Ari's Wine and Dinner

 

Freixenet this is a blended wine using Macabeu, Xarel-Lo, and Parallada. The country of origin is Spain. There is no vintage year labeled. The price was $4.79 at Total Wine. Unfortunately, there was no description at Total Wine for this wine. Page forty-seven of Wine Folly mentions that Macabeu adds "floral, apricot and berry flavors." Page 47 also mentions that Xarel-Lo adds acidity. There is no mentioning of Parallada in Wine Folly. What I got from this wine was firey smell when I swirled and sniffed. When I tasted it there was a bit of a spice to me, I'm not sure if this was the Xarel-Lo and its acidity that I was tasting or not, but I having a hard time distinguishing any floral or berry flavors as mentioned in Wine Folly. 

The next wine for the dinner was Saint- Reine Blanc de Blancs Brut. The grape variety is Chardonnay. This wine is from France from Cremant de Bourgogne. There is no vintage year on this bottle. The price was $4.99 at Total Wine. The descriptions at Total Wine for this blend included: green apple, nutty, creamy and fruity. Wine Folly's descriptors of Chardonnay include: "Yellow Apple, Starfruit, Pineapple, Butter, and Chalk" on page seventy-two. My descriptors for this wine were buttered toast and fruity dessert.

The next wine I had for this dinner was La Vostra Prosecco Rose. The grape variety is Prosecco and Rose, this is a blended sparkling wine. Country of origin is Italy the region is Veneto. There was no vintage year on this bottle. The price of this wine was $4.99 at Total Wine. The descriptors at Total Wine were zesty, ripe peach, and cherry. Descriptors for Prosecco include "green apple, honeydew, pear, honeysuckle, and cream" on page fifty-two of Wine Folly. Rose descriptors include, "strawberry. honeydew, rose petal, celery, and orange peel" on page ninety-four of Wine Folly. When I drank this wine, the flavors I noticed were licorice, I think this could be related to the cherry descriptions at Total Wine and the strawberry descriptions of Rose from Wine Folly.

What I had for dinner as an appetizer was a mozzarella, vegetable, and pesto spread on a ciabatta roll. For dinner I had steak and stout with quinoa and vegetables, and for dessert a pumpkin Bundt cake. 

La Vostra with the appetizer did not go well with the appetizer, I don't think the sweetness along with the sparkling of the wine was a good match with this food. I think a lighter white wine that did not sparkle would pair better. Since I was getting licorice aromas with this, I don't think it paired well with anything on the ciabatta roll. Saint-Rene with the appetizer was very light bodied and it was a white wine, so this definitely paired better than the La Vostra, but still something not sparkling would have been much better, I'm not sure that a hefty bread should be with a sparkling beverage in my opinion. The Freixenet was the best pairing with the appetizer because the spice I was tasting with the wine was a great pairing with the freshness of the tomato, pesto and mozzarella. I think this would have been an unmatched pairing if this was not a sparkling wine. 

With the main dish of the steak and stout, this overall, would have been interesting to try with a red wine, as it was a very rich flavor similar to a beef stew. The La Vostra was a bit too sweet with this portion of dinner. The steak flavor was very savory, so the intense sweetness clashed with this quite a bit. There's a red wine I mentioned in a previous blog that I would be intrigued to try this with; a semi-sweet Merlot I found at Trader Joes that I really liked. But moving onto the next wine. The Saint-Rene with this went really well because because it had a similar taste to the pastry part of this steak and stout. The creaminess from the pastry and the "buttery" flavor of the wine went perfectly together. Again, I think this would be another unmatched pairing if this wasn't a sparkling wine. The Freixenet with the steak and stout had no clashing flavors at all the two paired well enough with each other, but it was nothing too exciting. The were a good enough balance but nothing really intriguing popped out about any of them. 

Lastly. the dessert portion of this meal, the La Vostra paired really well with the pumpkin Bundt cake. The spices like cinnamon and pumpkin really stood out well with the sweet nature of this wine. The Saint-Rene wine had a sort of nutty and creamy flavor almost like an egg nogg paired with this dessert. The Freixenet was the worst pair of all three with the dessert because the actual spice similar to black pepper or red pepper in the wine did not pair well with the cinnamon and pumpkin aromatics of the dessert. It also did not help that it was a sparkling wine. 

This overall was a great experience that I can now take with me in the future about knowing more about wine and how to pair it best with meals.