Dinner- "Kathryn's House"

We love having our wine dinners!

On Thursday, March 22 Kathryn, Sydney, and I made a dinner at Kathryn/Sydney's apartment so we could try a couple different wines with a homemade dinner.  We all went to the store together and picked out a meal consisting of an appetizer, entree and sides, and a dessert. 

 We first tried the wines without any food to see how they tasted alone.  The first wine I tasted was Ebano Ribera del Duero.  This was a Tempranillo from Spain made in 2007.  It was only $7.95 and it was a great wine.  The wine was very simple with a little tingly/burning after taste.  There was a sweet taste at first, however, the after taste was more fruity.  I really enjoyed this wine and it would be perfect to eat with all different types of food.

Ebano Ribera del Duero was the first wine that we tried.  It was great!

The second wine that we tried was Crucero Carmenere.  This was exciting to try because I was able to meet one of the owners of the vineyard that it came from in Chile. He was very interesting to meet and it made it more exciting to buy since I got to meet one of the makers.  This wine was from Colchagua Valley, Chile and it was made in 2010.  The wine was only $7.95.  This wine was very, very dark in color.  Upon tasting, it was a pepper explosion in your mouth.  The wine was oaky, and a great balance of tastes.

This was the Crucero wine that we tried from Chile!

For the first course,  we had Brie cheese with toasted multigrain French bread.  We were interested to see what would happen once we paired the wine and cheese together.  The Ebaro wine did not have too much of a difference once paired with the wine.  The taste was still simple and no new flavors were exposed.  I was expecting a little difference with this Tempernillo, but I didnt find anything different.  With the Crucero,  there was a huge difference.  The wine was not so harsh and peppery.  Instead, it was much milder and tasted more simple with the cheese.  I liked the wine much better with the cheese than drinking by itself.

We love Brie paired with wine

Our next course was the entree: Spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and green beans with potatoes.  Sydney made a great recipe for spaghetti sauce that included panchetta and spices!  The dinner was awesome and both wines paired well with the entree.  However, for both wines, the original flavored returned.  I did not notice any new flavors or any milder/enhanced flavors coming out of either wine.  I was very surprised by this conclusion, but both wines were good so I was happy that they tasted great with all courses.

Warm garlic bread was a must with spaghetti.

Our incredible dinner!

 The next part of our dinner was dessert.  We made fudge chocolate brownies and ate them right out of the oven.  With Crucero, the initial taste was not as intense as the original taste, however, the after taste was still very peppery.  I didn't mind the pepper taste with chocolate since the brownies were so sweet.  It ended up being a good pairing.  With the Ebano wine, the original taste stayed the same.  I will chose the Ebano wine to pair with chocolate in the future.

Kathryn starting to make the yummy brownies.

Warm brownies ready to eat!

This was a really fun experience and a great way for us to talk about how the wines tasted with different food pairings.  I have really grown to enjoy drinking wine so much and I cant wait to do our next dinner night!