Family Wine Dinner - Easter in Pennsylvania

This year my family and I were able to get together and have a nice dinner with lots of wine! It has been a really long time since this many of us have been able to be together for a holiday so it was really special. 

This is the table that my aunt and my mom set up in the morning with a nice little Easter basket full of Peeps, chocolate Easter bunnies and nonpareils. 

The family all raise a glass to Geography of Wine!

We had three particular wines with dinner that we were all able to taste and see which paired best with which food. For the food we had filet for the meat, green beans with garlic and butter, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, fresh rolls, roasted carrots and salad with a honey vinaigrette. The first wine that I tasted with the meat was the Citra Montepulicano D'Abruzzo. This is a 2012 vintage from Italy and was very good with the meat. It was a fairly dry wine but was very balanced. The meat was able to bring out more of the dark berries and cherries that were in the wine instead of just having a dry aftertaste of your palate. When trying it with the vegetables it mixed well with the sweet carrots but was a little too over powering for the salad since it did not really have too many other ingredients in it other than lettuce and some nuts.

Aunt Kim is pouring herself a glass of the Citra Montepulicano D'Abruzzo.

The second wine that I tried was the Fulkerson Diamond, which is a 2012 vintage from the great lakes region in New York. My aunt and uncle are from that area so I was able to actually go to the winery and taste this wine there over winter break, but I had not tried it with any food. On its own it is a very sweet wine and tastes just like big juicy green grapes. Its nose is very crisp and refreshing with floral and perfume like aromas. I thought I had liked this wine on its own, but then having it with food I loved it even more. When trying it with the meat, the sweetness was toned down quiet a bit, therefore being able to actually taste all the grapeiness and fruit in the wine instead of just sugar. It is a very light wine so it went really well with the salad as well as the green beans. There was not a funny aftertaste in the wine when trying it with food, there was more of a fresh palate cleanse when taking a sip of this wine with food.

The third wine that we had was Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a 2011 vintage from Chile. This wine was my favorite that went with the beef and the rest of the meal. The nose was deep, rich and slightly peppery, but I could still get cherries and plum out of it. I could taste strawberries and cherries but it was also slightly peppery and hot. The meat was a little peppery so the strawberry and cherry flavors were really brought out to be able to taste the complexity and feel the smoothness of the wine. The only food that was on the table that did not really pair well with any of the wines were the deviled eggs, which is not really surprising. Most of the wines that we had were fairly bold wines that went really well with red meat, so eggs really were not the best food to try and pair a wine with.

Although the eggs did not really pair well with wine, they were very good.

Last but certainly not least was dessert. In our family dessert is the most favored part of dinner so of course we have it right away. We had carrot cake and a berry tart type of dessert. I had a piece of the carrot cake, which was really sweet and paired it with the Fulkerson Diamond. I was incredibly surprised because it was actually not very good at all. Since the cake was so sweet, it took all of the sweetness out of the wine and made it fairly tart. Instead of the sweet green grapes that it was before, it was more of unripened green grapes. My Nana tried the berry dessert with and had a little of the Citra and thought that it was delicious. She said that the sweetness of the dessert made the wine really smooth and she could really taste more of the berries in the wine. She was also about 3 glasses of wine in by the time dessert came around. Over all this was the best wine pairing experience that I have had so far.

My mom, brother and myself after dinner

I was able to see my family whom I have not been able to see in a long time and we all learned a little something that we did not know before about food and wine. I am excited to be able to have more family wine dinners and see what the rest of them think about other wines as well as how they think they pair with food.

Happy Easter!