Wine Dinner-Homemade Get Together

On Tuesday, April 23, my roomate and I decided to have our own homemade food and wine pairing dinner. We bought three bottles of wine, and made ourselves some appetizers and dinner to go with the wines. For dinner we made french bread, olive oil and cheese for an appetizer while we made our main course. Then for dinner we had angel hair whole wheat pasta with shrimp, and scallops topped lightly with olive oil. We had a side spinach salad with fresh tomatoes and no dressing. Below is a picture of the main course.

Wine #1:
Name: Fetzer Shaly Loam
Variety: Gewurztraminer
Region: California
Country: USA
Year: 2010
Price: $7.95
   
Winery review: Seasoned. it's often called "gavurtz" because its hard to say, and even harder to spell. This wine through is a secret weapon for taming spicy foods or sipping on its own. Enjoy the honeysuckle, apricot and peach flavors in the glass, and breathe deeply to capture the aromas of rose petals and honeysuckle. Lots of of people enjoy this wine, even if they'll never spell it. Just as for "gavurtz" and they'll know what you mean. (04/23/2013- Wine Label)

My review: I was very excited to try this wine because I have never had a Gewurztraminer before and we had talked about it in class and how to pronounce it. We started with this wine since its a lighter white that we wanted to pair with our bread and cheese for the appetizer. The wine itself had a nose of pears and peaches. It tasted very light and sweet. I really liked this wine a lot and is probably one of my favorite white wines. I thought it pared nice with the cheese, because the cheese took away a little bit of the sweetness.

Wine #2:

Name: Tisdale Cabernet Sauvignon
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Region: California
Country: USA
Year: N/A
Price: $8.99    
Winery review: With flavors of ripe blackberry and plum, our experienced winemakers have crafted this Cabernet Sauvignon to an enticing, full-flavored wine with medium body and an impressive finish. Perfectly paired with your favorite pasta or grilled meat, we invite you to enjoy Tisdale Cabernet Sauvignon and share in life's endless possibilities. (04/23/2013- Wine Label)

My review: I have seen Tisdale wine at the grocery store multiple times but I had actually never bought it, so I decided that I wanted this to be one of the wines, since the label recommended that you could pair it with pasta. The wine itself had a nose of darker fruits as well as a slight pepper. I thought it went extremely well with the pasta. I really really liked this wine a lot and I think its because I thing Cabernet Sauvignons go really well with a dinner type meal like pasta. Because it has more of a body compared to the light angle hair pasta, the combination was perfect and not too heavy. I definately plan on drinking this wine again with a pasta dish.

Wine #3:

Name: Bitch
Variety: Aragon Grenache
Region: Napa Valley, California
Country: USA
Year: 2009
Price: N/A    

Winery review: Dark cherry and raspberry aromas are underpinned with spicy, peppery notes with hints of anise. Aragon Grenache displays extraordinary natural acid balance, even at elevated ripeness levels. I have selected wines, which convey vibrant, juicy fruit together with a very soft, sweet-fruited palate structure. Bitch Aragon Grenache is very approachable now, but don't be deceived into thinking that it won't age. I predict that the wine will develop further personality with 3 to 5 years in the cellar.(04/23/2013- FineWineHouse.com)

My review: When I was at the Vintage Cellar in Blacksburg, VA last week this bottle of wine stood out when I was just looking at all of the wine on the shelves. I thought the title of the wine was funny and it was a very girlie and cool looking bottle. This was the last wine that I had tasted with this dinner. I had never had a Aragon Grenache before that I could remember. It had a peppery nose, especially when compared to the Tisdale Cabernet Sauvingon that I had just tried earlier throughout the dinner. It tasted a little less in body compared to the Cabernet Sauvingon and was less smooth and more sharp. It had a mixture of spiciness and cherries. Even though this was different than the last wine I still really liked how it paired with the pasta. Because we were eating fish and olive oil on the pasta, I felt like this added some spicy flavor to the dinner. I also thought the title of the wine was interesting because towards the end of the dinner we just drank more of this wine as us girls were talking and complaining about meaningless things in life, which goes great with the title "bitch".

Lastly, Below is a picture of myself and with the last wine we had with our dinner.