Wine Dinner #1

I have been looking forward to having this dinner with my friends for the last few weeks. We had three courses: an appetizer, a main dish, and dessert. Since only three of us were available, we each brought our own food and wine, and I believe that each item we brought was a window into our individual personalities.

Course #1

My friend Jessica brought a lovely alfredo pizza with chicken, spinach, and a balsamic glaze. The pizza was fresh baked from Zeppoli's, which is where she works. The pizza was absolutely divine, with an extra sweet and fluffiness from the fresh baked bread. The glaze was subtle but added a lovely sweetness along with the bread, while the chicken and cheese balanced it back out toward the savory side.

She also acquired a bottle of Jermann Pinot Grigio 2021 from Zeppoli's. This wine was 13% ABV with a medium body and an aroma of pear, apples, honey, and crisp citrus. It tasted smooth and crisp, but it was not too bright and citrusy like some Pinot Grigios I have had that remind me of cider. It was mellow, not too acidic, and had a nice mouthfeel and swallow. The wine comes from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy and tasting notes of Pinot Grigio grapes lean toward white peach, lemon zest, cantaloupe, and almonds. The wine was a little colder than room temperature, but not chilled, which may have contributed to its lack of acidity. According to the Internet, this wine is supposed to have tasting notes of crunchy pear, pink grapefruit zest, melon, and salty mineral along with high acidity. Most of these I did not get except for the pear and possibly the mineral.

This wine paired perfectly with the sweet and savory pizza. It was not too citrusy and acidic that it took over the flavor of the pizza. While the wine was a bit flabby when warm, I think it made the pairing more enjoyable. The balsamic glaze did bring out more acidity in the wine. The wine also made the cheese from the alfredo sauce taste so much richer and fattier, and between the bread and the creamy cheese, the mouthfeel of the wine was exquisite.

Course #2

My other friend Sophie decided to cook her dish at my house, where we hosted the dinner. She made a family recipe: linguine with a clam wine sauce. Her family recipe does not distinguish what type of wine to cook with, it just needs to be a white wine. So she decided to cook with a favorite of hers; a Vigonobles Lacheteau Vouvray 2021. The dish was a wonderful clinic in Italian home cooking. The pasta was garlicy, buttery, with some saltiness from the canned clams. There is a certain savory/meaty flavor that comes from clams that I am unable to succinctly describe.

We paired the same wine, the Vigonobles Lacheteau Vouvray 2021, with this dish. The wine comes out at 11.5% ABV with a light yellow color. After some research, we found that this wine was made predominantly from Chenin Blanc in the Vouvray region of France (hence the name). This varietal of wine usually contains high acidity with varying amounts of sweetness. The winery describes it as having acacia, pear, and almond aromas. We served this wine chilled and I have to say this was an amazing decision. On the nose we got hints of apple and citrus, and prepared ourselves for an acid punch. However, the wine was actually very light bodied and low in acid. It was a slightly sweet wine which I would describe as "honeyed" because it went down so smooth and warmed me up.

As for pairing with the pasta, it was a match made in heaven. The saltiness of the clams completely annihilated any acidity that might have been in the wine, leaving a cold, smooth, sweet nectar in its place. As I mentioned before, it went down like honey. It was a bit duller when paired with the food, but that was okay with us.

Course #3

I have a sweet tooth, and one of my favorite desserts is creme brulee. I was operating in a time crunch so I may not have had enough time to chill the creme brulees, so the result was a semi-set custard. However, the taste and most of the texture of the dish was still there. They had a very creamy, strong vanilla flavor which I enjoy. The cracked sugar on the top gave an additional shot of caramel sweetness.

I thought that a sweet dessert like creme brulee should be enjoyed with another sweet wine. I brought Maynard's 10-year-old Aged Tawny Port from Douro, Portugal. Bottled in 2022, this bottle had an alcohol content of 20% ABV. According to Vivino, this wine has tasting notes of dried fruit like raisin, prune and fig as well as notes of vanilla, caramel, chocolate, and almond. It was served at room temperature and aerated. I found it to be a lovely dessert wine, with an aroma of caramel, butterscotch, dried fruit (although I could not put my finger on which dried fruit), and hot alcohol. I found the wine to be thick, but not heavy. It tasted strongly of chocolate, caramel, and had the hotness and sweetness of vanilla extract. It coated my tongue in a good way, and I found it to be not too acidic.

However, I misjudged this pairing. The creme brulee was far too sweet to serve with the Port. The dessert sapped all of the sweetness away from the wine, leaving the harshness of the alcohol. I think this wine would be very good if it were served with something a bit more bitter, like dark chocolate cake or a cannoli. Next time, I would serve a more tannic red wine with the creme brulees to balance out the sweetness.