Dinner - Home Cooked Meal

Family Wine and Food Pairing with Homemade Wines

As I mentioned in my first blog post, Preface: My Experiences with Wine and Alcohol, my parents have been home brewing their own wines for a year or so now. As an excuse to try all their wines, and in an attempt to get double extra credit in my Geography of Wine class, I set up a wine and food pairing dinner with their homemade wines over spring break. I was so excited to get school credit for having dinner with my family. I mean, how many other people can say they have ever done that?

Sam and I talking about Geography of Wine

My parents and I spent a few hours coming up with plans for the wine and food pairing. We decided to extend invitations to a few close relatives, and throughout the evening 1) I talked about my Geography of Wine class at Virginia Tech, adding comments about what I have learned in class, 2) my dad talked about the wines he had made and the decisions he made on the food pairings, and 3) my mom served everyone a small glass of wine and a few bites of the paired food.

The final decisions on the wine and food pairings were as follows:
(All beverages and dishes were homemade)

1. Johannesburg Dry Riesling | Shrimp Scampi with Lemon Butter Sauce
2. Sauvignon Blanc | Spicy Thai Chicken Soup
3. Australian Chardonnay | Lemon Pepper Chicken
4. Merlot | Pepper Crusted Smoked Pork Tenderloin
5. Chilean Malbec | Grilled Grass Fed New York Strip Steak
6. Australian Petit Verdot | Lamb with Balsamic Reduction
7. West Coast Pale Ale | Baked Ziti

The guests sitting/standing around the bar.

At the beginning of the night, my mom had everyone come around the bar and introduced them to the show we were about to put on. She started by talking briefly about my dad and the wines that he’s making, about how my girlfriend and I were taking a course at Virginia Tech, and how this dinner was to help us fulfill a requirement for the class. She quickly handed the center stage to Sam and me to fill them in on the rest. After talking a short while about the class and about some of the extensive knowledge we were learning about wines in college, everyone was ready to learn more and dive right into the drinking.

My dad introducing one of his wines.
My mom opening and preparing to serve.

So now about the drinks and how they were paired...

The wines (left to right): Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot

The Pairings

 

Johannesburg Dry Riesling | Shrimp Scampi with Lemon Butter Sauce

 

Since starting this class, I can say that Riesling is definitely a varietal that I like over others. This Riesling fits right into that category. On the nose this wine is very floral with light fruity notes. On the palette, it is a deliciously crisp acidic wine. A little fruity, but with no particular fruit sticking out. I also find this wine quite dry, hence its name, but the dryness doesn't bother me. This wine has a perfect balance of fruit and dry.

Pairing this wine with shrimp scampi makes this wine even more enjoyable. The clam butter sauce on the scampi complements the acidity of the wine quite well, leaving one wanting more wine after the shrimp and wanting more shrimp after the wine. Being one of the less complex wines of the night, the creamy scampi sauce complemented the wine perfectly.

Sauvignon Blanc | Spicy Thai Chicken Soup

 

I blogged about this wine earlier in the week because I wasn't sure if we would be including it in the dinner, but it made the cut. So, in tasting this wine again, I want to verify my original tasting notes. The Sauvignon Blanc has citric notes of lemon and lime on the nose with a little cinnamon spice. I cant find the baked raisin bread smell anymore, and that could have something to do with the baking my parents were doing when I first tried the wine. However, on the palate this wine definitely has the lemon grassy flavors as I remember. Overall, this is a very delicious wine on its own.

The Spicy Thai Chicken Soup paired with this wine was from a recipe my dad found online earlier in the week. The recipe was tweaked a little to lessen the spice in the soup and to accommodate for the company. The flavors and spice of the soup pair well with the Sauvignon Blanc, not overpowering it, but helping to bring out a little more complexity in the wine.

Australian Chardonnay | Lemon Pepper Chicken 

 

Like most of the Chardonnays I have tasted in the past, this Chardonnay is quite fruitful. On the nose one can find several profiles of different pit fruits. There is also a slight butter under tone due to the slight oaking. On the tongue, again, the flavor profile of pit fruits and a hint of smooth buttery flavors. There is a heavier butter and spice turn on the finish.

