Noah McMurrer - Wine Dinner Blog Entry

I recently had a Wine Dinner with three of my friends in Aerospace Engineering.  We bought three wines: "Julia's Dazzle" (a Rose), a "Castellani" Sangiovese (Red Wine), and a "Quinto do Crasto" (Port Dessert Wine). 

                                            Review of Dish #1 with Wine #1 (Julia's Dazzle):

To start, we paired a Rose wine (Julia's Dazzle) with sourdough bread, oil/balsamic vinegar dip and homemade Bruschetta, courtesy of my friend David K.  

  

Here is a closeup of the "Julia's Dazzle" wine bottle after being opened (with me holding it):

This was actually my first time performing a wine tasting as well as pairing it with any type of food.  To start off, I did my sniff and swirl with the Rose to try and get any sort of flavor before tasting it.  Based on pure smell, I was able to pick up prominent notes of green apple, but to be honest most of the time I went to smell the wine it gave me a strong and pungent smell.  It smelled like alcohol and gave me a little bit of a chemical scent as well.  The taste in my opinion was quite dry.  The only descriptors I could get from the taste were the green apple flavor but also just a lot of alcohol.  

Now, when I paired this with the Bruschetta it was a wonderful pairing.  I think the acidity in the tomatoes along with the herbs within the Bruschetta were able to enhance the wine to make it more sweet and palatable.  The alcohol taste was virtually gone and with the bread both flavors (wine and bread) complemented each other very nicely.  I think Julia's Dazzle is definitely a food wine.  

Review of Dish #2 with Wine #2 (Castellani Sangiovese):

Next was the main course of the meal, Spaghetti and Meatballs.  My friend, Brandon made homemade meatballs that consisted of equal parts sausage and beef and also homemade tomato sauce for the pasta.  

Here is a closeup of me attempting to uncork the Castellani Sangiovese bottle and the bottle itself:

Overall, I think this wine was the best out of the three that we all tasted for the meal.  Upon smelling the wine, I was greeted with several flavors.  I smelled hints of cranberry, strawberry and a little bit of smokiness as well.  When tasting the wine itself, I tasted cherry and pomegranate as well as that woody taste that I mentioned before.  I think by itself it was not bad at all and did not have that alcohol taste/smell like the wine prior.  I think this one was quite dry, so having the food helped a lot.  

Upon eating the Spaghetti and Meatballs with this wine, the flavors really complemented each other well.  For me, the tomato sauce was brought out a lot more with the wine and the meatballs really balanced out well with the tannins of the Sangiovese.  I think I would definitely pair this wine in the future with any red sauce pasta dishes that I may make.  

        Review of Dish #3 with Wine #3 (Quinto do Crasto):

For dessert, David K also made us some chocolate brownies.  With the brownies, we paired a Port Wine (Quinto do Crasto) from Portugal.

Here is a closeup of the wine label:

To be honest, out of all three wines we had I disliked this one the most.  That could be because it is a Port, and these are generally packed with more alcohol than a normal wine.  The sniff and swirl was very interesting however, in that I could detect quite a bit of everything going on.  I could smell berries prominently, followed by a sweet smell (probably because it is a dessert wine).  Upon tasting it, the main component that I was getting was honey.  It was too powerful in my opinion, as that is all I could really taste.  There were really small hints of chocolate, but again that honey flavor was overbearing.  

With the dessert, it wasn't bad but I think the sugars in the wine and the brownies clashed and just doubled the sweetness in my mouth, making the sweetness a little unbearable.  I don't think I would get this wine again at the moment, but maybe further into the future.  

Overall, I had a great experience pairing wines with a full course meal with my friends.  It was really fun conversing with them and trying to figure out what smells and tastes we were picking up while enjoying a great meal together.  

Here's a picture of all of us seated with our meal: