Wine Dinner, March 10, 2016

Dad opened the Gamay

My brother and his girlfriend came down for the occasion.

I had the fortune to visit my parents this spring break, and I asked if they could help with a wine pairing dinner. Accompanied by my girlfriend, and my brother and his girlfriend (evidently, they also took the Geography of Wine class a few years ago) who came down from Alexandria, I chose some of Bacchus's (the store, not the god) wines, and Dad and Mom helped to pick out some good dishes to go with them. Here's what we came up with:

First course (salad and appetizer):

I chose an oaked Chardonnay, and my parents also added a Gamay to the appetizer dish. We paired the Gamay with a feta, onion, and balsamic vinaigrette spring salad. I think everyone really enjoyed this particular pairing, as the sour-sweet vinaigrette was a perfect match to the semi-sweet Bergamais. The dry finish of the wine was taken away due to the salad's sweet/sour/creaminess. 

We then had butternut squash ravioli, cooked in duck fat and the chardonnay that we paired with it. This was an interesting dish, as I am not really a fan of chardonnay, but something about this one was quite tasty. It paired very well with the squash ravioli, where the butteriness (if that's a word) of the ravioli played off the chardonnay, eliminating the bite, and allowing the creamy, oaky, vanilla flavors to come through in the wine. There was nearly no bitterness in the dish, and really allowed our appetites to peak. Everyone else seemed to really enjoy this dish, even if it wasn't a comfort food. 

Second (Main) Course:

This is the one I was really excited about, as I got to pick out my dad's amazing oaked Cabernet Sauvignon, which as I know is generally paired with a big, bold dish like steak or lamb, but we decided on duck. I was especially excited as I hadn't really had duck up until this point, and the way dad prepared it had me drooling. He pan seared the duck breast and broiled it to a perfect color. He then made a topping of baby bella mushrooms in a cabernet and duck fat reduction. The cab was certainly big, alcoholic, and everything else that comes with the big daddy of reds, but it also had a big fruity side. The duck and the cab went very well together. The fruity side of the cab shined through the dry, "gameyness" of the duck and the sweet/sour mushrooms. The acidity of the wine and the fatty duck worked well together. It was truly an amazing pairing, and everyone else seemed to think so. 

Third Course (dessert): 

This is the course Morgan and I helped on. It was a boxed cake, but a rather challenging one. I decided on the Cabernet Franc Dessert Wine that dad made, as the dark chocolate I paired it with at the winery had me thinking this would be a great way to finish the dinner. This cake had a melty, fudge center that definitely made up for my last wine dinner's failed chocolate lava cake (which basically became chocolate cake). My dad made a fantastic raspberry/cab franc drizzle to go over the cake, which really tied the whole course together. The fruity, floral Cab Franc paired well with the semi-sweet chocolate cake, and the raspberry drizzle bridged any doubtful gaps between the two. This truly was sweet, but after the lightly acidic, buttery appetizer, and the fatty, meaty main course, this was a long awaited taste to have dancing on the palate.

My mom likes to pose for pictures...

If you hadn't noticed, nearly every dish had some sort of tie in with the wine it was paired with, be it by cooking it in the wine or making a drizzle or topping for the dish. This was intentional, but if my dad didn't do it, I wouldn't have even thought of it. John Boyer's Udemy course alluded to the idea of pairing a dish cooked with a certain wine with that same wine. This was textbook proof that this is an amazing way to bring together all of the great flavors of a wine/food combination while getting rid of what may be not so great characteristics of a wine drank by itself. I was glad I had the opportunity to do this sort of thing with my family, and I can't wait to plan another one in my own house a few years from now.