The accompanying dish is a lemon pepper chicken. The lemon flavors in the chicken help to bring out and emphasize the fruits in the wine, and the black pepper helped to keep the buttery flavors at bay. Chardonnay, by popular demand, has shifted from a heavily oaked wine in the past to a stainless steal wine today. This homemade Chardonnay is a nice change from the norm, and a wonderfully crafted oaked wine.
 

Merlot | Pepper Crusted Smoked Pork Tenderloin 

 

Example of wine and dish served.

My dads Merlot has a very typical aroma profile of red fruits and berries. I also find what I have been calling "vinegar" on the nose, as well as the smell of buttered popcorn. On the palate this wine is very light, with your typical red fruits and berries. There was flavors of butter and a little spice as well. This wine is a little more complex than the white wines in the tasting, but definitely less complex than the other red wines.

I do not think the dish does this wine justice. The pepper crust on the pork is very over powering and almost drowns out the flavors of the wine, leaving the wine less bodied in the mouth. On the other hand, I think the wine would go well with the pork if it were a little less peppery. The smoked pork does help to reduce the butter flavors and smooth out the overall flavor of the wine.

Chilean Malbec | Grilled Grass Fed New York Strip Steak with Spicy Rub

 

The Malbec has Very nice aromas of sweet chocolate and cherry. On the palate, this wine has quite a heavy spice at first, bus as it moves into the mid palate and finish, it rounds out and finishes real smooth. This wine is an excellent wine on its own and and even better with food.

This wine is being paired with a New York Strip and couldn't be paired with anything more perfect. I always love a nice red wine with my steak, and this couldn't be a better pairing.

Australian Petit Verdot | Lamb with Balsamic Reduction

 

The Petit Verdot is the most interesting wine of the night. To go into a little background of this wine, I was told this wine needs to sit on the shelf for at least 7 years. My parents have been tasting the wine as it has aged almost once a month and terms I have heard from those tastings include "Dirty Socks", "Dirt", etc. It is only been 7 months since bottling now and from the smell I can already tell that this wine has a lot longer to go to reach its full potential. 

On the nose there are aromas of chocolate and small berries. On the palate this wine is very dry. I find a very nice grape flavor with undertones of coffee. I can tell why some people would be very put off by this wine. It is a very mature wine, and has still quite a bit of aging to do before it shows its true colors.

Paired with the lamb, this wine is amazing. I am not a big lamb person, but the wine and lamb combination went really well.

West Coast Pale Ale | Baked Ziti

 

West Coast Pale Ale and Baked Ziti

The last pairing of the night was a homemade pale ale that my older brother brewed. Just to be clear, I am not a beer drinker. I will usually stick with a hard cider, a glass of wine, a mixed drink, or a wine cooler. However, this beer was not bad. I would have been willing to have a second or third glass of this beer, had it not been for the wine. I don't have much to say for tasting notes, because I don't have anything to compare it with, but it is definitely not one of those "redneck watered down pieces of shit all collage students drink," to quote my professor.

Red Wine Vinegar

 

In addition to the wine and food, my dad is also fermenting his own red wine vinegar from a 1983 Chateau Potensac Bordeaux from Medoc, Bordeaux, France. Not much to mention about it other than it tasted like vinegar, but I thought it was worth noting here.

The Rest of the Night 

 

After everything was said and done, all the wines and beer were tasted, and everyone made there final comments, my parents, Sam and I stepped down from center stage and opened the bar up for the dinner portion of the night.We stepped aside and allowed everyone to try their own parings of the wine and food. I certainly went back for some of the Petit Verdot and some of the New York Strip. I love red wine and steak.

I decided that my favorite wine of the night was the Sauvignon Blanc, when drinking the wine alone. My favorite pairing wine of the night was the Petit Verdot with any of the red meats. I took a bottle of each of these wines with me to VT to let my friend try as well. I think I found my new favorite wine store and I cant wait to go home again to share another bottle with my parents and taste what new varietals and blends they might be brewing.