Rebekah's Wine and Dinner Pairing

 

 

My friends and I are all taking Geography of wine this semester so we decided to each make a dish and pair it with a wine we thought would be great together.

Our first course was a cilantro lime salad. The most dominant flavors were the cilantro lime dressing as it added a very nice tang to the salad and the green onions that were added. It gave a very distinct oniony and fresh taste. We paired the salad with the Broadbent Vihno Verde. We picked a wine that was more acidic and tangy to match the limey flavor of the salad. Smelling this wine there were aromas of fresh cut grass, acidic/limey, herbaceous with a hint of oak. The taste had very strong acidic/ lemon/lime flavors with a hint of a champagne taste at the end. This Vihno Verde was way more acidic and citrus flavored than the other brand that I’ve tried and love. However, this particular wine paired so well with the salad as the wines acidic flavor was toned down and became a lot more smooth/ easier to drink. The salads limey dressing flavor became sharper, which made the salad taste even better. 

Our second course was my favorite pairing. We had fish tacos with avocado, coleslaw, and a limey-spicy sauce. This was so delicious as the fattiness from the avocado paired so well with the buttery/melty taste of the fish. The sauce added more lime and spice flavors and the crunchiness of the slaw on top made it even better. We decided to pair our tacos with a more acidic chardonnay. Sniffing and smelling brought out aromas of freshness, almost like a laundry detergent smell (which was really odd to me), slight oak and lime smells. The taste thankfully didn’t taste like laundry detergent, as it was on the sweeter side with some acidic and citrus flavors. It was also very buttery and smooth. This pairing was amazing. The bitterness of the wine went so well with the fattiness of the fish and avocado. Also, the acidic taste of the wine meshed so well with the lime in the sauce. 

Our last course was a homemade Oreo cheesecake. This tasted so light and very creamy as it was really fluffy and not very stiff like a cheesecake you would buy at the store would be. It was very sweet and the Oreos on the top added a nice crunch texture. We decided to pair this with the Ruffino Prosecco. The smell of this wine had a very strong grape smell, but still had a light aroma. It was again, very fresh smelling (not like laundry detergent this time though) and had a very sweet, honey/butterscotch hint at the end. The taste of this wine was very sweet, but not too sweet where it is intolerable. It had a nice green apple taste too, and was very bubbly but somehow still very smooth. This pairing was really good as the bubbles went really well with the sweetness of the cheesecake. The wine also somehow balanced the sweetness of the cheesecake since its less sweet. Also, the Oreo crust was extremely buttery which really matched well with the sweetness of the wine.

Our last course was a homemade Oreo cheesecake. This tasted so light and very creamy as it was really fluffy and not very stiff like a cheesecake you would buy at the store would be. It was very sweet and the Oreos on the top added a nice crunch texture. We decided to pair this with the Ruffino Prosecco. The smell of this wine had a very strong grape smell, but still had a light aroma. It was again, very fresh smelling (not like laundry detergent this time though) and had a very sweet, honey/butterscotch hint at the end. The taste of this wine was very sweet, but not too sweet where it is intolerable. It had a nice green apple taste too, and was very bubbly but somehow still very smooth. This pairing was really good as the bubbles went really well with the sweetness of the cheesecake. The wine also somehow balanced the sweetness of the cheesecake since its less sweet. Also, the Oreo crust was extremely buttery which really matched well with the sweetness of the wine.

I really enjoyed this experience with my friends. We all felt like all the pairings were really good, and even talked about how without this class, we wouldn’t have been able to pair our food and wine as good as we did. I definitely want to do this again with my friends, but not take as many notes as it kind of took away from the experience of just relaxing and eating some good food and drinking some good wine.