Crab cakes to cupcakes

     Ahhhh spring break: a wonderful time of relaxation and recuperation. However, I did not have same budget as my other collegiate colleagues and could not take a lavish cruise to 27 islands, so instead I enjoyed the comfort of my own home, family and pets for a week. I, of course, persuaded them to embark on another wine dinner! Yay!

Mom, Anna (sister) and Jake (brother)
sampling the appetizer

The appetizer and bordeaux

     The appetizer this time was a cheese and fruit plate. We went for a Bucheron goat cheese with harvest wheat crackers, red table grapes and a bosc pear. The wine was a grand reserve 2014 Côtes de Bordeaux from Chateau La Grange Clinet. It was very dry with a really leathery taste and had flavors and aromas of red berries and jam. It was delightful. Since our appetizer has a lot of parts, I'll go piece by piece. The grapes were so light and had a delicate sweetness that was completely overwhelmed by the wine. The pear was a better pairing (pear-ing...lol) because it was a bit over ripe and had a very intense sweetness that balanced the heft and dryness of the wine. The goat cheese, which is famously salty and tart, competed with the strength of the wine. They were both very intense in their own way and, unfortunately, did not compliment each other. The bordeaux was heavy and not acidic enough to match the tart cheese.

Main course: crab cake, potato
medley and apremont wine
ft. jake's eyes

     I was a very happy camper for this next course as we had found a Savoie Apremont in the grocery store!!! My favorite! More specifically, it was a 2015 Apremont from Les Rocailles- Pierre Boniface. It's a mild, crisp, mostly dry wine with floral flavors and aromas and a honeydew melon taste. My mouth still waters thinking about it. Our meal to go alongside it was crab cakes and a roasted

My family: Me, Mom, Anna, Jake, and
Dad sat down for the main course. 

potato/tomato/onion/basil medley. Crab has quite a light, slightly sweet and fishy flavor, that when tasted alone with the wine, paired beautifully. However, when I dunked it in spicy cocktail sauce, it overpowered the wine. Now, I've known for some time that white wine from Savoie compliments potato dishes nicely. I knew this mainly because tartiflette (potato, cheesy, bacon-y goodness) is the Savoie regions' most famous dish. I was therefore not surprised when the wine went beautifully with the potatoes. 

Tawny port with coconut cupcake

   
     Lastly, I took to the oven again and made some cupcakes. This time they were coconut cupcakes with a hint of almond extract and cream cheese icing. My parents generously shared their W&J Graham's 10 year old tawny port to sample with the dessert. The port was nutty and tasted of caramel and anise. It also didn't linger too long on the palate and complimented the cupcake. The two together tasted buttter and nutty and satisfied my sweet tooth perfectly. Til the next edition of Participatory Parents... santé!

What cheese would you use to coax a bear out of the woods?

Camembert!!

     Now that that necessary evil is out of the way, let's get on to the wine and cheese tasting...yum. My friend Miles and I split up the jobs of getting the cheese and the wine for this particular tasting and I was in charge of cheese. Being a cheese enthusiast, I was very much up for this task. I explored the cheese section of "gucci" Kroger and picked three delicious sounding fromages while my friend was finding us some various wines to sample.

Miles posing while tasting the parmesan
 and pinot grigio

   
     Our first pairing was parmigiano reggiano with the Californian Bota Box pinot grigio. The parmesan has quite a strong nutty flavor with a salty bite. It wasn't the worst pair for the wine but it definitely wasn't the best. The wine was fruity and light with a sweet honey taste. One of the things I love most about parmesan is it's strength of flavor and the wine, unfortunately,  washed away that intense bite. I think a much better pairing would be a much more dry and acidic wine that compliments the tart cheese.

The blue cheese and moscato

     We then moved to another sweet wine with Sutter Homes moscato. This wine had flavors of peaches and figs and tasted like summer in a glass. The cheese I had chosen was a tangy, salty blue cheese. It is classified, methinks, as a "stinky" cheese but it was deliciously creamy and little bit smokey. This was my favorite pairing of the evening because the tanginess of the cheese harmonized beautifully with the sweet wine. I already love the paring of blue cheese with fresh figs as a summer snack and the figgy-ness of this wine was a delighful balance to the cheese without overpowering it.

The camembert and pinot noir

     The last cheese was a camembert, no doubt inspired by my time in France. It's stinky and rich and creamy and amazing (<- what a totally unbiased opinion). It's a very strong cheese and I much prefer it to be showcased and merely highlighted by the wine I'm eating it with. Unfortunately the wine my dear friend had chosen had not accomplished that for me. The Original Dark Horse 2015 pinot noir that we paired with it was very jammy with dark berry flavors and had a warm spice to it when tasted alone. It really competed with the stinky, almost moldy, strength of the cheese. Again, I would have preferred a drier and perhaps earthy wine to pair this cheese with. Until my next awful food pun...santé!