This past weekend, my friends and I decided to have our second wine dinner of the semester. We spent Saturday afternoon volunteering for Big Event at Virginia Tech, and worked up quite the appetite. I wanted to do a South American themed dinner, due to the recent guest speaker Scott Drake. He came to our class and gave a presentation of South American wines and foods. He brought in a traditional Chilean dish called Pastel de Choclo. It is similar to a shepherd's pie, but has a layer of sweet corn instead of potatoes on top. I'm getting ahead of myself, though; let s first start with the appetizer course.
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| First appetizer wine |
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| Barefoot Summer red with artichoke dip |
We had two sets of appetizers. The first was a homemade artichoke dip paired with a Barefoot summer red. The label says to enjoy the wine over ice, but we just chilled it instead. The artichoke dip was delicious, as most unhealthy things are. It was very cheesy. I thought the wine went very well with the dip. For a wine that costs $4.95 per bottle, it was pretty good. It had a red fruit nose as was very sweet. It was a simple wine, and the flavor left my mouth quickly. But a nice pairing to start the meal.
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| Second appetizer wine |
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| Spicy appetizers with spicy wine |
Our second set of appetizers was made by another guest. The majority of these were heavily spiced. There were jalapeno poppers with sausage filling, Cajun style cocktail shrimp, and a brie-filled loaf of bread. Along with these appetizers, a Napa Valley wine from Peju was opened. This was probably my favorite pairing of the entire meal. The jalapeno poppers were amazing, and super spicy. The wine was a blend of red and white grapes. It was brown-red in color, and was all about the spice. Spicy nose and spicy taste. This wine paired excellently with the poppers. Instead of contrasting the spicy food, it augmented the spice, which I personally enjoyed. It was too hot for some of the guests, but they were wimps. It was hard to pace myself and save room for the main course.
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| Fruit bomb wine for main course |
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| Pastel de Choclo with Shiraz wine |
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| Pastel de Choclo recipe |
Next was the main course. My friend Evan and I were the chefs. I found a recipe online for the Pastel de Choclo. The traditional style uses ground beef, but we decided to use chicken. I went to the Vintage Cellar and asked Scott what would pair well with the dish, and he recommended any large fruit bomb. So I got an Australian Shiraz that was just that. This was a big red wine; $15.95, 14.8% alcohol. This wine was dark red and hot all the way through. I could smell the alcohol on the nose. It tasted of dark fruits. Overall, I didn't think it went that great with the food. The sweet corn topping was hard to pair with. I would say that I enjoyed each separately more that I did together.
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| Dessert course |
For the last course of the meal, we had a chocolate cake with a Riesling wine. The wine was from the Chateau de St. Michelle winery, in Woodenville, Washington. I happened to visit this winery, and taste this wine, when I lived in Seattle during the summer of 2012. This is a very good wine that I highly recommend. It is crisp and smells of light fruit. It is fairly acidic. I thought it paired well with the sweet chocolate cake, which had a very creamy topping.
Overall, the wine dinner was delicious. I had a lot of fun with my friends making the food and tasting the wine. Everyone enjoyed the flavors. We will probably do one more dinner before the end of the semester. Till next time!
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| The lovely ladies |
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| I fun time was had by everyone |
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| The stag got a little wild |
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