wine dinner 2 - dinner with friends :)

This wine dinner, my friends and I had a much more laid back dinner to just break the monotony of classes. It was just my 3 friends and I this time (Calvin, Will, Tushar and I), but we still had a great time!

We started off our first course with apple slices and almond butter paired with a chardonnay from Will. The 2021 Morning Fog Chardonnay from Wente Vineyards ($14) was supposed to be a buttery chardonnay from California. It was a pale transparent yellow color with a grassy and nutty smell that reminded me of walnuts. When tasting it, I could taste a distinct green apple and walnut flavor. It was on the sweeter side, and well balanced with slight acidity. It was a little creamy. I really enjoyed this chardonnay, and would drink this again on its own.

With the apple slices and almond butter, it made the wine drier and more acidic. It did enhance the creaminess of the almond butter and the crispness of the apple too! While the pairing was good, I think I still prefer the wine and appetizer on their own, rather than as a pairing.

The next course was pork sausages and chicken by Tushar paired with The Stump Jump Shiraz 2017 ($12)from me. The wine on its own was a medium red color, and thicker in viscosity. This wine was not a great one and the alcohol taste was almost like an artificial cherry flavored cough syrup. It had strong red berry notes, was dry and medium bodied. I could also detects hints of blueberries and citrus. 

The savory chicken and spicy pork sausages made the wine much more sweeter in my opinion. This made the wine much more palatable and also enhanced the savory from the meat. It enhanced the lesser notes of blueberry and citrus too, which was nice. Overall, while the combination made the wine nicer, I would definitely not drink this wine again since I have tried better. 

The third course was a devils chocolate cake and a 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon from Lapis Luna, both from me. While normally a dessert like the cake would be paired with a sweeter wine (I was initially considering a port), I also read online that a bold deep red with a sweeter chocolatey dessert was also an interesting combination, and I was curious about it. The cab was a great wine with red berry and deep notes. I could definitely taste dried berries and some coca notes with this wine, and it was quite enjoyable.

However, this did not go too well with the cake. The sweetness from the cake was almost overpowering and it made the well balanced cab taste so much more dry which was unpleasant. Moreover, the creaminess of the cake dominated and it was hard to read the flavor of the wine after. I enjoyed both the cake and wine, but would never pair them together again. I think for the next wine and dinner pairing, I'll stick to the tried and true sweet and sweet pairing.

Overall, while the dinner was enjoyable (and the food was amazing), none of the pairings really left a great impression on me. I think the cab and chardonnay were incredible wine finds too, and I'll definitely be purchasing them for future consumption, but I wish that they went better with the food.