DTN Lesson #1

Today my friends and I got together to do Drink This Now Lesson #1. The purpose of this assignment was to assess why we drink wine with meals and how food alters the taste perceptions of wine. We purchased a bottle of Chianti from the Vintage Cellar, and some Parmigiano Cheese and Hard Salami from Kroger to complete this assignment.

Name: Chianti Colli Senesi

Varietal: Red Blend

Region: Chianti

Country: Italy

Year: 2015

Price: $9.95

1. For the first step, we opened the bottle and took notes of our observations. This wine was a dark ruby red color. This wine gave off a slightly leathery smell to it, I could not really smell any hints of fruit. When I first tasted the wine, it tasted leathery, and also slightly oaky. Though it seemed like a medium bodied wine, it was definitely harsh tasting. This wine was a dry wine, that I did not expect from a deep red wine like this. It was hard to drink on its own, so I was interested to see how the food would change my opinion of the wine throughout the rest of the lesson.

2. For the next step, we waited 2 hours, allowing the wine some time to open up a little bit. When I tasted the wine again, I could tell that it had softened up slightly. It still had a leathery taste to it, but was not as harsh as it was when we had first opened the bottle. I could start to taste some of the fruity flavors. I sensed some slight hints of cherry. This wine was still not the best, but was slightly more bearable after waiting the 2 hours for it to open up.

3. Finally it was time to pair the wine with food. We paired this wine with a hard Parmigiano Reggiano cheese from Kroger. The cheese was hard and salty, but it made the wine taste more sweet, and bring out some of the fruity undertones of the wine. The cheese definitely helped to soften up the wine and eliminate the harsh tasting tannins present when we had first opened the bottle. The cheese didn't taste great on its own, but paired with the wine, they both brought out the best in each other.

4. Next, we paired the wine with a hard salami from Kroger. The saltiness of the salami helped to bring out some of the spice in the wine and softened the wine up so much more than even the cheese did. The salami helped to cut the bitterness of the wine and made it taste smoother. I think I preferred the meat and wine pairing to the cheese and wine pairing. The salami was more enjoyable on its own than the cheese was. I thought this pairing went well together and was easy to drink.

5. Lastly, we let the wine sit out on the counter for about 6 hours, allowing the wine to open up even more, to see how that affected the flavor. After tasting it again, it had softened up much more than before. It started to lose the leathery smell to it. It was much easier to drink alone. However, I still would prefer to drink it with food, like the meat and cheese we ate it with today.

From this lesson I learned why it is so important to pair wine with food. I have found myself asking waiters at restaurants for their suggestion when out to eat. Old World wines especially need to be paired with food, or else they simply do not have the same effect that makes wine enjoyable to drink.