Wine Dinner #2

Appetizer: We first started the three course meal off by opening the three bottles of wine a couple hours beforehand. I have found over the last couple weeks that doing this allows the wine to breathe and takes some of the heat from the alcohol away so you can just focus on the flavor profile. The first course included my mom's homemade meatballs that featured sirloin veal pork. I felt that the acronym wine went very well with the meatballs because they were both pretty sweet. I especially like the vanilla component to the wine and thought it went very well with the veal component of the meatballs. 

Name: Acronym

Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon 

Region: California

Country: United Staes

Year: 2012

Price: $10.00

Winery Review: "The Acronym Cabernet Sauvignon is a laid back red loaded with dark fruit character and a hint of spice. This Cab can be paired with heartier fare or enjoyed simply on its own. 

My Review: This wine had a big plum and vanilla component on my pallet and finished with a little taste of spice.

Creamy Skillet Lasagna:  This dish consisted of campenelle pasta, tomato sauce, turkey, and an array of different spices including oregano, red pepper flakes, and fresh basil. We paired with this a Cabernet Sauvignon from the great continent of Australia. This cab sauv did not go as well with the pasta as I would of thought. Both the wine and pasta were strong in their respective taste. The pasta had a lot of spice and the wine packed some heat. I would of like it if the wine brought down the taste of the pasta a little as I am not a big fan of spicy food.

Name: Benefactor Cellars
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon 
Region: South Eastern
Country: Australia
Year: 2012
Price: $5.95
Winery Review: "A juicy, ripe and fresh Cabernet Sauvignon, with notes of cola, cherry pie topping and fig paste. Surprisingly fresh with acid to balance out the pancake syrup, charcoal and plum cake flavors."

My Review: We tasted this wine right when we opened the bottle and it had a very high tannin structure and therefore packed some heat. However after we let it sit for awhile, it calmed down a lot and we could pull out flavors of fruit and coke cola.

Dessert: For the last course we paired chocolate cake with a Chianti from Italy. The cake was very rich and needed something to take the richness off of it. The wine was able to do that a little. The wine has a chocolate component to it which I do not think paired well with chocolate cake. Too much chocolate!! However I did think the strawberry component of the wine paired excellently with the cake. I also enjoyed the saltiness of the wine with the cake.









Name: Gaetano D'Aquino
Variety: Chianti
Region: Firenze
Country: Italy
Year: 2012
Price: $4.95
Winery Review: " Dark red color, but with a big change to light magenta at the rim. The nose is of course young, and somewhat unyielding. What we do get is a brooding orange juice meets red fruit with some charcoal, graphite, and even mushroom aromas. Just barely medium bodied, there is plenty of reticent fruit needing air and bottle age to assert itself. A little too thin and weak to get a big score, this one is still basically complete and competent. The finish has graphite type dry tannins affecting the not so exertive black cherry and blackberry fruit."

My Review: The nose of this wine was very interesting. It had aromas of charcoal as well as a salted chocolate pretzel nose as well. The taste had a little strawberry and some other fruits in there as well.