Dinner - Roanoke Street Apartments (Wine Party)

This dinner took place on March 24, 2013. It started out as a meal between friends and turned into a cooking extravaganza and turned into a wine and cooking marathon party. The first thing we decided upon was the menu. The meal consisted of; steak and rice, linguine with shrimp sauce, roasted vegetables, bacon wrapped asparagus, and homemade garlic bread.

 

The wine was selected second in order to match the food, the following wines were consumed:

-La Vieille Ferme Ventoux Rouge: This wine is a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, and Cinsault grapes. This wine comes from the Rhone Valley. This wine has a very peppery, dark fruity nose. It it quite full bodied and is very tannic with a long, dry finish. This wine was purchased to match with the steak, rice, roasted vegetables, and garlic bread. While tasting this and eating the aforementioned food it brought out the flavor the best in the steak and rice it was quite a nice compliment to the spice used in cooking and blended well with the slight bitterness of the wine.

- Rex Goliath, Pinot Grigio: As we have just learned from the Drink This Now book, it is quite difficult to make Pinot Grigio and to find a good bottle can be quite pricey. With that being said, we are in college and are on a budget so we had to settle for a lesser quality Pinot Grigio. This wine is quite abundant with citrus flavors and is also quite dry on the finish. This was chosen to pair with the shrimp pasta as well as the roasted vegetables. It did pair well with the shrimp pasta however as the quality of the wine was not so great it diminished the pairing.

- Woodbridge, Merlot: The third and final wine purchased was one by Robert Mondavi. This wine has a cherry, blackberry, spicy nose and it well complemented by a tastes of plum, slight oak, and a dark chocolate flavor. This wine was the best in my opinion because it paired well with almost all of the foods. It was an especially good compliment to the roasted vegetables and the steak with rice.

 

 


Overall, this was a great experience in terms of cooking as well as learning to pair wines with certain foods. I would highly recommend anyone attempt this venture as it was a lot of fun and was highly educational.