Last night I gathered a few professional tasters (i.e. close friends) at my way too warm apartment to try out the new tasting party that I created for our members. We tasted through five wines using a format that I learned in my sommelier training to evaluate the wines. It was great for me to see how the party works with a crowd, and to really analyze these wines. It was great for them to learn a bit more about how wine tasting really works and how to pull out all of those aromas and flavors from the wine. By the end of our tasting, I think everyone felt that they had learned quite a bit.
Once we were done with the serious tasting part, we got in to the food and wine pairing part. I have created recipes for each of our wines, and we spent the evening tasting the different wines with the different dishes. It was a good thing we did because we learned to change a few of the pairings and adjust the dishes to highlight the wines. We also played with three different types of cheeses to see how they interact with different wine styles. We paired up the Semillon and the Malbec with a goat cheese, a sharp cheddar and a gruyere style cheese that we got at the Ballard Farmer's Market earlier in the day.
Here is what we decided on:
Semillon - great with the fig jam and goat cheese, surprisingly good with the sharp cheddar, horrible with the gruyere!
Malbec - great with the gruyere, okay with the goat cheese but really good with fig jam, not so good with the sharp cheddar. We also tried the Malbec with a grilled flank steak and chimichurri. We loved the chimichurri but found that it overwhelmed the wine a bit. Turns out, the Malbec was really good with the next dish...
eight Syrah - We had this with prawns sauteed in a Oaxacan black mole sauce. I know...shellfish and syrah? It worked because the mole had a great chocolate component that gave the dish good depth and brought the prawns up to the level of the Syrah. This dish was also really good with the Malbec.
CV Merlot - We used this wine in the tasting, but for the sake of making it to work this morning, skipped it for dinner. The recipe that I had created for this wine, we used for the Cabernet, but I think it would be awesome with either wine.
CV Cabernet Sauvignon - Oh yum: I loved this pairing. We did herbed parmesan polenta topped with a cherry tomato and wild mushroom ragout. So many times, people will tell you to avoid vegetarian dishes with Cabernet at all costs. However, there were so many earthy notes in this dish that it turned out to be a great pairing. This was also the dish that showcased the wine the best out of all of our courses.
If you are interested in hosting a tasting at some point in time, let me know! I can either send you the "tasting in a box" that we tried last night, or if you are an Optu member, we can arrange a private tasting for up to 10 guests.
Ben, preparing for the tasting.
Evaluating the eight Syrah.
Katie and Dara trying out the Semillon with goat cheese and fig jam.
(It was too hot inside...)
We even wore out the puppy.
3 comments:
The other night, my husband and I had the Malbec with Flank steak kebabs and grilled veggies (onion, green pepper, shitake mushroom, and asparagus). The wine was so good that after one sip from my glass, my husband dumped the half full beer that he had and got himself his own glass of wine.
Hey Jess,
Over Memorial Day weekend we had a wine tasting with 3 other couples (so 8 of us total). We tasted 4 rounds of wines blind by varietal. Included in the list were the Eight red wine as well as the 05 CV Cab. I provided a variety of aromas to aid in tasting (berries, anise, cigar, wht pepper, vanilla bean, cinnamon, cedar chips) It worked out really well and we feel it offered our friends and well as ourselves a different perspective on appreciating wine. We then enjoyed the wines with a prime rib dinner. It was an amazing evening!
Todd & Melinda Knapp
That sounds like a great evening! I love the idea of having out some items for aroma comparison - that really does help to identify those items in the wine.
YUM!
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