My friend, Erica, and I had been talking about how we needed a wine night, so I thought what a perfect opportunity to complete some pairings. She came over on a Friday night, a night Tech was playing a basketball game, so we decided we'd wine and cheese while watching the game.
I had already had a German Riesling in my pantry that my parents given to me as a gift for my birthday, and I decided to go to the store to pick out a second wine. I went with a Vino Verde, which I had never tried before so I figured that would be exciting to have. Erica picked up a bottle of Prosecco to add some variety.
For the cheeses, I tried my best to find valid recommendations online, as the bottles I had didn't list any specifics on what cheese to pair it with. Knowing nothing about how these cheeses actually tasted, I really didn't know what to look for. I looked up pairings for sweet Riesling's and found a lot saying smoked Gouda was a great pairing, so I picked up a wedge of that. Next, for the Vino Verde, I picked up a tub of spreadable goat cheese, figuring that would work well with crackers. Erica bought a wedge of Parmesan cheese to go with the Prosecco, there were raving reviews of the pair online.
Erica arrived that evening and we began the tastings:
Riesling:
Riesling is my all time favorite wine. I actually just discovered this during the course of this class, as before I was very unadventurous.This riesling was very similar to the last one I tried, it was semi sweet with a little acidity that is overall very smooth on my palette. My dad wanted me to try it because of its German label because my family is German, and he knows they do really good Riesling's. I paired the riesling with smoked gouda cheese. I tried the gouda first by itself, as will all of these cheeses, I have never tried them so I was curious. The gouda kind of had a chemically taste. I don't really know how else to describe it. Maybe clean is a better word. All I know is that once the smoky flavor wore off it tasted sterile. It definitely masked the flavor of the wine in this sense because it really muted it. It tasted way better with the cracker, as the salt brought out the smokiness a lot more. One thing I really liked about this pairing was the the way the slight bubbliness of the wine worked with the cheese. It was a sort of tamed version of the prosecco/parmesan pairing I'll talk about later.
Vino Verde:
I had never tried Vino Verde before this tasting so I was very excited to try a wine I wasn't at all familiar with. It was going to be a true tasting of something I could tell a difference on. I have heard in a lot of the lectures about it so when I saw it in the store I picked it right away. I first tasted the wine by itself to get a feel for it. The first thing I noticed was the high acidity, it was very bubbly and tangy as well. I love this quality in wines so I was very pleased. I also noticed a real descriptor for once that I was uninfluenced by, and that was spiciness. It had a spicy peppery flavor to it that I had never picked out before on my own accord. I thought this was very cool that I could pick that up. I also got hints of apple and mainly peach. I really liked the peachiness of this wine, it reminded me of a peach wine I tried at White Barrel a few months ago. Next, I tired the wine with the goat cheese. I first tried it by itself without a cracker or anything. I took a sip of wine followed directly with a small fork full of cheese. I didn't notice much of an enhancement from either end. The cheese did tame some of the spiciness of the wine, however I kind of liked that aspect of the wine so I wasn't necessarily pleased by this outcome. I also tried the cheese with a cracker and wine after tasting the wine and I liked that combination more. I think it was just the cracker and cheese taste though. Overall, I probably wouldn't pair Vino Verde with goat cheese, or really any cheese for that matter, due to the fact that I like it by itself so much.
Prosecco:
Lastly the Prosecco. I wanted to mix it up and have a real sparkling wine tasting. Every time I think of sparkling wine I think it has to be a special occasion in order to drink it. I think my favorite part about having the prosecco was that I used my knowledge from the wine IQ videos to open the bottle correctly. Most of my friends are too skiddish to open them, and I used to think you popped them by shaking them, so I've come a long way. I took a towel off of my stove bar and twisted the bottle while holding firmly to the cork, and as easy as nothing it popped right off. I have never been more proud of myself. By itself it was just to be expected. I typically don't go for prosecco because I find ti to be too bitter for me, but this one had a slight amount of sweetness I could get behind. I found a few hints of butter and crisp apple. Mainly the butter which I think also had a woody flavor to it as well. Anyways, onto the pairing. I paired the prosecco with Parmesan cheese and I could not have been more curious. Of all the cheeses we tried I am most familiar with Parmesan, but not in block form. I didn't really know what the proper way to consume parmesan you buy in this form but we decided to break it off in little pieces and eat it on its own. Overall the cheese was very salty, and you could tell why all the reviews say to pair it with prosecco. The sweetness and bubbliness really balanced the flavor of the cheese well. Each bite and sip was very enjoyable and one of my favorite pairings.
In summary, we had a really fun time being sophisticated drinking wine (even though we thought it was unusual to do while watching the game). She isn't taking this class but she had such a great time that she insisted we do this again next month. I think I got her hooked, it was fun to have a chill night in while getting to experience the different wines. Next time I will definitely try pairings with red wines and I think that will really test my palette.
