Course 1: Potato skins with sour cream, bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, and chives
Wine 1: Villa Jolanda no vintage Prosecco 2015
- Prosecco
- Veneto, Italy
- no vintage
Course 2: Steak with mashed potatoes
Wine 2: Biltmore malbec 2015
- Malbec
- Asheville, North Carolina
- 2015
Course 3: Chocolate cake
Wine 3: Cline Zinfandel old vines 2015
- old vine Zinfandel
- Contra Costa County, California
- 2015
Tasting Notes
Course 1: Potato skins with sour cream, bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, and chives
Wine 1: Villa Jolanda no vintage Prosecco 2015
Color: dull yellow and straw, mostly transparent with a medium amount of bubbles
Nose: light stone fruit aromas like white peach and pair with a scent of almonds over white stones or rock minerality
Palate: ripe peach and nectarines with hints of pear and citrus on the finish. It even has notes of banana and honey with a sort of nuttiness. There's also a slight herbal side but it's very fruity with bright and fresh acidity balancing a medium body and medium carbonation on the tip of the tongue.
Pairing: The potato skins dish mutes the acidity of the wine as well as mixes the savory flavors of the sour cream, potato, and bacon with the ripe fruit and nuttiness of the prosecco. The fruit from the wine also takes away from the biting salty sensation of the potato skins bringing the meal and wine into better balance. The sparkling wine worked much better with the dish than I thought it would.
Course 2: Steak with mashed potatoes
Wine 2: Biltmore malbec 2015
Color: violet with purple hints, medium deep color, bright rims
Nose: really ripe raspberry and red plum flavors, blueberries, spice, and tobacco
Palate: good amount of dark spice with a very smokey mouth feel. medium body with flavors of plum, blueberry and ripe soft fruits and spice. Medium acidity with smaller tannins that are sweet and round balanced by regular alcohol. The wine was good, balanced, and concentrated.
Pairing: The pair was decent. Though the wine was dry, it has very concentrated and sweeter fruit flavors than your average red that pairs well with steak, so the fruit flavors were a bit too bright and sweet against the fatty spiced steak. The mashed potatoes did a good job bringing the brightness of the sweet fruit of the wine in harmony with the darker and savory steak, but I'd say it wasn't enough to balance the wines concentration. The smoke and spice in the malbec actually brought some harmony with the spices and fats from the steak, but in the end the fruit flavors of the wine overpowered the steak dish. Not bad, but this wine worked much better with the chocolate cake.
Course 3: Chocolate cake
Wine 3: Cline Zinfandel old vines 2015
Color: Deeper violet towards purple with hints of garnet in the rims. Pretty deeply colored
Nose: Strong black pepper and dark concentrated berries: plum, blackberry, cassis, hints of dark cherries and smokiness with coffee/vanilla hints
Palate: Black currant and oaky flavors of smoked vanilla, black berries, cassis, cigar leaf, hints of raspberries and spice. It has medium acidity with a big and concentrated body of deep and dark flavors of cooked fruit and strong oak and alcohol. Really nice for big meat dishes.
Pairing: This was shockingly fantastic with the chocolate cake and I would say it was the best pair of the day. The sugar in the cake seemed to bring the acidity down to a really softened and warm mouth feel. The spices and oak from the wine become undertones in the mouth behind really well integrated flavors of cassis, smooth chocolate, and smoked jammy raspberries and blackberries. These two came in harmony and I kept eating them at a dangerous rate.
Color: dull yellow and straw, mostly transparent with a medium amount of bubbles
Nose: light stone fruit aromas like white peach and pair with a scent of almonds over white stones or rock minerality
Palate: ripe peach and nectarines with hints of pear and citrus on the finish. It even has notes of banana and honey with a sort of nuttiness. There's also a slight herbal side but it's very fruity with bright and fresh acidity balancing a medium body and medium carbonation on the tip of the tongue.
Pairing: The potato skins dish mutes the acidity of the wine as well as mixes the savory flavors of the sour cream, potato, and bacon with the ripe fruit and nuttiness of the prosecco. The fruit from the wine also takes away from the biting salty sensation of the potato skins bringing the meal and wine into better balance. The sparkling wine worked much better with the dish than I thought it would.
Course 2: Steak with mashed potatoes
Wine 2: Biltmore malbec 2015
Color: violet with purple hints, medium deep color, bright rims
Nose: really ripe raspberry and red plum flavors, blueberries, spice, and tobacco
Palate: good amount of dark spice with a very smokey mouth feel. medium body with flavors of plum, blueberry and ripe soft fruits and spice. Medium acidity with smaller tannins that are sweet and round balanced by regular alcohol. The wine was good, balanced, and concentrated.
Pairing: The pair was decent. Though the wine was dry, it has very concentrated and sweeter fruit flavors than your average red that pairs well with steak, so the fruit flavors were a bit too bright and sweet against the fatty spiced steak. The mashed potatoes did a good job bringing the brightness of the sweet fruit of the wine in harmony with the darker and savory steak, but I'd say it wasn't enough to balance the wines concentration. The smoke and spice in the malbec actually brought some harmony with the spices and fats from the steak, but in the end the fruit flavors of the wine overpowered the steak dish. Not bad, but this wine worked much better with the chocolate cake.
Course 3: Chocolate cake
Wine 3: Cline Zinfandel old vines 2015
Color: Deeper violet towards purple with hints of garnet in the rims. Pretty deeply colored
Nose: Strong black pepper and dark concentrated berries: plum, blackberry, cassis, hints of dark cherries and smokiness with coffee/vanilla hints
Palate: Black currant and oaky flavors of smoked vanilla, black berries, cassis, cigar leaf, hints of raspberries and spice. It has medium acidity with a big and concentrated body of deep and dark flavors of cooked fruit and strong oak and alcohol. Really nice for big meat dishes.
Pairing: This was shockingly fantastic with the chocolate cake and I would say it was the best pair of the day. The sugar in the cake seemed to bring the acidity down to a really softened and warm mouth feel. The spices and oak from the wine become undertones in the mouth behind really well integrated flavors of cassis, smooth chocolate, and smoked jammy raspberries and blackberries. These two came in harmony and I kept eating them at a dangerous rate.
No comments:
Post a Comment