Dinner #1 - "Spring Break Cruise"

My family on "formal night" dinner

The first wine and food pairing dinner that I took part in was actually during the week of Spring Break way back in March.  The reason why it has taken me so long to write this blog is because I had to get the pictures from my parents, who had them on their digital camera and finally sent me the pictures over the weekend.  These dinners took place on a cruise ship called the Carnival Breeze, highlighted by a dinner that took place on the cruise's elegant or formal night where we had a great pairing of food and wine.  We had the other two wines on the same night the next day.  My parents had the wine with me, while my brother was also at dinner but did not drink the wine.

Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay

I'll start off by talking about the dinner that actually took place on March 12th, 2014, which was just a normal night on the cruise.  That night we had two different wines, a Chateau Ste. Michelle 2012 Chardonnay as a white wine and a Meiomi 2012 Pinot Noir as a choice of red wine.  I'll start off by talking about the Chateau Ste. Michelle.  This wine is a 2012 bottle from a winery located in the Columbia Valley in the state of Washington.  It is the state's oldest and most acclaimed winery, so I was definitely very excited about trying this wine.  Priced at just about $15, this wine is very affordable and my family actually brought this bottle on the ship with us.  On the nose, it has a very "freshness" aspect of fruitness to it, with hints of green apple and citrus, like orange and lemons.  It reminded me of receiving a fresh fruit basket back-in-the-day, and just having that assortment of fruits and their smells whipping at you.  This wine is reputable for being a very "food friendly" wine on the menu, frog legs. 

Frog Legs

Now, I've tried frog legs in the past, however, never had it with a wine, so I was definitely very interested how it would taste.  First off, the wine on it's own tasted great.  It backed up those aromas of citrus and nice fruits with a great balanced fruit flavored wine.  It wasn't overpowering, or too soft, just right for a solid chardonnay in my opinion.  The next step was to try the wine along with the dish, and I thought they worked perfect together.  The frog legs dish was very buttery, almost as if the chef dropped a block of butter in while he was cooking it.  And the texture of the legs was soft like fish, while tasting like chicken.  The fruitiness to the chardonnay complimented the buttery, creaminess of the frog legs, and gave a nice well-balanced overall flavor and experience.  Also, the wine had just enough heat on it to compliment the interesting texture of the frog legs themselves.  My parents agreed, that the dish definitely enhanced the flavor of the wine, and made for a very nice pairing in this case.

Prime Rib w/ Baked Potatoe

The second pairing we did was that same night, a Meiomi 2012 Pinot Noir to go along with prime rib with a baked potato.  At $20, this wine was the one that my parents chose to "treat" ourselves during the red meat dish that we know would show up during the week, and heard great things about this wine.  It is a wine that unifies the three coastal areas of California, Monterrey County, Santa Barbara County, and Sonoma County in order to create this wine, so I was definitely very excited to be able to try this.  Also, my parents saved this bottle to try with me so I thought that was really nice as well.  On the nose, this wine had very dark fruit flavors stick out, dark cherries, blackberries, blueberries, and even some plumb.  It was really nice and not too overly fruity, but just the right amount to attract me further.  The taste followed up on those aromas, with hints of dark fruits and cherries as soon as it touched my tongue.  It wasn't overly dry or overflowing with tannins, but just right and balanced in my opinion.  My parents actually seemed to like it a lot more than I did, so this was a nice bottle for us to share together.

Meiomi Pinot Noir

Now, to go along with the prime rib, it was not as great as I thought it would be but definitely delicious.  The prime rib was great, perfectly cooked medium rare, and perfectly seasoned.  I had always pictured a perfect steak meal with a nice bottle of red wine so I was definitely looking forward to this pairing, but I think I had too high of expectations because it wasn't all that awesome.  It definitely made the experience and the meal better, but the wine itself didn't help to bring out the flavors of the meat as I thought it would.  The wine definitely did compliment the flavors of a red meat dish, even with tobascco, it didn't make things too hot or dry, yet just right in the sense that flavors were complimented.  So while it was definitely a good pairing and delicious meal, I think I was just expecting my "wine life" to go to the "next level" with this pairing, which definitely didn't happen.  But overall, a nice pairing and delicious meal.  You can never quite go wrong with a steak, can you? :)

Frei Brothers Reserve Chardonnay 

The final dish pairing that we did was actually the night before, on March 11th, 2014, the cruise's elegant or "formal" night.  This is the night that everyone gets all dressed up nicely and the dining room cranks out the "prized" dishes of the cruise.  That night, they had lobster tail with jumbo shrimp, so we paired it with a Frei Brothers Reserve 2012 Chardonnay.  At $17, this is not an overly expensive bottle of wine, but definitely something a little nicer than the normal bottles my friends and I are used to drinking here at school.  This bottle, was definitely a treat for my parents and I, who aren't huge wine drinkers to begin with.  It's from the Russian River, California, so another California wine.  On the nose, it had very subtle flavors of green apple, citrus, and a little bit of pear as well.  It stuck out as being a little sweeter than the other wines from that week, so it wasn't as appealing in my opinion (since I'm not a huge sweet tooth kind of guy) but my mom loved it.  She kept swirling the wine and just smelling (after I taught her that method) because she loved the smell of the wine itself.

Lobster Tail w/ Jumbo Shrimp

The taste backed up what the nose had to offer, being a very sweet wine, with strong flavors of pears, oranges, and even a little sourness, like green apple and lemon.  It was a little too sweet in my opinion, but not a bad tasting wine, very appealing to those with a likeness for the sweeter varieties.  This wine was actually a PERFECT fit for the lobster tail dish, probably the best pairing of food and wine I've ever had.  Since the lobster tail is sort of a bland dish, with most the flavor coming from the butter you dip it in, having a sweet wine really enhanced the flavors and gave a nice contrast the the simple lobster tail dish.  The jump shrimp on the side actually complimented the lobster and the wine as well, since it is seasoned with spices, it added a nice heat aspect to the wine on the back-end, revealing flavors to the wine that weren't there with just tasting the wine alone.  These flavors that came out actually included a little creaminess, and buttery aspect, which was a little ironic due to the bowl of butter that came with the lobster.  Overall, this was a GREAT pairing, and very happy with this dinner.  My mom, especially, loved this meal, and it was nice to see her enjoying it so much.

My parents on "formal night"

Overall this was such a great experience.  Not only was the food delicious, but pairing the dishes with different types of wine just added to the flavors of the meals, which in turn enhanced the flavors of the wine.  It was such a treat to be able to share this first wine food pairing dinner experience with my parents, and also to sort of show off what I had learned so far this semester in the course.  My parents were really impressed with all the knowledge that I had acquired in wine, so being able to share that with them was such a treat for me.  This experience was one that I will never forget, and definitely very pleased with the lessons I learned from the different tastings/pairings I did.  Made for such an awesome and great spring break, and glad I could share it with you all here on this blog!