Wine Dinner #2

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