Dinner Blog: Food and Wine Pairings

So this past week I had the opportunity to do two different food and wine pairings, one with the girlfriend, and one with two friends of mine. I would like to share my experiences with both for this dinner blog. First we will start with the meal I made for my girlfriend and I. Now, since the meal itself was fairly pricey, I only bought a single bottle of wine to share. Earlier last week when we had the guest speaker in to talk about wine from Portugal I had really been wanting to try Vinho Verde. Chuck I believe his name was, said something about Vinho Verde pairing very nicely with scallops, and since I absolutely love scallops I figured this would be a lovely meal to make to try this wine with. So I hit up Kroger and bought a pound of scallops along with some rotini, alfredo sauce, a few spices and a red pepper, and then a nicely priced 9 dollar bottle of Broadbent Vinho Verde. I went to work on the alfredo sauce (a special blend of things which my girlfriend absolutely loves) while the noodles and scallops were cooking.

Once everything was done and cooked to where I was pleased we made our plates and dug in.The pasta dish was made with a fairly cheesy alfredo sauce with some sweet pepper flavors since I always mix in some diced red pepper to give it a little more flavor. The scallops were done very simply, just dipped in butter and then some old bay sprinkled on each side.

Let me just say that this pairing was absolutely amazing to my palate and if I had the time and money to make this meal 3 to 4 times a week I most definitely would. I first tried the Vinho Verde by itself and was extremely impressed. A nice fruity and zesty wine with a touch of carbonation to it. It really reminded me of a moscato but with a lot more flavor and crispness to it. Peach and melon bursts are ever present. A great wine that I can drink easily by itself. The food was also amazing and the Vinho paired perfectly. It really brought out the juiciness of the scallops and the sweetness in my alfredo sauce. The taste did change slighty after I had been eating and became a tad more tart but I actually really enjoyed it. Being a lover of sweeter, crisp wines I really enjoyed the tartness with the sweet flavors of the meal. I even was a little hesitant putting the old bay on the scallops because I wasn't exactly sure how it would affect the wine but it really all came together very nicely. The food had some big bursting flavor, as did the wine, and I must say that I am most definitely now a lover of vinho verde and have discovered an amazing pairing. Lastly, here are my girlfriend and I enjoyed the vinho.

Now I would like to do a little write up on the other pairing I did with two of my friends Derek and Isaac. Yes we did we a pairing with a Cheeseburger and french fries, but yes, we did take this very seriously. We are all burger lovers and had heard that Syrah/Shiraz is a great wine to accompany a cheeseburger with. So we all hit up Five Guys, got some great burgers and then bought two bottles of Shiraz, both from the south eastern region of Australia (Little Penguin and Banrock are the wineries).

For the Little Penguin, it came off as a typical Shiraz to me and I wasn't really getting a lot on the nose besides dark cherry aromas. It was a lot different from what I was expecting taste wise. It was smooth, with some tannins but then towards the end there was a nice subtle touch of sweetness. The Banrock was a whole different animal on the the nose. It had some hints of cherry but had a lot of darker earthy tones. Taste wise it didn't really seem that different than the little penguin except that it didn't have the touch of sweetness to the end. I was a fan of both before I had even touched my meal.

When I finally started eating and drinking together I was thoroughly impressed. The Shiraz really paired nicely with the burger as expected, and really brought out some of the spice and juicy meat flavors. I definitely enjoyed the Little Penguin bottle better with the burger just because it had that touch of sweetness towards the tail end and almost made the burger seem juicier and more flavorful. Now with the french fries, which were cajun fries, this wine took them to a whole other level. The fries were spicy to begin with, and then when pairing them with the Shiraz, it just intensified the hell out of them. It turned the spicy knob from a 5 up to about an 8 or 9 for my palate. I actually enjoyed this though, as I enjoy spicy foods. Now someone else who might not so much, I wouldn't recommend the cajun with the Shiraz. All in all, a very nice set of pairings and I have learned a great deal from the both.