Wine & Dinner Blog #2

For this wine dinner blog, my friend and I decided to take our boyfriends to wine lab and grab a few dishes and pair it with a few wines! It was so much fun, each wine was delicious and the food was also a plus. 

WINES & FOOD: 

For food, we ordered the Spiced Calamari, Chipotle Turkey Sandwich with a side salad and the hot ham sandwich with a side of soup. At wine lab, I ordered the "old world flight." This flight included: 

Le Fils des Gras Moutons Muscadet '20 [France] 

First impression of this wine was that it smells very fresh and flavorful. It was light yellow and thin viscosity. It tasted slightly bitter with a hunt of pear, very light on the palate with hints of lemon, citrus, and green apple. Paired very well with the salad and turkey sandwich. Due to the lightness of the wine, and the freshness of the salad I loved how these two complimented each other. The sandwich was full of flavors that were slightly sweet and savory at the same time, so this wine did not overpower those flavors and paired nicely. Since the hot ham sandwich was slightly sweet, this particular wine was not the best match with this wine. The calamari was very out of my comfort zone, but since I enjoyed the flavors of this wine, I did not mind them paired together!

Empordalia Sinols Rosat '20 [Spain]

First impression of this wine was that it was not as sweet as I had expected, primarily because it was a "rosat" and a light pink color. Rather then being too sweet, it was tart and a bit sour. Very light just like the muscadet and not very berry like, more sour raspberry or cherry flavors popped. When paired with the calamari, I did not like how contrasting the flavors were. With the turkey sandwich it brought out the spicy flavors of the chipotle aioli, the bitterness of the wine was too much when paired with the spiciness of the sandwich. However, the sweetness of the hot ham sandwich was paired well with the bitter wine! 

Palacio Cabernet Sauvignon '17 [Spain] 

First impression of this wine was that it was super dry. Being the only red of the flight, I really liked saving this wine for last because of the bold and dry flavors. It was cherry and plummy. Much lighter than most of the cabernets I have drank, which I prefer. The smell is also not too overpowering. I was not opposed to pairing this wine with each meal, however, since this wine is so bold, I felt as though it overpowered the simple flavors found in each dish. Wine Folly mentions that bold reds, such as cabernet are paired best with red meat, which was not within our dinner.