Wine-Dinner Pairing

Let's begin. Wine and dinner pairing with my parents. They do not drink. At all. I've seen them drink champagne at a wedding on two occasions. That is all. However, I'm slowly converting them to the dark side, one glass at a time. For this dinner, I chose three wines - a red, a white, and a sparkling dessert.  My mother prepared the meal while I shopped around for wines at our local liquor store, Hops and Grapes. Actually it's more like a liquor warehouse.  I spent over an hour looking at all the wines. I've never tasted nor heard of these wines before.

Wine selection for our dinner pairing

The three wines I selected for dinner are shown to the right.  There are as follows (from left to right): Nando Fragolino, Single Vineyard 446 Chardonnay, and Napa Cellars Zinfandel.  The dessert wine is from Italy.  The Chardonnay is a 2010 from Monterey, CA. The Zinfandel is a 2009 from Napa Valley, CA.

Dinner table set, meal prepared

Patty Pat (my mother) prepared the meal.  It consisted of breaded pork tenderloins, rice in a garlic and herb sauce and broccoli.  Garlic bread also complimented the meal. Chocolate and assorted fruits were served for dessert. The pork was cooked perfectly, although I may be a little biased. The rice was my favorite, though. I love rice any way you cook it. This way just happened to be exceptionally delicious.

My partially eaten plate

The Zinfandel PACKED A PUNCH! It was powerful.  It was spicy. THE OAK MONSTER came at you at full force. The heavy oaky component was a little much. Notes of berry, particularly ripe blackberry and raspberry jam come through on the nose. Aromas of black pepper spice is present. The palette follows with juicy, round fruits and warm oak.  This zinfandel is deep, dark and purple. It's complex and delicious. I feel it would be paired better with grilled or barbequed meats, more specifically a nice, juicy steak (which I did in a later dinner pairing).

The Napa Cellars Zinfandel

This was probably too strong of a wine to start my parents off with. It was super bite-y, super potent, super powerful. My mom was not a fan. She had a hard time even sipping this wine. It was, in my opinion, too complex for unexperienced wine drinkers. Both my mom and dad did pick up notes of oak and dark berry.  My dad thought the wine finished spicy. The tannic structure of this bold red was not for the new wine drinker.

The chardonnay was a PERFECT pairing with the rice portion of this meal.  It also complimented the meat nicely, although it still wasn't the best choice. But the rice! Oh the rice! This oaky, buttery chardonnay is CLASSIC CALIFORNIA! Balanced and bright with fresh citrus and delectable tropical notes. This was definitely did it for me! The oak component paired perfectly with the garlic and herb rice. The rice enhanced the buttery quality of the wine. This wine was creamy and silky smooth on the palette. The pineapple notes further complimented this wine. Both my parents agreed this was a better fit for them and for the meal.

Patty Pat and I enjoying our meals

The Nando Fragolino was a fruity, fizzy, strawberry flavored sparkling dessert wine.  It was low alcohol, low complexity, low structure, and my mother's favorite. Her main reason for loving it was that it tasted like sparkling cider. She's a mess. I enjoyed this wine more with the chocolate and fruit pairings than by itself. The dark chocolate helped cut the fruity strawberry component some, making the wine more tolerable. I couldn't drink a lot of this wine at once because it hurt my stomach. It was too sweet for me.

I think Patty Pat may have had a little too much wine.
She's laughing and making fun of me. Typical.