Wine Dinner #1

If college has taught us anything, it's how to improvise. Last Thursday, my friend Caitlin and I were at the Vintage Cellar tasting, when she realized she had two bottles of wine, spaghetti, and taco shells at home, and I had popcorn in my pantry: in other words, we were halfway to having the complete 3 wines and 3 dishes for a true wine dinner. So we decided, why not? and after the tasting, ran to Kroger and picked up the missing pieces. This was the result: 

Appetizer: Butter popcorn and Chardonnay 

For our appetizer, we chose to pair Chardonnay with buttered popcorn. After what we've learned in class (and yes, alright, a few Google searches) we thought the typical buttery/vanilla notes in a Chardonnay would pair nicely with the butter in the popcorn. 

And we were so right. This is now my new movie night tradition. 

Wine: Entrada Chardonnay

Variety: 100% Chardonnay

Region: South America

Country: Chile

Year: 2013

This wine without the popcorn was more fruity than the buttery/vanilla flavors usually associated with Chardonnay. The nose was light and floral, with very slight hints of apple. The taste was likewise very smooth, light - really drinkable, with strong fruit notes at the start then revealed slight vanilla at the mid-palate, and a clean finish.

After having some popcorn, the wine's underlying buttery characteristic was definitely emphasized. We had such fun with this wine - eating more popcorn to see how much more we pull out the butter flavors. Great combination and will forever be my go-to movie snack (unless I'm in a public theater...unless I get creative and make it happen). 

Entree: Spaghetti Tacos and Foxhollow Cabernet Sauvignon

Yes, you read that correctly. Spaghetti tacos. When Caitlin suggested them, I definitely was wondering if they were a thing. Indeed, they are, and they're actually pretty good! You essentially just take spaghetti with meat and sauce and all that jazz, then shove it into a hard taco shell, and voila! Spaghetti tacos!

We paired the pasta with Foxhollow Cabernet Sauvignon, thinking the red wine would complement the red pasta sauce....plus we had no clue what would pair well with taco shells. 

Wine: Foxhollow Cabernet Sauvignon

Variety: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Region: California

Country: United States
Year: 2012

This wine was sort of strong for my taste, as I'm slowly working my way to liking reds. The nose was a bit spicy, but mostly some dark berry notes. A bit smokey on the front palate, but gave way to some nice dark cherry notes and a lingering finish. 

With the pasta, I couldn't really tell a difference in the taste of the wine. The finish might have been a bit longer, but if there was any other subtle change I wasn't able to pick up on it - unlike the Chardonnay and the popcorn (yummm...now I want some again).

Caitlin and me with our creation!

Desert: Chocolate Lava Cakes with Dornfelder Sweet Riesling

Such a great way to end the evening. We got ourselves individual chocolate lava cakes in the hopes that chocolate would go with the sweet red riesling I picked out from the Vintage Cellar - somewhat of a shot in the dark on that wine selection, but it ended up working out beautifully!

Wine: Sweet Dornfelder Oh Be Joyful

Variety: 100% Riesling

Region: Europe

Country: Germany

Year: 2013

I actually really loved this wine. It was sweet, but not in an overpowering way. We got light cherries, some strawberry and raspberry notes on the nose. The taste was almost a cherry and strawberry jam flavor that lingered and filled the mouth in a nice way, with a really clean finish. I would definitely buy this wine again on it's own.

The chocolate cakes were amazing on their own (hello - melted chocolate center), but I really enjoyed the way it went with the wine. I wouldn't say either brought out anything special in the other, but it was almost like putting sliced strawberries on top of the cake - a really nice complement that enhanced the overall taste. They made a great pairing; I would think any form of chocolate would go nicely with this wine.

Caitlin and I had a great time, and are hoping to get a huge group together and make an event of our next wine dinner!