Dinner - Home (Puerto Rican) with the Parents!

Before spring break, I got to go home for a few nights and hang out with the family. The day before my friends and I left for Key West, my mom made us a Puerto Rican dinner and we opened up three bottles of wine.
The dinner was rice with beans, chicken, tomatoes, and plantains. The first wine was a 2010 Black Opal Shiraz from South Eastern Australia.l. The second wine was a 2011 Turning Leaf Merlot from California. The last wine was a 2010 Gallo Family Moscato from California. These were all under $10. The only "wine" Puerto Ricans make is rum! Therefore, these wines were not chosen particularly because of the meal, but because of curiosity as to how these wines taste with food in general.

The three wines of the night

We started dinner with the shiraz. On its own, it was very tannic and spicy. It smelt of cherry and tasted peppery. I'm not sure I liked this wine with the chicken because it was just too much; I could definitely see this wine better paired with a steak or spicy food. After a glass of shiraz, we moved on to the merlot. The merlot was so much smoother in comparison to the first wine. It was sweeter, less alcoholic, and easier to drink in general. The merlot was fuller body than the shiraz. I could not recognize them, but I found that the food brought out more fruit flavors of the wine (possibly plums?). Although they were very different wines, I enjoyed them both with dinner.

Dad and Sarah at dinner.

Just for fun after dinner, we took out some cheddar and american cheese we had in the fridge. Even though it was not fancy cheese or specifically paired for our wines, we found that eating the cheese made the shiraz less tannic and left the mouth less dry.

Since my birthday was the day before I left for spring break, my family got me a cake for after dinner and we opened up the moscato. We saved this for dessert because we knew it would be too sweet to drink with the meal. By itself, the wine was sweet and smelt of citrus. It tasted of honey and had hints of peach. With the red velvet cake, the wine tasted less sweet and seemed to lose the peach and honey flavors.

Overall, this was a great learning experience. Not only did I learn about these three wines and how food changed them, but I learned about the whole tasting wine with food experience. I'm looking forward to doing this again so I can take even more notes, pair wines with specific foods, and take more pictures!