Dinner Blog: 3

Dinner:

Cheese Pizza
Sushi (half california roll and half tuna roll)
Chicken Quesadilla
Brownie with cream cheese frosting

Wines:

1. Ecco Domani, Italian, 2014, Pinot Grigio
2. Reserve Perrin, France, 2001, Red
3.  San Elias, Chile, 2013, Red
4. Rex-Goliath, California, 2013, Sauvignon Blanc

Here are my notes from the dinner:

Pinot Grigio - Apple and pear with a lemon zest, good to pair with the sushi because it is light.  I don't like it with the pizza, it makes the wine taste really bad, like BO.

Reserve - good with the pizza, brought out the red sauce taste...there was a little spice tasted in the wine that helped make the pizza taste better than it probably was.  The wine did taste a little vinegary

Sauvignon Blanc - Tastes like really sweet pears, or green apples, the actual wine itself does not smell.  It brings out the cheese taste in the quesadilla, also kind of brings out the cream taste which seemed a little weird but tasted good.

San Elias - Very, very oaky wine.  Seemed smokey on the nose and also could smell a lot of cherries.  Reminded me of the outdoors.  It paired perfectly with the brownie, the sweet and oak tasted really good together.

Santa Cristina Annata

Santa Cristina
Annata
Tuscany
2012
18 US Dollars

Description on the back of the bottle.

My opinion: This wine took me back to my days traveling abroad in Italy.  The taste was incredibly rich and I almost felt like I was tasting parsley and basil in the wine (while that may be absurd, we also were drinking this wine with pizza, so maybe that was the taste of the pizza coming through but they paired perfectly)

Decoy Zinfandel

 

Decoy
Zinfandel
Sonoma County
Zinfandel
2011

See description on the back of the bottle.

My opinion: We had this wine with salmon after we had had the previous red wine in my blog.  I liked the sweeter flavor of the wine, but I didn't like that there was almost a little sour zing to it. It was almost like there was an apply flavor infused where it was not supposed to be.

Bacio Divino Red Wine

 to preface this, obviously my parents and I went a little wine crazy in the one weekend I was home. But they were more than eager to help me out for my wine class.

Bacio Divino
Red Wine
Napa Valley
2006
25 US DOLLARS

(see tasting notes on the back)

My opinion: The first thing I noticed was how strong the wine smelled on the nose and how much of a campfire smell came through.  Once I tasted the wine I really enjoyed the campfire taste (aka the really oaky taste).  I'm a sucker for a heavy wine and this was the perfect wine to pair with our Easter weekend chocolate.

Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard Red Wine

 Sugarloaf Mountain Vinyard
Evoe Red Wine
2011
Maryland
30 US Dollars

See tasting notes on back of the bottle picture.

My opinion: This wine was one of my more favorite wines I have ever had. Maybe I am biased because this vineyard is only a short 20 minutes from my house at home, but I loved the smooth taste.  I was impressed that while it was a blend of so many different things, they blended perfectly well together.  It was a flavor that was sweet but also had a little bit of bite that I could taste in my nose.

I had this wine with cheese and really enjoyed it!  I will be writing that cheese blog later.

Pinotage Fleur Du Cap

Pinotage
Fleur Du Cap
2012
South Africa
US Dollars: $18.99

(tasting notes in bottom picture)

My opinion:
This was definitely not my favorite wine. I got to drink it with my parents while I was home for easter and we did not drink it with food. It had this really bizarre after taste that is hard to explain, it almost tasted like some kind of spice but some kind of spice that didn't sit well on my nose either.  I would not recommend it! (neither would my wine loving parents)

Dinner Blog: 2

For dinner on Wednesday April 9th my friends and I decided to go to the Palisades for the first time! Luck for me it was Italy night, and I got to eat foods and drink wines that were familiar to me.

The three wines pictured on the left:

La Carraia Orvieto Classico (2013)
Tiamo Chianti (2013)
Bonaventura Rosso Toscano (2009)

The foods we tried were:

Potato Gnochhi
Braised Chicken
Taste of Italy Pizza

My notes from the dinner:

La Carria Orvieto Classico -
I tasted a lot of pear in the wine and before I even read in the description that there was apple was surprised how much of the apple I could taste! I enjoyed that the wine was not too sweet.  I found that the wine paired perfectly with any of the foods on the table because of how light it was.  I particularly enjoyed it with the Gnochhi.

Tiamo Chianti -
This Chianti tasted incredibly oaky.  The color was lighter than I thought a Chiani normally would be. It also kind of tasted like a bonfire. I thought this wine was my favorite of the three and that it paired perfectly with each of the entrees!

Bonaventura Rosso Toscano -
This wine was my least favorite of the bunch.  I thought that it was a little too strong for my taste, but interesting that I could taste so much of the licorice coming through.  Since I didn't like it I tried not to drink as much but interestingly enough I thought that the strong taste paired well with the pizza.