Snozilla Wine Dinner!

So, I took full advantage of being cooped up in my apartment through the Snowpocalyse or "Snowzilla 2016" this past weekend by having my first wine dinner!

I got this fabulous Soups, Stews & Chilis book done by Cook's Illustrated, a favorite cooking magazine of mine and my mother's, for Christmas, so I decided to go all in and make boeuf bourguignon, a traditional French beef stew. I got particularly excited because the recipe called for an ENTIRE bottle of red wine and more than three hours in the oven, so I knew it would have to be delicious!

The cheap pinot I bought to put in the stew. It fell out of the bag in the parking lot and miraculously didn't break!

Cooking prep!

Cooking the boeuf.

An hour and a half in.

My new favorite cookbook!

I invited my friend Marin, who is also taking Geography of Wine, over to join me!

We started our appetizer with honeycrisp apples, Brie, parmesan, and pepperoni, pared with a Nobilo 2014 Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. I picked this wine up for $11.99 at Food Lion, and I chose it because I liked the label and thought maybe a sweet wine would be a good aperitif.

The wine!

Marin and I tried to follow what we learned from the first week of videos, so we first swirled our wines artfully in the glass and sniffed and tasted them alone before sampling with food. We thought we picked up on fruitiness with a bitter or tart edge in the nose, and detected citrus notes and a fresh after-taste on the palate.

Me - post swirl

Marin sampling the cabernet sauvignon!

We LOVED the wine with the cheese. We found that the parmesan cut some of the sweetness and took away the bite/sting of the alcohol (like we learned in the book, yay!). And the Brie was just delicious with it. Brie is also very delicious alone, as I know very well, but it was superb with the sauvignon blanc.

Our appetizer presentation

However, it was awful, and I mean AWFUL, with the pepperoni. It might have been partly because the pepperoni I bought was a dried, spicy variety found at Gucci Kroger, but in any case it was horrible. We found that spicy and sweet do not go together well. Or at least these two didn't.

Next was the main dish. 

I chose a 2014 Pinot Noir by Hedgeline Vineyards to go with the beef stew. We had a harder time picking out notes with this one. We swirled our glasses and sniffed, and all we smelled was... alcohol. Rather disappointing after the fruity sauvignon blanc! On initial taste, we definitely noted a lightness to the wine. I think I've always thought of red wines as heavy wines, but this one was nice and light with an hint of oak. This went perfectly with the boeuf bourguignon! That might be partly because it already has 750 ml of pinot noir already in it, but the beef really brought out the fruity notes of the wine.

The pinot!

Boeuf bourguignon and pinot noir!

While the pinot was delicious with the stew, I wrote in my notes that it was: a) "dry" and that b) "I don't think I could drink a pinot on its own". I'll be interested to sample another brand or year of pinot noir in the future to see if that statement still holds true. Maybe this wasn't a good brand. Or maybe I just don't like Pinot Noir. We'll have to see!

A glass and a half in - enjoying the meal!

Marin and the meal!

We finished up our meal with dessert.

I served fudgy, chocolate brownies with vanilla ice cream paired with a 2013 Ravenswood Red Zinfandel from California bought at Food Lion for $11.99. I had heard that chocolate pairs wonderfully with chocolate, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The Red Zin!

Once again, we though the wine smelled... boozy. Before tasting it with the chocolate, we detected a slight fruitiness (I thought it was maybe some notes of pear, though the label says"spicy ripe raspberry, cherry and boysenberry") and the same lightness as the pinot. So I guess my assumption that red wines are "heavy" can go out the window!

Brownies and wine!

I was disappointed with this pairing. I didn't think it meshed well at all with the chocolate. The bitter edge or dryness of the wine didn't go well with the sweetness of the chocolate for me, though I thought that it tasted better on its own after a couple of sips. The brownies were good, though!

So to sum it all up:

Our wine dinner was a success! It was definitely a good way to spend a snowy weekend locked in my apartment! I would definitely pick the sauvignon blanc again, and I liked the red zinfandel by itself, without food. I'd also like to try a pinot noir again on its own to see if I can actually drink it!

Hopefully I'll be able to do a wine tasting or another wine dinner soon!