Wine and Cheese Pairing: Havarti and Rose

 Hello again! This time it is for a wine and cheese pairing! I did a little bit of research as I have no knowledge on what wines would pair well with which cheeses so I turned to my good friend Google for some help. I decided to go with a creamy Havarti and pair it with a rose I found that looks pretty good. I am very excited to try this and see how they two pair together, fun fact about this pairing though, I have never tried this cheese nor the wine before.    

The only type of Havarti I could find was a pack designed for cracker use, but I figured it would work just fine for this little experiment. It is also very convenient that the cheese is already sliced and ready for consumption! I tried the cheese before even touching the wine, just so I could get a good sense of what the cheese tasted like. It had a very smooth and creamy taste with a slightly acidic and buttery taste, but also a little bit on the sweet side. I really enjoy the taste of this cheese and will most likely be adding it into my normal cheese buying routine!

Up next is the bottle of wine, I went with a cheaper rose as I have never tried this type of wine and was unsure if I would like it or not. I spent some time in the store trying to find one that sounded the best based on the winemakers notes. I ended up going with 2021 rose from the Cupcake Vineyards in California. I have seen this brand several times as some of my friends prefer this brand, so I figured it has to be at least a little bit good! Before making my final decision though I read some of the winemakers notes to try and get a little bit more information on it. This wine has flavors of watermelon, strawberry, and white nectarine. The first two sold me as I absolutely love summer fruits and melon and I figured with summer being right around the corner, if I like it I may have found a good wine to enjoy during the upcoming summer break.

I poured myself a nice glass of the wine and gave it the good ole swirl and sniff, it definitely hit the watermelon as that smell was very overpowering to everything else that was trying to come through. I was able to pick up on a hint of floral notes which was a little bit of a turn off for me as I am not a fan of floral scents, but the watermelon smell was hard to escape, even after a couple sniffs! I took a drink and low and behold, I could taste nothing but watermelon as soon as it was in my mouth. A small taste of nectarine followed the watermelon and then I was hit with a very sour taste as I swallowed the wine. The wine was very dry and made me pucker a little bit because of the sourness. I did not like the taste of the wine at all but I decided to go ahead and take a bite of my cheese to see how the two complimented each other, if at all. The cheese tasted a lot saltier than before which was not a bad thing at all, and the creamy taste popped out a lot more. After this I decided to try it in reverse order, taking a bite of the cheese and then taking a drink of the wine to see if it had any affect on the wine. It did not unfortunately as the wine tasted the exact same and still made me pucker, even though I knew what to expect this time around. The wine ultimately did pair well with the cheese, enhancing the flavors I initially tasted but also bringing out the hidden salt flavor that I did not taste the first time around, but the wine was just not my cup of tea! I suppose the hunt for a nice summer wine continues!                          

Wine Dinner Blog

 Greetings! It has been a long semester that has been full of wine knowledge and experiences! I chose to mainly focus my wine tastings on the overall experience and to not write about the majority of them during the semester as I wanted to just enjoy the wine for what it was, but I have decided to do the wine and dinner tasting and actually blog about it! I chose to go to the lovely Zeppoli's Italian Restaurant and Wine Shop located right here in the beautiful Blacksburg area! Upon my arrival to the restaurant I was amazed by the authentic Italian look and feel that was very prominent. The staff were all very friendly and talked to me about the class, as well as helping me pair my foods with the perfect wines! This was my first time ever at the restaurant but it has now been added to my list of favorite places to eat in town!

To start off the dinner, I ordered Tomato Bruschetta which was paired with a Canyon Road pinot noir, pictured here!

 

I started off by first trying the bruschetta by itself and it had a very nice herb taste with a savory finish from the tomato topping. I then swirled and sniffed my wine to take in all of the aromas I could. I have been sick lately with a chest cold and sinus infection so my sniffer is not working at full capacity. Despite that I gave it my best go and was able to get some nice fruity tones as well as a bit of an acidic scent. I took a sip of it and my nose did not lie to me, I was hit in the face with huge cherry flavors, a hint of molasses with a bit of an acidic taste/feel, but a smooth finish to it. I then took another bite from the bruschetta and was BLOWN away! The wine complimented this dish so well and really brought out the taste of the herbs and made the food taste so much better than it originally did. Upon taking my second drink of the wine, much to my surprise, the food brought out stronger flavors of fruit from the wine and made it that much more enjoyable to drink! Next up on the list of food items was fresh baked Italian bread, served with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and herbs! I did not pair this particular dish with a wine but it is worth noting that it was a perfect follow up from the bruschetta and the pinot noir did in fact increase the taste of the herbs and savory balsamic vinegar from this bread.

Moving on to the main course, I ordered the Gnocchi Pollo Pomodoro baked with mozzarella. To pair with this the hostess gave me two different types of wine. The first was a Canyon Road sauvignon blanc and the second was a Columbia Valley chardonnay. 

