Wine & Cheese Pairing 2/8/2022

 Wine & Cheese Pairing!


Hello everyone! Last night, my two friends Marcus and Kevin came over to my place for a wine and cheese pairing! We had an awesome time exploring the different combinations and flavors from three different types of wine and three different types of cheese. We admittedly made a critical error in the tasting process which I will explain later, but overall the night was an awesome experience.  

On the left was our setup for the night. We ate at my coffee table and sat on the floor, but in a strange way, I kind of enjoyed the location in a humble sort of way. We drank the wine in three modest style wine glasses and ate on my wooden cutting board which proved to be a solid set up.
The wines we drank are shown above and are pictured in the order we drank them in (which proved to be a mistake). The first wine we drank was a Cabernet Sauvignon by Winking Owl, made in California with no vintage year listed. The second wine we tried was a Dry Rose of Pinot Noir grapes by Toad Hallow from California with a vintage year of 2019. The final wine we tried was a sparkling wine by Fortune called "Wine of FIRE" which was from Spain and did not specify the grapes or vintage year. 
Next I will walk you through the actual tastings and cheese pairings and how that went down.

 The cheeses seen on the left were Brie (top-left), Parmesan (top-right) and Manchego (bottom-right). We started the night with the Cabernet Sauvignon by Winking Owl which was a red that at first sniff gave off a woody smell with a hint of fruit. After my first sip, I picked up the tannins and my mouth immediately dried out. I also tasted a hint of fruit as well. I then paired the wine with the Brie cheese and I will say that was an awesome duo. Brie cheese is incredibly creamy and that seemed to negate some of the tannic flavor in the Cabernet Sauvignon, I also noted that the pairing was a good mix of dry from the wine and sweet from the Brie cheese, overall pairing 8/10. I then paired the Cabernet Sauvignon with the Parmesan and that was not that good. The bold flavor of the Parmesan clashed with the tannic flavor of the wine and it was just a lot of opposite flavors that did not go well. I still felt alright about this pairing however and gave it a 5/10. The final pairing was with the Manchego cheese and that was terrible. The wine totally over powered the moderate and semi-sweet cheese and just felt like it a blind date that didn't go well, overall 3/10. Overall ranking of the Cabernet Sauvignon was a 6/10, which was surprising since I did not originally have that high of hopes due to it being a $3 Aldi wine (ballin' on budget)!
    The next wine we had was the Dry Rose which smelled sweet and gave me a floral and sweet taste with just a bit of tannic to stay a little dry as well. I first paired this wine with the Brie cheese and it just wasn't right. The creamy cheese did not blend well with a sweeter wine and the tannic I already had in my mouth from the first wine (I know it was a mistake) made it worse. Not the worst pairing of the night though so I gave it a 5/10. Next was the Parmesan and that went alright with another clash of dry wine flavor and strong Parmesan flavor but the sweet part of the Rose helped me enjoy the pair just enough to give it a 6.5/10. The final pairing was with the Manchego and that was something special, it felt as if the neutrality of the Rose being dry and semi-sweet went well with the cheese which was bold but not as bold as the Parmesan. I really enjoyed how these flavors complemented each other and would recommend it to friends, solid 8/10. Overall, I enjoyed this wine but admit that we should have tried it before the Cabernet Sauvignon, very good for a Kroger bottle.... 7/10.
    The final wine of the night was the "Wine of FIRE" by Fortune which was a sparkling wine that had sediment in the bottle which made it look like there was a fire going on in your glass..... (trust me). The first pairing was with the Brie cheese and it was honestly horrid. This was the worse pairing of the night due to the carbonation of the wine clashing heavily with the creamy cheese. I really, really, really disliked this combination and would give it a 1/10. Next I paired the "Wine of FIRE" with the Parmesan and it was also very bad due to the carbonation again clashing with the sharp flavors of the cheese. Not a good pairing at all, 4/10. The final pairing of the night was with the Manchego and it was also not good but since the Manchego was such a tasty cheese, it made the pairing better than the previous two landing it at an average 5/10. Overall my colleagues and I did not like this wine at all due to its sweet and citrus flavor that just seemed to clash with all cheeses in general and probably should not have been at our table last night. BUT you live and learn and I certainly learned that I can't take the heat from the "Wine of FIRE" again, 3/10.
    

 Pictured on the left is me (left), Marcus (middle) and Kevin (right). Had a great time with my friends and enjoyed the pairings and tastings even if they did not all go as planned! I will also stick to the correct drinking order next time for hopefully a better result. Thank you for journeying with me today!                                                                                                                                                           Cheers!                                                                     -Dan

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