Wine and Cheese Pairing #1

  

For today's wine and cheese pairing, I had Pepper Jack cheese. For the wine I paired with the cheese, I had Ogio Prosecco Sparkling White wine. This sparkling wine has a grape variety of using Glera grape in it.

Wine Without Cheese: Before eating the cheese with the wine, I tasted the this wine by itself. The wine itself felt very acidic with a hint of sweetness to it. It also had a bit of an earthy after taste to it, but was hardly noticeable. The acidic taste was not too much for me and it was quite enjoyable. I was not a huge fan of how acidic it tasted to me and how much it left my mouth watering, a little less acidic taste would have been much better. 

Wine with Pepper Jack cheese Pairing: Eating the cheese with this sparkling wine, this pairing of these two was really enjoyable. The balance between the pepper jack and the wine was actually quite balanced for my pallet and nothing felt overwhelming, which was a very nice surprise. On first tasting the two together, I felt as if the two flavors of acid and the flavors of the pepper jack were clashing. However, after a few more bites it felt much more that the cheese was not only masking some of the acidity and dryness of the wine. Once it masked it some thats when the cheese and the wine flavors actually complemented each other and worked together to bring out a very unique and wonderful flavor. I think the wine's acidity helped cut down on the richness of the cheese while the cheese cut through the acidity, making the wine feel much less acidic than it actually was, which culminated in a pairing that definitely complements each other. This in turn made the entirety of the flavor much more enjoyable than tasting either one of these two by themselves. The wine and cheese both felt like they were not overpowering, but working off of each other to bring a new and great tasting for the pallet.

 

   

Wine Dinner Blog #1

 

For today's dinner, I had a lasagna meal as the dish. For the wine I paired with the lasagna, I had the Bay Bridge Chardonnay White Wine. This Chardonnay wine has a grape variety of only using Chardonnay grapes in it.

Wine Without Food: Before eating I tasted the this wine by itself. At first I did not enjoy the taste at all. There was a weird sour taste to the wine felt like it ruined my taste buds. I am not a huge fan of sour foods or drinks so this was not a taste I enjoyed at all. However, after drinking it a few more times, the sourness seemed to not be as strong and I enjoyed it a little more, but it still was not too much to my liking still but a little more enjoyable.

Wine with Lasagna Pairing: Eating the lasagna with this Chardonnay, this pairing of these two was not very enjoyable at all. The sourness mentioned earlier from the wine overpowered the flavor of the lasagna and the sauce. The sauce specifically tasted like sour tomato sauce, which was not a great tasting experience. The lasagna did not have much of its unique taste since it was being drowned out and overtaken by the wines sour flavor. The sourness and acidity of the wine completely ruined the tasting of the food, there was no complementing each other between the wine and lasagna at all with this pairing. The wine completely drowned out the little saltiness and spices of the lasagna, which is not good at all since that's what helps give the lasagna some pop and more flavor. The one good thing about this pairing was that the lasagna lowered the amount of tartness/acidity/sourness that was coming from the wine somewhat, but it was not enough to make it not overbearing. For this pairing to work the wine needed to be less acidic/sour and more sweet, or the flavors of the lasagna to be more powerful to balance out the flavors between the two.

While I ate this pairing alone, I'm glad I did because I would not recommend this pairing to any friends or family. This was not a good decision to pair up a pasta dish like lasagna and a Chardonnay wine. They just do not go well together.

Wine Tasting Blog #3

 

Wine Name: La Vieille Ferme Rose Wine

Country: France

Region: Rhone Valley 

Varietal: Grenache, Syrah, and Cinsault

Year: 2021

Price: $8.99

Online Review/Critique: The online review of this wine from, https://www.reversewinesnob.com/la-vieille-ferme-rose, they describe both the aroma of this wine gives a fruity smell, particularly a melon, strawberry, and tomato aroma. The taste on the other hand they specified that it had very much of a berry, cherry flavor with a tart finish to balance it out.

My Review: For me, as soon as the wine entered my mouth it left my mouth watering extremely. This alongside having clearly tasting the alcohol within the wine from the grapes. This is due to two of the three types of grapes, Grenache and Syrah, having high alcohol characteristics making the alcohol more noticeable (pg. 117 & 172, Wine Folly). The flavor of the wine was not to my liking at all. The tartness from the grapes, specifically the Syrah grapes, felt a little overwhelming and since none of the grapes have any sweetness to them for me it didn't balance out the wine (pg. 100, 117, and 172 Wine Folly). The flavor gave off a sort of minty and a mix of a bunch of different berries, where none truly stood out. The only berry flavor I could sort of tasted after a while was a mix between plums and strawberries (117 & 172, Wine Folly). This mix of strawberry and plum in my mouth really through me off with how it tasted, and I love both of these fruits, but mixing them together was not a pleasant experience for my taste buds. The wine was the most bodily wine I have had so far in my journey into wine, and having tasted a fuller bodied wine, it was a pleasant experience besides the flavor (117 & 172, Wine Folly).

