Wine Dinner

 Dinner - Cajun Shrimp and Pasta

For this dinner, me and my girlfriend, made a home-cooked meal, consisting of buttery Cajun Shrimp and pasta. In the above photo are the Appetizer (Sesame seasoning salad) and Entrée that was made for diners. The Table was only set for me and my girlfriend, just a very casual dinner setup. The food all looked great and we both had to get a photo of it. The food smelled amazing and I was ready to dig in and experiment with the new wines.

The Three bottles of wine that we chose were pinot grigio, Chardonnay and a sweet red wine from the chocolate cellar. The order that they are shown in above was the order that we paired them with our food. 

Here is all of the info on the wine that we tried that night:

Wine 1: Elementalist

Variety: Pinot Grigio

Region: California   

Country: USA

Year: 2021

Price: $8

Wine 1: Barefoot

Variety: Chardonnay

Region: California   

Country: USA

Year: N/A

Price: $7

Wine 1: The Chocolate Cellar

Variety: Blend

Country: USA

Year: N/A

Price: $5

The first Wine food match was the salad and Pinot Grigio. Overall, I thought that the pairing was not amazing. The sesame salad dressing seemed to conflict with the light flavors of the Pinot Grigio. The pair did taste better for the portions of the salad with less dressing. The wine on its own was very light and floral. I was also able to pick up on some peach notes. The Chardonnay with salad was a similar result, I found it to be clashing flavors and don't think I will try it again. The Chocolate cellar red wine was surprisingly my favorite pairing with the salad. The flavors seemed to complement each other well and matched the amount of flavor they provided.

The second wine and food pair up of the night was the Chardonnay and Cajun shrimp pasta. This pairing worked well for me and I really ended up enjoying them together. The Chardonnay on its own was very buttery and smooth. I think this is what made it pair well with the rest of the dish. The Pinot Grigio also paired well with the entrée but not as well as the Chardonnay. The light flavor was a little underwhelming compared to the Cajun seasoning. Lastly, the Chocolate cellar wine did not pair very well the cherry flavor and sweetness did not pair great with the Cajun spicy seasoning in my opinion. 

Finally, it was time to try the last pairing for dessert.  This pairing consisted of a lava cake and The Chocolate Cellar wine. This was by far my favorite pairing of the night. I really enjoyed the wine on its own and was amazed by the amount of chocolate that I could taste. Adding it with lava cake was really good and brought out the cherry flavors in the wine. The Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio were both an average pairing with the lava cake and I was not very surprised the sweet lava cake overpowered both of the wines for me.