Wine Dinner #1

The wine dinner created quite an enjoyable evening. We had a decently large group get together for this. 

For the first course we had a Lima Granite Vinho Verde with a couple of sourdough baguettes topped with melted mozzarella cheese and parsley leaves. 

Name: Encostas Do Lima - Vinho Verde "Granite" 2020  

Variety: Vinho Verde 

Country: Portugal  

Region: Vinho Verde 

Vintage: 2020 

Price: $8  

Winery Review: This mineral-driven Vinho Verde is made from 100% Loureiro. It is a special project by the Encostas da Lima winery that highlights the granite and schist soils of this part of northern Portugal. Intense floral aromas lead into fresh fruit and mineral flavors. (from verrewinebar.com)

Wine Folly: I could taste the crisp apple flavors and could feel the acidity that the book mentioned very well. Also picked up some lemon flavor.

My Review: Without food, I think the sensations in the wine would have been a bit much. It was very acidic, but eating it with the appetizer brought out the fruity apple/lemon flavors and softened some of the bite of the wine. Overall, I enjoyed this wine, and this definitely helps to show how wine should be consumed with food. 

For the main course, we had shepherd's pie with a pinot noir. 

Name: Horizon de Bichot Pinot Noir 2020   

Variety: Pinot Noir 

Country: France 

Region: Languedoc-Roussillon 

Vintage: 2020 

Price: $12

Winery Review: Vivid notes of black raspberry, fresh pomegranate juice, with wild blueberry, sassafras, subtle licorice, toasted oak an earthy backbone, and grippy tannins.

Wine Folly: The Pinot Noir on page 150 had cherry, raspberry, and vanilla that I was able to notice. The berry flavors were the main ones but the vanilla was a more subtle one. Noticed the light body, especially compared with the medium and heavy bodied ones we tried later.

My Review: When consumed with the entire shepherd's pie, the flavor of the wine got a little lost in the potatoes. However, when eaten with just the beef, the flavor of both the beef and the wine was enhanced just a little bit. It mostly added another sensation to the palate, which made the combination enjoyable. When consumed without food, the bite of the wine is a little unpleasant, but with the food is very enjoyable. 

For our dessert, we had cheesecake with a port. 

Name: Maynard's 10 Years Old Aged Tawny Porto 

Variety: Port 

Country: Portugal 

Region: Porto 

Vintage: 2013 

Price: $22 

Winery Review: Dark chocolate, prunes, figs, raisins, smoke, honey, caramel- savory in one word. Very rounded taste. Long aftertaste. Excellent Port for the price, lots of dark fruit flavours including plum, raisins, fig and fruit cake, with almonds and vanilla too. (vivino.com)

Wine Folly: Some cinnamon and vanilla flavors were easy to detect. Some dark berry flavors as well, like raspberry and blackberry. 

My Review: This wine really added some nice flavor to the cheesecake. It enhanced any vanilla flavors, added a certain sweetness to the cheesecake, and brought about flavors of cinnamon and maple, as well as the dark berry flavors mentioned by the wine folly book. The port really took this from just a cheesecake, to a full enjoyable dessert. It just added so many flavors, and the cheesecake was a very good base for all those tastes to build upon. 

The main takeaway from this dinner is that wine is much better with food than without in a lot of cases. Overall I found the experience much more enjoyable than simply tasting wines by themselves.