meal! |
 |
| Asian Salad |
Our
next dish was a salad made with cabbage, kale, mandarin oranges, cilantro,
cashews, water chestnuts, and carrots. All of these ingredients were tossed in
a warm dressing made with white wine vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil. This
dish was paired with both a red and a white wine: a Merlot and a Riesling. When
I tasted the Merlot with the salad, it was slightly hot because of the soy
sauce and vinegar mixture. However, the Merlot brought out the flavors of the
cilantro in the salad, which was delicious! The Riesling had an interesting
effect with this salad. The Riesling brought out the sesame oil flavors from
the dressing that you couldn't taste as much with the Merlot. This was
definitely a good pair with the “Asian inspired” dressing, and my preference
with this dish.
 |
| Stir fry meat, vegetables, and rice |
For a
main dish, we prepared a chicken, pork, beef stir fry with vegetables. The
vegetables had a lot of flavor and were spicy, so they paired very well with a Trimbach Riesling. The stir fry meat was not as spicy as the vegetables, so it was not
as good with the Riesling, but it was still decent. I decided to explore with
the combinations and tasted the Cabernet and Merlot with the stir fry, but
these were definitely not good pairings for this type of dish. The Riesling was
the right choice with the stir fry!
 |
| Molly and I sharing some laughs! |
 |
| Trimbach Riesling |
 |
| Chocolate cake with chocolate icing and port |
For
dessert, we had a chocolate cake with a chocolate icing. I made the cake and
when I was making the icing, I accidentally added a tablespoon too much vanilla!
I thought this would be a disaster, but it was actually a good mistake! We
paired the cake with Warre's Warrior port wine. These two together were delicious! Even
though the port was really sweet and high in alcohol, the extra vanilla flavor
in the icing of the cake evened out the sweetness and calmed the port’s acidity
down.
 |
| Warre's Warrior Port |
