Our local Technical College has a fine culinary program and so they have teamed up with a local wine writer to present "classes" in which food and wine pairings are explored. Each event is a one-off, and you actually get college credits for attending. It's a fun night out, though it doesn't cost enough to include very serious wines. This is what we got for $60:
Lunetta Prosecco $11
Served alone as a welcome aperitif: monochromatic nose and palate of yeast and white peach. Drier than most proseccos and refreshing. But still, it's prosecco. Eh.
Banrock Station Sparkling Chardonnay $9
Golden delicious apple nose with hint of cinnamon on the nose that kept it at just dull vs. totally dull. Served with lobster and crab bisque topped with a brioche patty and warm brie.
Segura Vidas Aria Brut $10
Dry and minerally. Very good for the price--why would you drink prosecco when you could have this? Very nicely paired with breaded oysters wrapped with proscuitto and served with spinach on a bed of creamy risotto. Best pairing/course of the night.
Moet & Chandon White Star $43
Was amused to see this after discussing this wine here during the last few days. Definitely in a league of it's own compared to the wines that came before it and not standing out as so Extra Dry with the food. Big yeasty nose with rising bread dough, white flowers, and lemon cream pie. The dish was baked jumpo shrimp topped with caviar on fennel potatoes with grilled sliced tomatoes and zucchini and an orange-lemongrass sauce. The dish had way too much going on and there was an unwelcome bitter streak in the sauce that complemented neither the wine nor the seafoods. The chef, who came out and discussed his creations and how he very specifically matched every aspect of every dish to the wine, but this was like being in a large room with a small orchestra wherein all the musicians were seated randomly throughout--too many individuals, nothing symphonic.
Domaine Chandon Blanc de Noirs, $18
Sweet nose of roses, strawberries and red apples. More apples on the palate with white corn, and there was some pepper in the finish. Quite off-dry to my palate and even more so with the food which was veal medallions with glazed baby onions, sweet potato puree and an unattractive pepper-strawberry sauce that tried too hard to mimic the wine's flavors where for my tastes something more distinctive in either the food or the wine would have been much more interesting. Wine-matching, in this sense, is vastly overrated.
Segura Viudas Aria Extra Dry $10
Though I'm not a fan of the extra dry style, I have to say that this wine was probably the most impressive and complex of the cheapies, and in fact it was drier than the Chandon that came before. Bigger bodied than it's Brut cousin and just more complex, kind of like an unsweetened apple crisp. Very nice with the dessert too, a very unsweet and brilliant little mascarpone cheese "angel cake" that was closer to pound cake than angel food, and a champagne sabayon.
