Wine Dinner: Palisades- Old World, New World, March 29. 2012

Free noms :)

 This Thursday Lizzie, Rachel and I went to the Palisades for another delicious wine dinner! The them was Old World, New World, like it is on the last Thursday of every month.All of the wines we tried were different types of Pinot Noir. The first was wine the Closerie des Lys 2010. The next was Ponga, which also was a 2010 vintage year. The final wine was called Rainstorm, which was a 2009 vintage.

So much wine!

The food this week was also the best we've had yet! We got a free appetizer of pita bread and hummus, and for the main appetizers, we had a poached pear with cherries and walnuts, herbed goat cheese  crostini, and mushroom stuffed chicken.

 The first wine, Closerie des Lys, was a very clear, ruby color and smelled like currants, and red berries, and was a little nutty. It was a little hot, and pretty light bodied. It definitely tasted spicy and fruity. With the pear, the wine just tasted like sugar, and was still very light, but felt more alcoholic, and the strawberry flavors were very noticeable. With the herb crostini, all I tasted was herb! It was very earthy and tangy, and they complemented each other very well. Finally, with the chicken, the wine felt fuller, smoother, and tasted oakey and spicy. Even though it seemed to get better with food, it also seemed to get less bold as we ate more.
The Ponga, which was the second wine we tried, was almost exactly the same color as the first wine. It was a dark pink, ruby color, and again very clear. It smelled very sweet, and I could smell apple, and blood orange. It tasted  very sweet and alcoholic, and tannic. I also tasted blackberry in it. With the pear, it was sweet, but tannic, and tasted like fruit juice. With the crostini, the alcohol really showed itself! And with the chicken, it was fruitier, and not as sweet, but still very tannic.


Rainstorm was the final wine we tried and it was very different from the other two. The color was a lot darker and fuller, and was more of a garnet color. The smell, was dark, deep and seductive.
 It tasted tannic, and very oakey, with noticeable blackberry flavors. With the pear, the wine was very fruity and the berry flavors stood out. With the crostini, the wine tasted sugary, and sweet, kind of like fruit or berries with sugar on top. With the chicken, the wine was more alcoholic and very oakey.
This was my favorite wine of the bunch, and the Palisades was great time!