I took the same approach with this dish as I did with the bruschetta, I tried a bite of the gnocchi, and then I took a smell of the wine, and then tasted the wine before eating another bite of the food. The gnocchi at first had a very good, but basic gnocchi taste. It was in a garlic sauce with sun dried tomatoes so those two flavors were very strong, and very good. I first took a smell of the sauvignon blanc and could immediately smell a very strong citrus scent, but upon my second sniff I got a hint of melon scent. I took a drink of it and could taste the citrus flavor right off, a little bit of grapefruit as well as some lemon. This was followed by a slight taste of melon and pear. It was a very dry wine so after taking a drink I moved into taking another bite of my food. I was blown away by the enhancements made from the wine. The savory taste of the mozzarella really cut through with this second bite and the dish suddenly had an extraordinary flavor profile! Lastly was the Columbia Valley chardonnay. This wine comes from Washington State so I was excited to try it as I have heard good things about their wines. Thankfully, they did not disappoint! This wine was bold and sweet, with scents of lime and lemon, some oak, and a little bit of apple. The taste was very similar to what scents I got out from the wine, but this one had a very silky feel when it was in my mouth, making it a very smooth wine to drink. It had a similar effect on the food, bringing out the savory tastes of the mozzarella, but even more of an impact than the sauvignon blanc. To finish the meal I had an order of cannoli which were fantastic. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience at this restaurant and was shocked at how much the wines actually changed the flavor profile of my food, for the better! I do not think that there was another wine out there that could have been paired with my food any better than the ones that I tried, and I look forward to trying more food and wine pairings throughout my life!

Introduction Post

 Hello! My name is Joshua Cruey and I am excited to start this wonderful adventure learning about the grape and all the amazing types of wine they can make! I have never been a huge fan of wine, though I have only tried a handful of cheaper wines. I am looking forward to exploring the world of wine and hopefully finding a few, or more, that I really like! I am taking this class with my partner (see picture below) as a way to unwind at the end of the week, drink some wine, have some good food, and just enjoy each others company! A little more about me personally, I am an avid gamer, I play several different instruments, and am a huge sports fan. I am in my senior year of BIT-Cyber and I am excited for the semester!

Moving on to my experience with wine, I can think of maybe three total that I have tried. They have not all been terrible, in fact one of them is one of my favorite things to drink! That one would be a blackberry merlot by Arbor Mist. I first tried this wine about a year and a half ago and one of my best friends weddings. I was his best man, him and his wife gifted the entire wedding party a personalized wine glass, and at the reception we busted open a chilled bottle of the blackberry merlot and poured ourselves a nice serving of the wine, toasted to it, and went to town! I have since gotten this exact type of wine a handful of time and have enjoyed it; however, the last bottle I got was not up to the standards of the previous bottles.....I must have gotten a bad batch of grapes! The next type of wine that I got was also a merlot, but I do not have the specific brand or really any other information outside of merlot. I had went to a local restaurant in my hometown, they had just added wine to the menu and so I decided to myself, "Why not?" I ordered a glass of merlot and figured I would try it. This particular glass had sort of a bitter taste and did not pair too well with the jalapeño burger and bacon cheese fries, but it wasn't terrible on its own.

 At this same restaurant, but several weeks later, they had added sangria to the menu. I took a trip to get some food and try out this new sangria to spice up my holiday season! (it was a special Christmas sangria) Again I am unsure of what type of wine they used in the sangria, but it was mixed with several different fruits and spices such as cranberry and cinnamon to give it that nice warm Christmas feel in a cold drink! It was absolutely amazing and I was SO upset when they took it off of the menu. After it was gone my mom and I began to crave this sangria and so I decided to do a little bit of research and take a trip to the store for some ingredients! I tried my hand at making my own, homemade, sangria. I started off with a red wine(could not tell you what kind I got....at this time I knew NOTHING about wine, so I just browsed the options available and tried to pick out a red wine that would fit well with the other ingredients) I also got some apple cider, cinnamon sticks, fresh cranberries, some cranberry juice, and a ripe orange. I combined all of these ingredients and let it sit in the fridge overnight so that all of the flavors could blend. The next night we took it out of the fridge and gave it a try! Much to my surprise it was pretty good, but no where near as good as the one at my local restaurant :(

With this class I am hoping to increase my knowledge of wine and try a bunch of different types so that I can hopefully figure out what kind of taste I really like in my wine. I would also like to be able to learn enough to be able to speak the language of wine and then try my hand at making a sangria again, but this time combine everything properly and get a really good taste! Apart from learning the language though, I am looking forward to learning a little about the wine making process, the timeline it takes to make, the proper ways to care for and harvest the grapes, and what exactly goes into making all of the different types of wine! On top of all of that, I am looking forward to seeing what adventures my partner and I will go on while taking this class together and make some amazing memories with the beautiful thing that is the grape!