On February 27 a few friends and I decided to host our own wine dinner. We each thought it would be a fun idea to all pitch in one wine and a cheese or dinner dish. There were four different wines that we decided to try. After reading a bit about the differences between oaked and unoaked Chardonnay, we wanted to give the comparison a try. We also wanted to see how great of a difference there is between a dry and sweet Riesling. We tried all of these wines with and without different types of food and found some interesting results!
Our Food Pairings:
French Camembert Cheese
Parmesan Cheese
Chicken Pot Pie
Now onto the tastings!
Name: Dark Horse
Variety: Chardonnay (oaked)
Region: California
Country: United States
Year: 2013
Price: $9.95
Reviews:
- Without food: This wine has a very strong scent, a little hot even (it has 13.5% alcohol content) with scents of oak, what seemed to me like spicy brown sugared pears-the caramelized kinds that melt in your mouth if you know what I mean. Upon tasting this wine, I got high acidity, a heavy mouthfeel, oak, butter, nutmeg and cinnamon, and some other type of hotter spice. This was very complex and by far my favorite wine of the night! I am one of those people who really enjoy the buttery creamy oak taste! It's all about what the drinker desires!
-With French Camembert: Very interesting, I thought the milky, smooth consistency really paired well with this cheese and brought out a lot of great smooth texture to the wine and calmed down the acidity a bit!
- With Parmesan: This really enhanced the flavors more than the texture and though it also paired very well with the Chardonnay. It was a great choice and brought a great mix of flavors. It wasn't really something I could explain, but the flavors seemed to go together well.
- With Chicken Pot Pie: This perplexed me a bit, but I honestly thought the wine enhanced the chicken pot pie more than the chicken pot pie enhanced the wine. I thought the way the chicken soaked in the wine was great and the way it made the flaky crust seem almost more buttery was cool to experience.
Wine 2
Name: Breaux Vineyards Madeleine's
Variety: Chardonnay (unoaked; stainless steel barrels)
Region: Northern Virginia
Country: United States
Year: 2013
Price: $19
Reviews:
- Without Food: This wine was a lot lighter than the last time, and although it was a bit more tight with the aroma, you could tell the wine had a lot more light and clean fruitiness to it, almost like a Sauvignon Blanc than a Chardonnay. It had a nose of clean ripe pear, but also smelled a bit hot like the previous Chardonnay. This one actually had more alcohol content than the previous one, at 14% alcohol content. Upon tasting this wine, I could actually find a solid fruit taste that was sharp, like a grapefruit and the taste itself paired well with that flavor by being really acidic.
- With French Camembert: Honestly, this cheese did nothing for the wine. It was pretty disjointed and I couldn't tell that there were any enhancements at all, except maybe a decrease in the amount of heat that came through.
- With Parmesan: Unfortunately, this may have been an altogether bad combination. I felt like the parmesan got stepped on by the wine and crumbled it up and erased any taste that was there. I'm not sure it did anything to help. It made it more dry if anything.
- With Chicken Pot Pie: I seriously tried to hard to make this work. I didn't get anything out of it, really. This frustrates me to my core. I'm not sure if I'm just not "getting" how I'm supposed to find enhancements in the wine with these pairings or if it's just the pairings themselves. I'm just being honest here.
Wine 3
Name: Dry Dr. Loosen Bros
Variety: Riesling
Region: Mosul
Country: Germany
Year: 2014
Price: $9.99
Reviews:
- Without Food: A very interesting smell. It had a bit of a chlorinated pool smell to it, in my opinion, with a hint of lemon-lime (like a Sprite or 7-Up) and a mix of floral aromas in between. Not sure if interesting is good or bad, but I thought it was pretty cool. The feel of this wine was a little dry, but light and sweeter than I expected. Upon tasting this wine, I got notes of grapefruit and lime and then the most specific aftertaste I think I've ever described about a wine before. It was specifically a department store dressing room. Not a nice departments store either. Those cheap ones with the carpet and squeaky doors. The aftertaste somehow reminded me of that smell and/or experience. So crazy. The rest of the table thought I was crazy too. I'm really not trying to be a wine snob, that's just what I got!
- With French Camembert: This is again a bit opposite, but I thought the wine brought out flavors of the cheese and not vice versa. I thought this wine in particular brought out a sharpness in the cheese that wasn't quite there before.
- With Parmesan: Thank you, Parmesan. You went pretty well with this one. You actually took away that weird department store aftertaste and the cheese is what lingered instead.
- With Chicken Pot Pie: I thought it was okay with this. There wasn't anything too specific I could bring out of it, but thought that it also took away that aftertaste and made the wine itself more enjoyable.
Wine 4
Name: Dr. Loosen Bros
Variety: Riesling
Region: Mosul
Country: Germany
Year: 2014
Price: $9.99
Reviews:
- Without Food: Smells like possibly subtle tropical fruit, but honestly there wasn't much of anything else as far as smells went. I have never had a Riesling that wasn't considered "dry" before (and I honestly think dry Rieslings aren't that try), so I was wondering how sweet this would actually be. And it was. VERY sweet. This is clearly a dessert wine and was delicious as one. It tasted like white grape juice with a little bit more character. I thought Rieslings were acidic, but this one was not at all and reminded me of a White Zinfindel if anything!
- With French Camembert: Super disjointed and doesn't go together well at all and doesn't alter the taste of the wine any. It simply overpowered the cheese.
- With Parmesan: Same as above.
- With Chicken Pot Pie: Same as above, however, I did enjoy sipping this in between bites for some reason. It broke up the heavy carby feel, even though it didn't "complement" it at all.
Wine Selfie! Cheese!
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