Wine Pairing Dinner #1 - Palisades: Old World vs. New World - Apr. 13, 2016

Today I have a different blog from the usual. As part of the course, I needed to have a dinner that features a wine and food pairing. Last Wednesday, I decided to go to Palisades Restaurant in Eggleston, VA to try their weekly wine pairing dinner. I decided to bring along my very good friend Saghar Qadir to enjoy this meal with me. Before we start talking about wine and food, I would like to point out the beautiful drive from Virginia Tech to Palisades. Driving down 460W during sunset was absolutely beautiful. The mountains were illuminated by the regressing sun showing just how beautiful southwest Virginia can be. I wish I had taken a photo to show.

The theme of the dinner was Old World vs. New World. It featured wine and foods from various locations around the world. If you look to the left you will see a photograph of the featured menu for the night. First we have a shrimp salad paired with a Meiomi Chardonnay 2014. Next a spicy Pebre Pan Amasado paired with a Terranoble Chardonnay 2015 from Chile. Lastly margarita pizza paired with a Italo Cescon Chardonnay 2014 from Italy. These wines can be seen in picture bottom photo to the left from left to right respectively.

1) Meiomi Chardonnay 2014: The aroma for this wine quite hard to get to. Couldn't smell much as the wine was filled quite high on in the glass not allowing me to swirl. The taste was a tropical bomb though. Citricy with mango undertones that had little residual sugar. I enjoyed it but not a total recommendation. When trying this wine with Shrimp it didn't really add anything to the wine or dish. Really just a bland mix that I didn't enjoy. With Pebre Pan was wonderful with it though. It just went right underneath the spiciness of the dish and brought out some good fruity flavors. Lastly the pizza. This was a resounding no. I hated the fruitiness with the margarita pizza taste.


2) Terranoble Chardonnay 2015: Again it was tough to sniff the wine due to the glass. But the taste was marvelous. Drier and less fruity than the Meiomi from before. It had a taste of light pineapple and was smooth on the pallet. The shrimp combo was again ok. Nothing too special to show for this wine. Now the Pebre Pan and this wine was absolutely amazing. Sincerely the best mix of all the foods. It just mixed so well with the spicy dish. The pizza and this wine was also really good. Since it was more muted with the fruit it really sang through well.

3) Italo Cescon Chardonnay 2014: This was AWESOME. Out of the three wines this was my favorite by far. Muted pear and some grass came through with a nice refreshing yet dry finish on the pallet. No over-fruity taste was felt making it amazing. It was clear in its purpose and execution. Now for the food pairing. The shrimp again had was not a hot pairing. It just had a distant feel too it that I can't explain. No real purpose to mix them. The Chilean dish was again not too hot. I believe the fruity nature of the last too wines helps with the spicy while this dryer wine didn't add that component to the meal. The pizza combo was amazing though. Really was a good mix. It added another level of flavor that I wasn't expecting. Just wonderful!

All in all, this was an amazing meal with a great friend. The environment was wonderful and we enjoyed it to the fullest extent. For my verdict of the meal, the best wine for my taste was the Old World Chardonnay from Italy. It just had this nice clear dry taste that wasn't overly fruity like the New World counterparts. The winner in terms of pairing had to be the Chilean Pebre Pan Amasado with the Terranoble Chardonnay 2015. The Chileans really hit it out of the park with an amazing spicy dish that was complemented well by a semi-fruity wine. I highly recommended this restaurant and dinner package as it is an amazing atmosphere for friends, food and wine!