Mary's Wine Blog: Wine and Food Pairing - Dinner Trip to California

Coming home for the weekend, the first thing I did was go to the store and stock up on some different varietals of wine. Being Good Friday, Catholics are not allowed to eat meat; so, my family's dinner consisted of fish. Our meal consisted of baked tilapia with a lemon sauce, steamed vegetables, steamed rice, and for dessert, cake pops! All of our wines came from California; so, this meal was a little "trip" to California through fish and wine.

My niece, Lexi, excited about dinner time!

The baked tilapia with lemon sauce.

My plate!!!

The three types of wines that were chosen to pair with the meal were a Sauvignon Blanc, a White Zinfandel, and a Merlot. My family decided to taste all of the wines with the fish and the dessert in order to try to decide which ones paired the best since wine drinking is not a huge part of my parent’s lives.

My plate and the three wines for tasting.

A close up of the three wines.

The first wine we tried was the Sauvignon Blanc. This was a Sauvignon Blanc made by Mirassou winery. This wine was a 2011 vintage. It was from California. It was a pale, golden yellow color. On the nose, there was not too much of an aroma. Some members of my family were able to detect a bit of the citrus flavors which make up this wine. On the initial tasting of this wine, it was very, very bitter/pungent due to the grapefruit flavors. On its own, this would have not been a favorite wine out of any of the members of my family. When it was paired with the tilapia, it was made a little better; however, it was still not the favorite combination. With the vegetables, it added a bit of citrus, which did not help or hurt. With the cake pops, the grapefruit flavor was able to cut through some of the sweetness of the cake pops. This was a fairly good wine, but it was not the favorite of the night.

The Sauvignon Blanc's wine label

The bottle

The second wine tried was the White Zinfandel. This White Zinfandel was made by Beringer. It was from Napa Valley, California. This wine was a nice rose color. My parents found it very interesting when I told them that all wine grapes produce a clear juice and the color comes from either keeping the skins in for a certain period of time or adding red wine after the white wine has fermented to create some of the rose color wines. This wine was very aromatic. It had a fruity and floral nose. This wine was very balanced and smooth on its own. The fruit was pronounced when trying it. With the fish, it paired very nicely. The fish was able to melt and the fruity flavors of the wine accentuated it very well. It was overall a very clean and refreshing pairing. It also paired very nicely with the cake pops! This was definitely a favorite of all of my family!!

The wine bottle

The White Zinfandel label

The third wine we tried was the Merlot. The particular bottle was a Californian Merlot from Flip Flop. The color was a nice red/berry color. On the nose, it smelt a bit like fruit jam. On the palate, it was very strong. The tannins were a bit over powering. With the fish, it was definitely too powerful. However, due to the mocha notes in the wine, some of my family and I decided to try it with a bite of the cake pops. Due to the chocolate from the cake pops and the mocha from the Merlot, it was a bit better of a combination. This was not a favorite wine of the evening though. My sister even commented that this particular wine tasted like “tar”. I would not buy this wine for this meal again, but I feel that it may better suit a meal that is red meat or spicier.

The Merlot wine label

The wine bottle

All in all, two of the three wines worked with the tilapia. It was interesting to see how particular varieties of wine can work so well with a particular food, while others fail to enhance the meal. My family loved the experiment and the overall experience that it created. There was definitely a lot more laughter due to the wine!! The meal was a success due to my mom’s great cooking, and the wine just added to the pleasure of the food.