The smell of the wine has an abundant fruity and minty scent to it. The fruity aspect of it would be more on the berry side of fruity. Specifically, the aroma gave off a slight strawberry and cherry smell to it. However there was an underlying smell that I could not completely describe but almost like chocolate covered mints. The Syrah grape specifically, described in Wine Folly on page 172, that these grapes have an aroma/flavor of milk chocolate.

I did not have this wine with food. however, I do feel like this wine would definitely go best with a meat meal like steak. There is no sweetness in the wine at all and I believe the tartness of the wine and the flavors of the steak will balance each other out to make for an incredible dinner meal.

I did not particularly enjoy this wine by any means due to the flavor, however experiencing a more bodied wine has given me appreciation towards them and will try fuller bodied wines in the near future because of this.

Wine Tasting Blog #2

 

Wine Name: Barefoot Pinot Grigio

Country: United States

Region: California 

Varietal: Pinot Gris

Year: N/A (not located on the bottle)

Price: $5.39

Online Review/Critique: The online review of this wine from, https://www.nataliemaclean.com/wine-reviews/barefoot-cellars-pinot-grigio/185945, they describe this wine as a great wine that would go well with seafood. They do not talk about the aroma here. They do however that the wine leaves an acidic taste and has touches of peach in it.

My Review: This Barefoot Pinot Grigio wine comes with a very gritty and acidic flavor. It left my mouth watering slightly, not overwhelmingly so however. The body of the wine was very light but it could still be felt when drinking. (pg. 149, Wine Folly). The acidity is the real standout of this wine by far. The first thing I tasted was a wave of acidity entering my mouth (Wine Folly on pg. 149). With that acidity, the flavor gave me a hit of alcohol with a hint of lemon in it, this is why I feel like the acidity stands out so much (Wine Folly on pg. 149). For the aroma, I also mostly get an acidic scent of lemons from it as well, the acid part of this wine is the real stand out component. From Wine Folly on page 149, the grapes Pinot Gris are very acidic and can very greatly in sweetness, and I definitely got the acidic characteristics of the grapes since this wine is made of them. I did not have that much sweetness that I could taste, but it was somewhat present to just be noticeable.

My personal opinion of this wine was that I did not enjoy it that much. The first tasting of it was rather enjoyable at first but then I was hit with the acidity of the grapes. The wine was also not very sweet at all. The acidity without barely any sweetness to counteract it made the acidity a little too overwhelming for my taste. As I drunk more, the less and less I enjoyed. If there was a little more sweetness and less acidity, I believe I would have enjoyed it much more. I will say however, I did not dislike it enough to completely abandon it, I will in the future try it again when I'm more acquainted with wine to see if my opinion of it changes.

I did not have this wine with food. however, I do feel like this wine would definitely go best with a seafood dishes, but since it is very acidic in taste with not much sweetness, it would not manipulate the taste of the whatever seafood dish you eat with it.

Wine Tasting Blog #1

Wine Name: Bartenura Moscato D'Asti

Country: Italy

Region: Tuscany 

Varietal: Muscat Blanc

Year: 2021

Price: $13.49

Online Review/Critique: The online review of this wine from, https://www.honestwinereviews.com/bartenura-moscato-review, they describe both the aroma and taste of the wine as somewhat-sweet to sweet and felt it had hints of fruit in the smell such as pears being one of the major ones. They say that this wine is a overall an enjoyable drink if you know the type of sweetness you are in for. Recommends that to enjoy it in its best form, to chill this wine.

My Review: This bartenura moscato wine hits you with a wave of sweetness that I appreciated and enjoyed from the wine. The body of the wine was not full body at all, it was very low/small bodied (pg. 138, Wine Folly). You can hardly taste the alcohol in the wine so you are just left to enjoy the sweet and also acidic taste of this wine. Stated in Wine Folly on pg. 139, it says that since the alcohol levels is so low for this type of wine, there is more sweetness from the grapes that are left to give it a much sweeter taste in the product (pg. 139, Wine Folly) The way to describe the taste of the wine would be extremely sweet with a slight kick of acidity that gives this wine that extra pop, like the acidity of oranges (pg. 138, Wine Folly), for your taste buds that elevates the wine for me. That extra acidity with the sweetness makes me not focus so much on the sweetness and be overwhelmed by it, a perfect balance for me. 

The smell of the wine has an abundant fruity scent to it. The wine's smell reminds me of hints of oranges with its acidity smell, a tiny bit of pineapples and a heavy influence of pears (pg. 138, Wine Folly). None of these elements of the smell ever are too much compared to the others to make it unpleasant. These fruity elements that combine into this unique smell feels well crafted and balanced where you could just enjoy the smell of the wine all day.

I did not have this wine with food. however, I do feel like this wine would definitely go best with a dessert, but since the acidity makes it taste not as sweet it can go with a few more main course/dinner meals besides just dessert. There would be meals however I do feel like this wine would either affect the taste of your food too much or the food will alter the flavor of the wine.