Dinner - Friends House, Lynchburg (Jesus & Seafood)

This is the first wine dinner I have decided to do for the semester. The wine I have chosen was honestly a last minute decision mostly due to the inexpensive price. My goal in this dinner was to try and improve my palette by noticing the difference between food choices over the course of the evening. To start the Facts are:

No Stem

Jesus with Chili!

• Matthew Fox Vineyards
• Carbranet Sauvignon
• Modesto, California
• USA
• 2004
• $3.99
• Grand Wine Cellar on Snooth.com gave the wine a less than average review describing it as flat, with little complexity. On the positive side, the wine was easy to drink with low acidity on the palette.
• Step 1: the Initial Sip - Personally, I did not enjoy this wine without any food. The bottle said the wine was held in a toasted oak barrel with the main flavors mostly belonging to a raspberry and vanilla flavor. I did not enjoy the initial first few sips, tasting mostly bitter raspberry, cough syrup, and a flat dryness that over stayed its welcome. I also noticed the alcohol, feeling a little heat throughout the whole tasting, with no vanilla flavor from the oak.



Shrimp and seasoned Mahi-Mahi




• Step 2: The Food - Overall the food was an interesting choice consisting of Mahi-Mahi and Shrimp. I wanted to try something different from whats was recommended on the back of the bottle which was some red meat, specifically beef. I applied some fish rub on the fish, and after cooking it in foil on the grill, I took some prepared shrimp and began experimenting.
• Taste with Dinner was not improved and truly peculiar and unsatisfying giving it a spicy kick that amplified the unwanted bitterness and dry characteristics. Additionally this food did not soften the medicine flavor either which made it hard to combine the food with the wine.
• Step 3: The Atmosphere - Overall this was the best part of the meal, because I was enjoying the biblical discussions that were commencing around the living room. This spiritual stimulation honestly helped me get through the odd combination as it distracted me from the meal. Listening to some Virginia Bluegrass in Lynchburg, VA seemed to helped further with the religious topics and soon after finishing I left the bottle out for a while to see if helping the wine breath would improve anything the taste later.
• Step 4: Redemption - After our sermon was over I went back to the kitchen and tried my friends homemade black bean, tomato, and beef chili with the wine. I had let the wine breath for an hour and a half and with the chili, the wine improved. The Chili brought out the buttery flavor in the wine and amplified the raspberry flavor, therefore dampening the medicine flavor. The wine also gave the chili a more desired barbecue flavor as well, so overall the second meal was a much better combination. Overall this Wine was not very good with seafood, but with the red meat, like the bottle said, and the bean flavor, the wine became enjoyable. More importantly I noticed the difference between the two foods and my experiment was therefore a success.
• Final Thoughts: This was not very enjoyable but it served its purpose in helping me find distinctions in my palette when tasting wine with food. The atmosphere was extremely stimulating though since I was with friends who had invited me to their house for the weekend in Lynchburg. The discussion of Jesus over seafood and wine with friends was a new experience for me and thanks to the pleasurable combination of chili and wine at the end, the experience was even more fruitful.