Wine Dinner #1

Elizabeth Rosé Pinot Noir

Charles and Charles Cabernet Syrah

1000 Stories Zinfandel

On Wednesday the 4th my boyfriend and I went to Volare in Norman. We started out with a wine flight- mine consisted of a Pinot Noir, Cabernet Syrah, and a Zinfandel. The Elizabeth Rosé is a delicious and fruity Pinot Noir. It had lots of tannins and a little bit of an acidic taste, overall it was good and paired well with the foods. The Charles and Charles Cabernet Syrah is a super fruit forward cabernet! I love Cabernets and this one is up there on my list, it was smooth and not insanely bold, overall a really great wine! The 1000 stories Zinfandel was really tannic, however I could not really find any food that paired well with it, it was better on its own.

We had an order of spinach and artichoke dip as an appetizer and when paired with the Zinfandel it made the wine insanely acidic, almost undrinkable. I personally think that this Zinfandel should be drank unpaired, it is so bold on its own. Then I tasted the Cabernet Syrah with the appetizer, and it made the wine more smooth. I should have expected this because Cabernets are my absolute favorite! So I finished the Cabernet with the appetizer and towards the end of the glass more fruit flavors were brought out of the wine. Overall this pairing was nearly perfect!

The entree we got was called the big stick, which was basically just a fancy way of saying pepperoni pizza. I was trying to save my pinot noir to pair with my dessert but it went so well with this pizza! The Pinot noir was very tannic and burnt my throat going down, but once paired with the pizza there was a spiciness to the wine, maybe it was the pepper from the pizza, but what ever it was it was very heightened with this Pinot! The Cabernet Syrah didn't pair well with this pizza, it was just such a strong cabernet that I felt like it really should just be enjoyed unpaired.

Finally it was time for dessert! We ordered Zeppole, which was a sugar covered donut hole stuffed with warm Nutella. They were magnificent! I had saved my Pinot Noir the whole meal because I was so excited to pair it with my dessert, and when I paired it, the flavor was off. It was a decent pairing but the Zeppole almost overpowered all of the flavors of the wine. I then tried it with the only wine I had left, which was the 1000 Stories Zinfandel, and to my surprise it worked really well. The Zinfandel was such a powerful wine with the tannic and acidic components, that the sugars from the dessert toned the wine down and made the pairing work perfectly!

Overall, all of these wines were really good! But my absolute favorite was the Cabernet Syrah, I would definitely order another glass, maybe even a bottle in the future!