Wine Dinner

Tonight we decided to cook our own dinner for the Wine Dinner Tasting instead of go out to see what we could pair with our own cooking. We had a Caesar Salad for the appetizer, Pesto-Chicken Pasta for the main course and Apple Pie for the dessert. It was 8 of us who take the class and we got 3 random wines to try and pair with the 3 entrees.

Wine One

Wine Two

Wine Three

Course One - Caesar Salad

Wine One - Kendall Jackson Chardonnay 2014
                   $11.00
                   13.5% alc.

Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay 2014

This wine smelled like apricot and pear with a hint of citrusy-grapefruit. It tasted very oaky and was buttery on the tongue. It tasted like sweet pears and sour apples. It had a good mid palate and didn't have much of a lingering finish but was sour on the tongue.
After eating the Caesar salad I noticed that it made the wine taste much sweeter, it brought out more of the pear flavors rather than the citrus. It sort of had a zesty lemon hint to it as well but a much more acidic finish.

Course One & Course Two with Wine One & Wine Two

Course Two - Pesto-Chicken Pasta 

Wine Two - The Velvet Devil Merlot 2014 

                   $12.00

                   13.5%

The Velvet Devil Merlot 2014

This wine smelled like black cherry, pomegranate and had a hint of a smokey scent. It tasted pretty bland when first touching the palate but had a good, lingering finish. It did make my mouth a little dry so I think the alcohol wasn't balanced as well with the fruit/sweetness. It had a lingering blackberry and raspberry hint at the end. 

After eating the Pesto-Chicken pasta, I noticed the wine's bite and bitterness was taken away. It made it much more sweeter and smoother. But, after drinking a couple more sips of this wine I noticed it burned my stomach so I know the alcohol was definitely not well balanced. 

Course Three & Wine Three

Course Three - Apple Pie

Wine Three - CM3 Blend 2010 (Cape May Winery)

                      $35.00

                      13.5%

CM3 2010

This wine was a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah (33.3% each). It's actually a wine from my friend's family vineyard in Cape May. It smelled like a nail salon/nail polish immediately. It definitely burned the nose. It had hints of raspberry, blackberry and other dark fruits like black cherries. It tasted like cherry cola, slight tobacco, spicy fig, a hint of raspberry and was very chalky on the palate. It had a better balance than the last overall and had a long finish. 

After eating the apple pie, the wine tasted more bitter but it definitely took away the bite of the high alcohol content. It definitely had more of a red fruit flavor after eating the apple pie - more raspberry, cherry and even strawberry.

Overall, I thought it was very interesting that all of the wines had the same percentage of alcohol, yet they all were balanced so differently. I think my favorite was the Chardonnay but I did enjoy the blend from Cape May as well.