For the second wine dinner blog I put together a meal with my roommates Peter, pictured on the right and Sam not pictured, I am on the left of the photo. We had a fabulous time drinking and eating together and I think we ended up with some real good food and wine pairings.
Similar to our first wine dinner, for our first course I put together a little charcuterie board to pair with a Sauvignon Blanc. On the board we had two types of goat cheese, an herb goat cheese and a strawberry goat cheese.. Then to drink we had a 2023 Sauvignon Blanc from Matua which is out of Marlborough, New Zealand. The wine alone had real nice light fruity notes, in particular I got a bit of a melon sort of flavor and it had a nice crisp finish which is why I chose to pair it with the rich creamy goat cheese. I found that the herb goat cheese had a saltier, richer taste which seemed to pair better with the sweetness of the wine. The strawberry goat cheese on the other hand was sweeter and I found had more complements with the wine as compared to the contrast between the herb goat cheese and the wine. However, overall I think both pairings were fabulous and the balance between the light and fruity wine and the creamy, savory cheese had me going back for more after every bite.
For our main course we had a nice herb crusted pork tenderloin which I roasted in the oven alongside a lemon, herb and parmesan risotto. To pair with the steak we had a Pinot Noir from Z Alexander Brown, on its own this wine had some fabulous notes vanilla, chocolate and a bit of barrel char. I found it had some similar notes to bourbon which was very intriguing to me. Then paired with the pork I found the velvety chocolate and barrel char notes of the wine went well with the deep rich flavors of the pork. However, I found that these two alone could be a lot after awhile and even a little overwhelming, I found that if you combined a little of the risotto with the pork to add a little creaminess to cut the bold flavors of the meat and the wine it helped balance everything together. I wasn't expecting all three to pair so well together but I was pleasantly surprised.
The risotto itself was meant to be paired with a Pinot Grigio from Biltmore Estate. I really enjoyed this wine on its own with its light, crisp taste and notes of apple and some citrus, the only downside to this wine on its own was it was a little acidic. However, when combined with the creamy risotto the acidity was actually welcome, I found the acidity of the wine really helped cut through the rich creaminess of the risotto and I really enjoyed this pairing. Lile with the Pinot Noir I also tried combining the pork and risotto with the Pinot Grigio and I found that the rich flavors from the pork and risotto combined really just overpowered this light white wine. So I really enjoyed having a wine to pair with both the main dish and the side this time as I found some delicious pairings that were completely unintended. I was happily surprised by how well the pork and risotto together paired together with the Pinot Noir and it is definitely something I will try again.
Overall I had a really great time just hanging out with my friends, cooking, eating, and especially drinking. All 3 dishes and all 3 wines were big hits and I'm excited to do this again soon! I'm also very pleasantly surprised by the accidental pairing we discovered during this meal and I'm excited to see what other unintended or designed pairings I can come up with in the future.
