Dinner - Homemade (Sweet and Spicy Theme)

Our crackers and cheese that
we ate for our appetizer!

Tonight I decided along with my roommate Charlotte, who is also in this class to do a sweet and spicy themed dinner tasting! We went with wines that we thought would be sweeter and with the exception of our dessert we paired them with spicier foods.

The wine and appetizer
pairing! Gallow Family Vineyards
says it pairs well with fish, poultry,
and seafood!

For our appetizer we decided to do a cheese pairing with our first wine. We went with a new cheese that neither of us had ever tried before. We paired Yancey's Fancy Hot Stuff Buffalo Wing cheese with Crunchmaster Multi-Grain Sea Salt Crackers. The cheese was really spicy. I didn't get a buffalo wing taste, but I did get a slightly more intense flavor than that of a pepper jack cheese. The crackers tasted like sesame and sea salt.

For the appetizer pairing, we chose to taste Gallo Family Chardonnay. By itself it had a very bitter smell. The taste was very zingy and had a bitter finish. It was not as sweet as some other chardonnays I have tried before.

Gallo Family Vineyards
describes their Chardonnay as
a medium bodied, medium
sweetness wine with citrus notes,
a hint of vanilla, and a dash of oak.

Our shrimp stir fry with our
Pink Zebra Riesling!

When paired with the cheese and crackers it had a slightly different flavor. The spice from the cheese really cut the bitterness but it brought out the zing of the flavor. I thought the cheese and crackers also brought out the grape flavor.



For our entree, we decided to have shrimp stir fry. The stir fry had a slightly spicy taste, as we used an asian seasoning packet. It was shrimp, green beans, carrots, celery, and onion.

Pink Zebra describes this wine
as bursting with ripe peach
and floral notes. They say it is
delightfully crisp with a hint
of sweetness! It is a 2013 wine!

We paired our shrimp stir fry with Pink Zebra Riesling. By itself it had a very tangy taste. It had a sweet floral smell almost like roses. The taste included a hint of peach. I also really like that the color goes along with the smell and taste, a peachy colored wine. I think I might have a new favorite wine.

Paired with the stir fry, the food brought out the sweet flavor. The food also really brought out the peachy flavor. I think the slightly spicy taste of the Asian inspired stir fry went well with the sweet fruity notes of the Riesling.

Our dessert and wine pairing!
Franzia describes this as a
medium bodied, sweet wine.
They say it is a refreshing red with
flavors of citrus fruit and just
the right amount of sweetness.
They say it pairs well with BBQ!

For our dessert, we decided to have yogurt topped with fresh fruit. I chose a peach yogurt I put fresh blackberries on top. We paired this with Franzia Fruity Red Sangria.

By itself the wine was far from my favorite. It had almost a fruity candy like chapstick smell with a hint of coconut. I also did not like the taste. This wine tasted like cough syrup, or black cherry cough drops with a coconut aftertaste.

When paired with the dessert, the yogurt makes the wine taste really acidic. I think it was a combination of the acidic fruity notes of the wine with the acid from the blackberries. It actually was so strong that it almost made me feel like my mouth was burning.

Overall, I'd say it was a fun experience. It was fun to cook with my roommate, and we really enjoyed experimenting and trying the new wines and foods. And I even found a new wine I love!