3 Course Meal, 3 Wines: Feb 14th

The Wines:

Me with all the wine

Me and my boyfriend turned this assignment into a valentine's day date! We love cooking together, so we went ahead and bought three bottles of wine to pair with the courses. 

Wine 1: Italian Prosecco

Name: Lumina Prosecco

Year: No vintage year listed

Price: $9.99

Description: "This sparkling wine is crisp, clean, and delicate with fine bubbles on the palate. Vibrant flavors of apples and peaches lead to a pleasant finish with lingering fruit and floral notes. This Italian wine begins in the hilly area of Valdobbiadene, with glera grapes that undergo a traditional wine vinification"

I chose this because it's a safe choice for me, and it was recommended online to go with bruschetta. 

Wine 2: Pinot Noir

Name: The Stag Central Coast Pinot Noir

Year: 2020

Price: $25.00

Description: "Black raspberry, cedar and wet-slate aromas converge for a compelling nose on this bottling. The wine begins with a softer texture and then tightens up around baked cherry, mace and herb flavors. Matt Kettmann"

I chose this because although I do not like red wine, you can't have steak for a pairing assignment and not have a red wine. It surprised me a little bit but I will not be reaching back for this bottle. 

Wine 3: Port

Name: Victoria Tawny by R.I. Buller & Son
Year: Vineyard year unlisted

Price: $18.00

Description: "DRIED FIGS, CARAMEL, CANDIED ORANGE PEEL

RL Buller and Sons is legendary in Australia for their "stickies" aka dessert wines. For over 75 years, this family has focused on fortified wines. This tawny style has bellowing aromatics of prunes, figs and toffee flavors which follow through to the palate. The acidity punches through on the finish for a bold spicy finish. This is produced in a traditional cask solera system."

I chose this one because I have never tried port 

On the menu:

Appetizer:

Bruschetta with French bread toast

We made some bruschetta with fresh basil, olive oil, garlic and cherry tomatoes and added it to toasted French bread with some balsamic vinegar on top. 

The first tastes of wine were taken with this meal, and I thought that the sparkling wine went best with the lightness of the bruschetta. This was our intended pair for this because of a cookbook that has wine pairings in it suggesting it. Prosecco is also a well-known apéritif so this is the perfect time to have it! Them together was very light, refreshing, and the brightness of the cherry tomatoes made the prosecco pop after eating it. 

The worst pairing with this was the red wine. I fear I may be pretty biased because I have learned I really don't like many red wines because of the feeling the tannins give, but my boyfriend agreed that the flavors completely clashed. It almost gave the tomatoes a rotten flavor.

The port with the bruschetta just felt wrong, but wasn't the worst thing I've ever had. The cherry tomatoes were very sweet, which is why we add balsamic vinegar, so a sweet wine wasn't a terrible match, but the rotten tomato flavor was still kind of there and having such a strong heavy wine during an appetizer was not good.

Main Course:

Steak au poivre

Strip steaks seared in butter, rosemary and garlic topped with a sauce consisting of the steak drippings, cognac, and heavy cream. The intentional pairing for this course is the pinot noir because red meat notoriously goes well with red wine. I see why the red wine is paired with the red meat; the red wine was most drinkable for me while eating this. The tannins still bothered me, but much less. 

The prosecco was completely and utterly overpowered by the flavor profile of this main course. I think that the only reason to pair these together is if you don't like wine and don't want to taste it. The only thing I could read while having these together was the carbonation, which did not go well with the cream sauce. 

The port with this was surprisingly okay. I think I may just really like this port, and the sweetness was clashing a bit with the cream sauce, but I could still taste pieces of both. I did not go back and drink this one again after the initial tasting with the steak. 

Desert:

Flourless chocolate cake with a black cherry syrup

The chocolate cake is pictures with the cookbook the recipe came form- Sommeliers Cookbook has a bunch of recipes with suggested wine pairings, so we listened to them and made sure to include a port in this tasting. 

The prosecco was overpowered by the strong chocolate flavor and the fruit and acidic nature of the prosecco felt weird in my mouth. I did not like this pairing at all.

The red wine was not as enjoyable with this than it was with the steak but bounds better than the bruschetta. Tannins are much more palatable for me when they are eaten with heavy fat foods, and since this cake has no four and is mostly egg, butter and dark chocolate, it provided that fat to break up that feeling red wines leave in my mouth.

The port was great with this. It was sweet on sweet, but they complimented each other in such a unique way. The notes of cherry and plum in this wine is what really stood out to me while eating it with the cake. I could not drink much of the port, and I could not eat much of the cake, because they were both so rich. But having them in small amounts was absolutely delicious. 

Winning Match ups:

No surprises here!! The winners were the intentional pairings. The cook book we used was really good at giving suggestions!!!