Wine Dinner with Family

As if Fork and Cork wasn't enough this week, I did a wine/food pairing at my boyfriend's parents house this week. His Mom is such a good cook, and she made a huge feast for his sister's birthday, which of course we crashed!

As soon as I walked into the house, it felt "home." I could smell mushrooms wafting from the kitchen. It was fabulous. When I told the wonderful cook about my wine class, she was more than happy to bring out all of her in stock wines, including a red blend, a cabernet sauvignon and a malbec.

We decided to pair the food 3 ways: shrimp and malbec, steak and cabernet, and the veggie dish with the red blend... so here's the low down:

The shrimp were itty bitty baby sized, sauteed in so. much. butter. and a little garlic. They tasted wonderfully fatty on their own, but the wine blew these shrimp up! The malbec was Alamos from Argentina, 2011. I selected this one because it had a ratings from both wine spectator and Gary Vaynerchuck, so I was glad she had it. It was peppery on the nose with some hints of soil. It tasted wonderfully smooth on its own, and complimented the smooth butter of the garlic shrimp. If I had it to do over, I think I would have picked a white wine, maybe a chard, for the shrimp, but it was still fantastic! Happy birthday to me...

The next part of the meal was the mushrooms (also sauteed in butter!!), asparagus and potatoes. They were surprisingly rich for being mere veggies! I could have gotten full just from eating this stuff. The red blend was by The Naked Grape "medium bodied and juicy with aromas of raspberry and red plum." You could smell the plum and I thought I smelled cherry and vanilla. As you know, asparagus has a super unique taste, and I wasn't sure how it would taste with wine... and I'm still up in the air about it. Maybe I'm just not sophisticated to appreciate it, but I thought that everything tasted more vinegary together. The blend had a more vanilla and pepper taste in the mouth. I don't think they really complimented each other.. but it did with the mushrooms! That was magical. The potatoes were just normal. It was like eating bread with wine. Plain and fine.

Lastly was the steak. Woo! The big dog! It was well-done, so it was bound to taste a bit smokier and a bit more tough than I usually order steak. It was still fairly juicy, however. The cabernet was also Naked Grape 2011. "Full bodied and rich with aromas of plush dark fruit and blackberry." This was definitely a jammy cabernet, which would have been wonderful on its own, but it complimented the steak so well! Because the steak was a bit tough, the wine helped to melt it in my mouth and bring the whole thing together. I could smell the raspberry on the nose of the wine, but it melted into more coffee/chocolate with the steak.