Wine Dinner 2

 Wine Dinner 2

For our second wine dinner, I was in charge of cooking up the dinner while Sierra, Adam, and Karim chose bottles of wine to pair with my dishes. I decided on making grilled chicken (dry brined and seasoned with Trader Joe's everyday seasoning blend) and pasta with alfredo sauce, and I bought a couple small pecan pies as a desert. This time we communicated what food we were having before everyone bought their wine, so there was at least an effort at making good pairings this time.

Post Dinner Scene

The first bottle of wine we tried was a Kendall-Jackson chardonnay, which was chosen based off decent peer reviews. Swished around in a fancy wine glass, it smelled light with some hints of vanilla. Tasted by itself, it was light and fruity with slight hints of vanilla and pineapple. It was paired with the alfredo linguine, and when sipped after taking a bite of the noodles, it was very pleasant. It took the bite away from the wine but left a good bit of flavor with no weird aftertaste. When sipped before eating the noodles, it got overpowered by the richness of the sauce.

Our second bottle was a Bogle pinot noir, which had surprisingly good reviews and was very cheap. Swirled, it had a heavy cherry smell with floral and earthy hints. On the palate, it was smooth and dark with some prevalent cherry flavors; it was also fairly dry. We paired the Bogle with the grilled chicken, which for the most part drowned out the taste of the wine (I think I'm just too good as seasoning stuff). I found that the combination tasted the best when I ate the chicken and drank the wine at the same time, which led to mainly chicken flavors with a hint of the smooth wine in the background. It should be noted that everyone else at the dinner hated they way the combo tasted doing it my way.

Our third bottle of wine was the Fresh Twist Rose by Yellow Tail, which was as close to a dessert wine as could be found on short notice (and it had a pretty eye catching label). On the nose it was very sweet and fruity, with obvious strawberry and lime scents. Sipped by itself, the wine was very sweet with strawberry and lime flavors. The alcohol taste was barely noticeable over what basically just tasted like sparkling fruit juice. We found it comparable to a low percentage seltzer like a mike's hard or a white claw (but better tasting). The flavor of the wine was hopeless in the face of the pecan pie. When eating a bite of pie first, the wine was barely noticeable, with only slight strawberry-lime tastes making it through the rich taste of the pie. Drinking the wine first yielded nearly the same results, with less alcohol taste: the fat of the pie filling drowned it out. Eating the wine and pie at the same time was by far the worst combination as only some harsh lime flavor made it through, which tasted bad with the pie filling.

For the next dinner, I want to try to incorporate some seafood into the mix. At least in my head, fish, shrimp, and crab would all be very nice if paired with some suitable wine.