Dinner - Zeppolis (Spain and Italy, Vino Di Vino)

Our Host: Matthew Burch

Zeppoli's is an Italian restaurant and wine shop located in Blacksburg, VA.  Every Sunday they do a wine/food pairing dinner for a mere 15 bucks, pretty sweet deal!  Our host was Matthew Burch and the theme of this particular Sunday evening dinner pairing was different affordable Spanish and Italian wines from the same line.  We sampled wines from the Cortenova, Opera Prima, Avivo Vino name brands along with some other bonus bottles (11 in total!).  I attended this wine dinner with my friend Megan Kennedy.

Meg and I at the beginning of our dinner!

Our meal was set up buffet style and we had plenty to choose from!  I got a little bit of everything so I could see what foods went best with which wines.  The food options offered were: turkey pesto wraps, meatballs, pasta alfredo with ham and peas, Mediterranean salad with feta, olives, peperoncinis and onions w/ an italian dressing, a feta mozzarella and cheddar cheese and pepperoni pizza, various breads with oil for dipping, and cheeses.  The wide variety of cheeses included: smoked gouda, horseradish herb, as well as some others.  We ran out of the meatballs early on which was disappointing because they were so delicious!! But at least we got a little taste.

Plate #1 of many

The tastings were placed throughout the dinner.  Matthew would tell us a little bit of background of each of the wines and let us ask questions, then we got to taste the wine and try different foods along with each.  

The first wine we sampled was the Cortenova NV Prosecco DOC Treviso Italy.  It had a sweet fruity aroma and was extremely dry to the taste.  This wine was delicious when paired with the feta, mozzarella, and cheddar pizza as well as the pasta dish.  It was horrible however with the smoked gouda.  This was an excellent palate cleanser for the beginning of our meal.  

The Whites

The second wine on the line up was the Cortenova Pinot Grigio DOC Italy (Magnum).  This wine had a fresh and floral nose and tasted like pears and bananas with a bright yet smooth mouthfeel.  This wine was great with the pasta alfredo.  It was decent w/ the meatballs.  I did not like this wine with bread however which really surprised me!  It almost made my mouth too dry.

I was really excited about the third wine because it was the first Vinho Verde I had ever tried.  It was the AV Vinho Verde AOC Portugal.  This very summery wine had a light aroma and taste, was lightly fizzy, and fruity.  This wine was amazingly versatile when paired with foods.  It was good with just about everything!  Fantastic with meatballs and cheese (especially the horseradish herb cheese).  I'm not the biggest fan of olives and when I tried this wine with the olive bread it actually made the olives not taste as bad!  I never knew wine could actually make me enjoy olives.

The fourth wine was the Opera Prima NV Sparkling Moscato.  This was a good, sweet, fruity, bubbly wine that paired well with just about everything.  It was really good with the turkey wraps and pizza.  It brought out the garlicky pesto which was very intriguing. 

Me not enjoying the Chardonnay horseradish pairing. :(

The last of the whites was the Opera Prima 2011 Chardonnay La Mancha DO Spain.  At 12% alcohol this chardonnay was fresh on the nose with some tropical fruit notes.  This wine was great with pasta and the salad.  It accented the spicyness of the pepper and was delicious with pizza as well.   This wine was HORRIBLE however with the horseradish cheese.  It just made it all taste musty and was not playing well with my palate.

Now onto the reds...

The first of the reds we sampled was the Aviva Vino 2009 "Aletta" Garnacha Campo de Borja Spain.  This was a simple, easy-drinking, "medium body fruit bomb".  It tasted of blueberries and blackberries at the forefront and had smokey hints as well.  It was not a good meatball wine, nor did it pair well with the turkey pesto wraps...YUCK.  However it was amazing with salad, specifically with the onions and feta.

Meg enjoying the Cortenova Sangiovese

Next up was the Opera Prima 2011 Tempranillo La Mancha DO Spain.  A very fruity red wine overall, with strawberry, raspberry, black and blueberry flavors.  It was a no-go for me with the pasta alfredo and made the pepper in the salad way to spicy for my taste.  It was ok with the turkey wraps, but was great with the bread dipped in oil!

Third for the reds was the Cortenova 2011 Sangiovese di Puglia IGT Italy.  This wine had good body with cherry and strawberry flavors.  It had lovely tannins and a long finish.  It paired well with almost everything!! It was good with the horseradish, spicy things, cheeses (especially the smoked gouda), pasta alfredo, and turkey wraps.  Not so great with the salad, namely just the lettuce.

The Cortenova 2010 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo DOC Italy was a basic red wine for me.  There was some slight acidity, well balanced tannins, and some good fruity flavors.  Fantastic with pizza and pasta.  The turkey and cheeses were take it or leave it with this wine.  It tasted horrible with the olive bread for me.  It had a way of just making the olive-y taste linger which was not pleasant for me.  However, it did have a way of making the salad taste fresher, which I thought was quite remarkable!

The last of the reds was the Damilano 2009 "Marghe" Nebbiolo d'Alba DOCG Piedmont Italy.   It was drying on the palate, yet was very velvety and smooth.  It was delicious with the feta cheese, alfredo, and horseradish and played off each other quite interestingly.  

Our surprise bonus wine was the Morada Sangria.  It was SUPER FRUITYYYY and sweet (85 grams of sugar sweet).  Had some citrus flavors as well as some peachy, appley, banana-y notes.  It was wayyy too sweet for the barbecue meatballs, however the pasta was good at cutting the sweetness and gave the overall taste good balance.  I started noticing it was good with creamy, thick foods which brought the balance to the table.  

The wine line-up.

This was such a cool experience for me and really opened my eyes to just how different foods can taste when paired with different wines.  It opened a door to a whole new world of wines and tastes for me!  I am excited to do more and more wine pairing dinners in the future!