On Tuesday, our wine group finally decided to tackle a wine dinner. And it was great. The other students that contributed were Ena Tovillo, Nikka Pelayo, and Gillian Gavino. We decided to divide and conquer each component of the meal.
Ena handled the appetizer, which was brie topped with honey and crackers. I was in charge of the wine pairing for the dish and chose to pair is with Chardonnay, per google's recommendation. I the pairing worked well. The oak and lemony flavors of the wine paired well with strong buttery flavor of the cheese.
Gill, who probably has the broad cuisine experience, tackled the main entree, Boeuf bourguignon. It is a savory french dish cooked with sirloin, bacon, mushroom, onion, red wine sauce paired with egg noodles. The dish was cooked and paired with a 2012 Pinot Noir. On its own the wine had a lot of fruity flavors. Strawberry and black cherry stood out the most. On the nose, it was waxy, almost like new crayons.The wine and dish were PERFECT together. The wine already had very smooth tannins. Together, bites and sips were seamless. It also make the smokiness of the bacon in particular stand out.
For our final course, Nikka provide the wine and the classic chocolate cake. It was a good choice as the Pinot Noir's label explicitly mentioned pairing with chocolate cake so it was a good transition into the next wine. The wine was a red blend called Rosa Obscura from the 2015 vintage. This wine was also smooth. It had similar fruit flavors as the pinot noir, such as cherry and strawberry. It paired nicely with the cake and was very smooth.
We had a good time at the wine dinner, and probably drank more than any of us anticipated going in. It was amazing to me to see over the course a meal of wines change with food. It sort of gave Boyer a bit more validation in the lecture video. This is something I definitely want to do again, but also want compare our pairings to that of a restaurant sommelier's.
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