Sunday, April 7, 2013

Wine Dinner Blog 2

Dinner- Pot Luck with Friends (American Food)


This wine dinner was done on saturday evening before my sororities bi-annual formals in Shannedoah apartment complex. What better way to do a wine dinner than with a ton of friends looking sharp.  (And of course everyone was thrilled I brought wine).  Each couple was assigned a food to bring, and I brought the wine then everyone helped me with the smells and tastings with the food.  

The food of choice was American cuisine, everyone got to bring what ever they wanted to really! We had the classic pigs in a blanket, homemade french fries, and macaroni salad.  And of course mexican wraps, pizza bites, chicken wings a chips.  I made a cheese and grape tray to be "classy" Not pictured was cookies, chicken nuggets, and salad.  Pretty much with had a huge variety of a ton of American food and one "mexican" cuisine.

The wines of choice were Ranier Rose, American Table Wine, Shamong White, and Shamong White.  The wines were tasted by everyone at the place and with most of the foods.  


The first wine I tasted was the "Rainier Rose, An American Table Wine."  This wine is from ·      Tomasello Winery in Hamington New Jersey.  The wineries notes on the wine were as following "A Moderately Sweet Red Wine with the Taste of Freshly Picked Grapes,"  and "It is the most easily described as fruity sweet rose table wine that will remind you of a bunch of freshly picked grapes.  Great chilled with cheese and your favorite meal."  This wine is a non vintage and made from primarly the Catawba grape, Native American Origin.  This rose wine had a very peachy fragrance. This wine was first tried with the hot wings, chicken nuggets, salad, and cheese/grapes.  Five of my friends who tried it all agreed this wine had too sweet of a taste to go with any meats as well as agreeing the sweetness completed the balsamic dressing in the salad as well as the bland cheesy taste of of course the cheese tray. Two of my friends absolutely love the wine with almost everything.  The two girls,  Samantha and Rachel   I believe like this wine with everything because not much experience with wine and their favoriate of bare food moscato.  When I tasted the wine without food, I thought it was great.  I enjoyed the peachy smell and very sweet taste.  The wine was very smooth, taste really fresh and was sweet across the whole palate with no after taste.  I agreed with the others with the choice of the food and wine.  I believe this wine should be only with light food like salad or fruit, and with dessert, It was really that sweet.  


  The second wine tasted was the Shamong White, Valenzano Winery in New Jersey Pine Barrens. The winery review was "A light, fruity, and easy to drink white wine made from niagra grapes." and "Styled after the Shamong Red, this semi-sweet wine has the distinct flavor of fresh picked grapes."  The white wine has the classic "grapey smell" along with a mild sweet flower fragence, very interesting mix.  The wine tasted sweet at first but ended with dry light pear flavor.  I was much more of a fan of this wine with the wings but I still would not recommend it per say.  I very much enjoyed the wine with the macaroni salad.  The semi sweet macaroni salad was complemented by the semi sweet with a dry finish taste of the wine.   All the tasters agreed.  Three of my friends did not like the wine at all because of the dry ending, again the ones used to only drinking very sweet wine, and myself because I just do not like any kind of dry whites.  I believe this wine would have gone best with pasta with light or blush sauces  
 

The third wine tasted was the Shamong Red from Valenzano Winery in New Jersey Pine Barrnes.  The winery review from the bottle and on the website was is "Our famous sweet wine made from locally grown concord grapes.  Its fruity homemade characteristics make  this a very popular all-occasin wine.  Served chilled or at room temperature with any of your favorite foods.  This wine was an great red.  It was a very mild almost sweet red.  It smelled like smuckers grape jelly and quoted perfectly by one guy as tastings like "red alcoholic grape cool-aid.  It was about an half and half split with likings of the wine.  The group who did not perfer this wine said it taste too much like "red wine" and was not sweet enough to drink.  The other half just thought it was a good red "party wine."  It went well with the kinds of foods there, the chicken, pigs in a blanket, as well as cheese and grapes.  It had a slight sweetness but still when red with the meat because of its slight bitter ending.  It mixed well with the cheese and grapes as well because the order of eating wine then cheese than grapes really made the contrast between bitter, cheese, and sweet ending flow. 

Overall it was another fun wine dinner.  I enjoyed the one with my family more because the wines were a little higher rating and the food was as well.  The foods the wines were taste with definitely was not the classiest cuisine and I believe these wines would have all went better with a more a classy light cuisine such as salad, italian wraps, and vegetables   

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