Dinner - Palisades (Chile)

In the early 1920's Eggleston, Virginia was a bustling community with a general store as the focus. Now, a restaurant stands in its place, holding onto the village's vibrant history. This restaurant, the Palisades, also attempts to culture people in the study of wine, hosting wine parings once a week with different themes.

This week in "Wines Around The World", the theme was Chile. The way these events work is that the Palisades attempts to pit three appetizers (2 dishes and a dessert or jsut three dishes) with a corresponding wine. The result should be an increase of taste and drink-ability in the wine. The three Appetizers were: Quinoa Salad, Carapulcra, and Empanadas. The wines were: Pinot Noir, Reserva Tabali (2012), Cabernet Sauvignon, Cousino-Macul (2014), and Camenere, Chocalan (2011).

The food came out at the same time as the wine. The first one up to try was the Quinoa Salad and Pinot Noir. I tasted the Quinoa Salad first and although I am not usually a quinoa fan, this was exceptional. The wine was tasted next, the initial taste was smooth and soft. The mid palate was flavorful with a strong taste of cherries and grapes. A little heat was felt in the finish but after eating the quinoa again the taste faded. For some reason the pairing left a garlicy taste in my mouth, although there was no garlic in the quinoa. This was by far my favorite pairing of the night and may have led to me being let down by the next two.

The second taswting was the Carapulcra with the Cabernet Sauvignon. On initial taste the carapulcra was delectable, the soup had a very chili taste to it and the spices could be felt just enough. I found the Cousino-Macul to be a very large wine with a lot of taste to it. Although I don't have too much experience with wine this Cabernet seemed much stronger than usual. Plum could be tasted, but the taste wasn't overpowering. The integration was not the best as alcohol could be tasted in the finish along with still the overpowering taste of Cabernet grapes. Luckily, the spices in the soup were also very strong. Unluckily, towards the end the spices became too much and really would not stay off the palate even after drinking water. This skewed the taste of the wine towards the end and ultimately may have skewed my taste for the final pairing as both the wine and soup had extremely powerful tastes.

The final pairing was an empanada with Carmenere. The empanada wasn't too exciting to taste but the shell sure was tasty. The shell reminded me of the crust of a chicken pot pie and just melted in the mouth, I was sure it would mask any finish the wine left on the palate. The wine went down really smoothly with  a lot of fruity flavor. The finish was actually relatively weak, which I was surprised, only leaving an acidic taste in my mouth (which again I am not sure if that came from the previous tasting or not). I enjoyed the wine pairing at first but as I continued on the pair became bland and uneventful. Both items were nice to taste but neither really contributed to the others taste.

Overall, my first experience with wine pairing went surprisingly well. I learned what to look for and what to avoid when doing these events. I also learned that I may want to have something ready to clean my palate between tastings. The Palisades was an awesome restaurant and we concluded the night with a pizza and a beer. I will definitely be back to visit, and hopefully its for another "Wines Around the World" event.