Wine Dinner Blog 1
Dinner – Travinia
(Italy)
Several
weekend and holidays during the school year I visit my uncle in Sterling,
VA. My hometown in New Jersey is a
very far drive; likewise it is a far drive for my parents to come to tech. So an easy middle point is of course
NOVA, where everyone else lives.
While visiting one weekend in spring we decided to leave all the little
cousins and children at home and go out for an Italian restaurant (as were all
Italian it is always our go to cuisine).
The
restaurant of choice, Travinia seen above, was nuzzled into the corner of a
vibrant shopping center. The
outing of the restaurant had a huge sign that said Wine Bar raising my
expectations of the place. The
inside was an upscale bar with modern lights and bar top. The dining area was very cliché with
raised sitting and tables scattered.
My family and I were seated at a table near the window in the far side
of the restaurant. Good thing too
because when wine starting flowing everyone gets louder!
The
three wines were ordered and brought out first. “Canto de Apalta”, “ La Terre
White Zinfandel”, and “Steele Dupratt Chardonnay.” Mussels were ordered as as appetizers. Dinners were all Italian of
course. Mussels and bread with
olive oil blend to start out with followed by dishes including, breaded veal in
cream sauce, egg plant parmesan, stuffed pasta with chicken and ricotta, as
well as the classic shrimp scampi.
My mom, my aunt, and myself ordered the wine of our choices, and we
traded to taste with each meal. My
father order beer (not a big wine fan) but gave each a sip with his meal to
help me out!
The first wine I tasted was the Steele Dupratt
Chardonnay. This wine was a 2008
vintage, 100 % Chardonnay coming from the Mendocino valley region in
California. This wine was served
in a 750ml bottle. The fragrance
of the wine was a distinct sweet pear smell. The initial taste with no food was Crisp, sweet, very easy
going down a little kick in the middle of the taste but smooth all
together. This wine was tried
first with mussels, and the common agreement was no, this wine should not be
eaten with mussels by any means; the slight sweetness of the chardonnay with a
peary taste did not go with seafood at all for my palate. Next the wine was served with a
colorful salad with vinaigrette and balsamic dressing. The combination was great together,
both mild sweetness and complement each other. This wine was my personal choice so I tasted it when my
dinner, stuffed pasta with chicken, roma tomatoes, spinach, and feta cheese
with a cream sauce. I was not super fond of it, but did not dislike it. The
chardonnay was too sweet for how rich the dinner was, the chicken and sauce,
too heavy really for such a sweet wine.
I
would have enjoyed a mild not dry red wine instead with this food.
The second wine I tasted was the La Terre White Zinfandel. This
wine is a 2011 vintage from La Terre cellars in California made of 100 percent zinfandel
grape. The initial fragrance and taste of this wine without
food was strong fruity smell, mostly raspberry and a smooth and sweet apricot
taste. This wine was not
tasted with the mussles. The wine
mixed very well salad and vinaigrette the wine mixed well with salad and
balsamic dressing. The blush
colored zinfandel enhances the sweetness of the dressing and just really
brought out the normally timid sweet flavors of the salad. This wine was my moms choice of wine
and she enjoyed it with egg plant parm.
Her rating of the wine with her dinner was excellent. The sauce and the wine were both very
sweet and sat nicely on the palate together, complementing each others flavors.
The
third and last wine I tasted at dinner was Canto
de Apalta. This is a 2010 Red
Blend Vintage from Chile, South America. It has a 14.1 percent alcohol by
volume and is a blend of Carmenère, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. The wine had no distinct fragrance
other than I hate to say it but classic red wine smell. The initial taste was smooth going down
with sight bite at the end, overall slightly bitter. I had no comment with the red and the salad, no change or
notice of flavor was really observed when mixing the two. The red blend was very good with the
mussels because the sweetness of the mussels in the garlic sauce counteracted
the bitterness of the red wine. The
red blend was my aunt’s choice of wine.
She had the wine with veal and cream sauce. Her comments were not terrible but would have been better with
a lighter wine because of the strong tomato based cream sauce.
Overall
this was a great experience the zinfandel was much too sweet for my palate to
be eating with food other than the salad, however I greatly enjoyed the chardonnay
and the red blend. I would
absolutely like to keep experimenting with wine and food after this experience!
