Wine Dinner - Italian

For this wine dinner, we decided to do our own version of an Italian meal. Our 3 dishes included spaghetti with mushroom marinara, a cucumber-strawberry salad, and toasted garlic bread.

The three wines were:

• Lambrusco Notte Rossa, an Italian red wine
• 2015 Cantina Dei Fiori Vino Dolce, a sweet Italian white wine
• Savory & James Cream, a Sherry

 The Italian white is one of my favorite wines. I actually bought it at Kroger over a year ago but haven't seen it since, so I was SO happy when I found out they sell it at the Vintage Cellar! Sweet, crisp, fruity, with notes of apricots, pear, and lemon. Despite being an amazing wine on its own, it didn't do much for the food. I tried it with the pasta first. The wine didn't bring out any flavors in it, and vice-versa. They were just two separate, non-complementary tastes. The same thing happened with the bread, and the salad. I guess this will remain a drinking wine for now.




I didn't have high hopes for the Italian red, and tasting it confirmed my intuition. It had a jammy scent, that one of my friends kept comparing to

soy-sauce. I could see where he was coming from. Taste started off sweet, but then became really dry and bitter. Very weak flavor, but still tannic. Basically really watered-down sour grape juice. With the pasta, it was even worse - it softened the fruity flavors, so then all that's left is bitterness. Tasted better with the bread for some reason, but maybe it was just cleansing the palate somehow? For some reason, the salad smoothed out the tannins in the wine (maybe because of the cheese in it?) and also brought out its fruity flavors. Weird. This wine tastes the best when you mix it with the Italian white and a blueberry wine that we tried before dinner. Wine problems require wine solutions.



Lastly, the Sherry... I can't believe people are legally allowed to call this concoction a wine... more like watered-down whisky. It's hella strong. Bourbon flavors mixed with oak,

maple, and something musty. Creamy, spicy aftertaste. You know that face most people make after taking shots? Some people made that face when they tasted this wine. When I tried it with the spaghetti, the Sherry was just overpowering and it was all around gross (I wrote down "NONONONO" in my notes). Tried it with the salad: same thing. With the bread... same thing. This is a wine that doesn't play well with others. Use caution.







Although most of the pairings didn't work out, I had a lot of fun getting together with friends, and making some new ones as well! Maybe the real pairing was the friendships we made along the way..? Shout out to Jack and Andrew for hosting and cooking most of the food!