Dinner-Palisades

This was the final Wines Around the World with a Hop pairing at the Palisades. 

All the food, wine, and beer comes out at once in tasting sizes. The tan corn husk holds the tamale and the metal dish is full of the queso, the Ceviche and avacodo is the green scoop, and the dessert ice cream is the pink shooter on the plate. Wines and beers are arranged from left to right in order of the pairings.

FIRST PAIRING: Roasted Corn and Black Bean Tamales with Poblano Queso

Wine: Sauvignon Blanc, Touraine.

            This vineyard covers the hillsides lining the Rivers Loire and Cher. This 100% Sauvignon               Blanc wine is grown on clay-limestone soils. This sauvignon is pale in color with green tint,             is delicate and fruity and has complex aromas of broom buds and white peaches.                           Distinguished and delicate in the mouth is is lively and fresh. 

Beer: Wolters Pilsener

             Hofbrauhaus Wolters is a 380 year old brewery based out of Brunswick Germany. On the              pour, Wolters Pilsener presents a crystal clear, bright straw color with a fluffy bright white              head. On the nose expect pale, crackery malt aromas, notes of hay, and a grassy and                      lightly floral noble hop character. In the mouth we found this brew light bodied and crisp                with a nice soft bite from the carbonation. The mildly floral and grassy hop aromas come                through on the palate too, in perfect balance with the light pale malt sweetness hinting                    toward white bread dough. 

First Pairing: Wine on top Beer on bottom

WINE

• Without food: Smells of pee with sour acidic fruits. I'm wondering if the fruit is gooesberry, I've never had one so I can't know but I've smelled this fruit in other Sauvignon Blancs and that seems to be the most common descriptor. It's taste is pretty much all acid. Very tart. The after taste isn't half bad so I don't regret it after I drink it, but I still don't particularly enjoy the initial experience
• With food: The food makes it worse. It makes the queso taste as if it's got five times the spice in it, which makes it way too much. It's like the opposite of refreshing. The tart acid finish of the wine is replaced with a hot spice explosion. 

BEER

• Without food: Smells quite light and airy. There's a vaguely sweet note and it's noticeably crisp. Actually smells pretty good for a beer. The taste is foamy and chewy. It's not half bad. Light enough that I could easily drink it without any objections. Still not my first choice of beverage, but not half bad
• With food: The food doesn't really go well. The spice and cream from the queso completely overpowers the lightness of the beer. Water would have been just as effective a pairing. 

Main Course Tasting

SECOND PAIRING: Shrimp Ceviche with Lime Cilantro and Avacado

Wine: Mokoroa

           Drinking Txakoli or txakolina withing about a year of bottling is recommended ans when                served it is traditionally poured from a height. This is done in order to decrease some of the            effervescence, causing it to be soft and light on the palate. Found most often in the Basque              region, this white wine is dry with a low alcohol content and high acidity. 

Beer: Alewerks Brewing Company White Ale

           Our light, hazy take on a Belgian White ale. This beer has an aroma of coriander and                      orange peel with a flavor of wheat, orange coriander and fruit. Very refreshing on a warm              sunny day!

Second Pairing: Wine on top Been on bottom

...not my favorite wine

WINE

• Without food: There's really not much of a smell at all, but that might be effected by the fact that its in a shooter glass not a wine glass. They were out of the small wine glasses at this point. There may be a hint of tartness on the little nose there. It tastes tart, sour, and extremely acidic. Hugh pucker factor with this one. Not a fan.
• With food: It's not quite as bad as it was before the food, but it's still pretty nasty. There's just too much acid everywhere. Overloaded acid in the wine paired with too much lime in the Ceviche just doesn't add up to a good thing. My mouth is burning after this. 

Tristan liked the beer too

BEER

• Without food: It smells like sweet butterscotch. Tastes sweet too, the butterscotch is present on the pallet but not overwhelming. This is actually pretty tasty, but it is quite thick. This type of beer is for sipping not for drinking. 
• With food: This is actually a very good pairing. The creamy beer goes well with the tart acidity of the ceviche. The beer helps clean your pallet so you can taste your food more.

THIRD PAIRING: Cactus Pear Ice Cream with Chipotle White Chocolate and Candied Lime

Wine: Historias

             This naturally sweet wine comes out of an extremly complex winemaking process invented              by the Phoenicians in the year 800 B.C. 100kg of greapes are needed just to make 16                    liters of wine. This golden treasure is the synthesis of the wisdom of the ancients and he                  technology of the New World.

Beer: Pacific Pear Fox Barrel

            Naturally fermented using 100% pear juice, not form pear juice concentrate or pear flavor               hard apple cider. Filtered cold for extra purity and smoother with pear juice. With no added             colorants, sugar, sorbet or benxoate preservatives. no added malt, spirit, grape, or apple                 alcohols. Naturally elegant and refreshingly adult with a sparkling clean natural pear finish,               and a subtle woody complexity, completed by an intense fresh pear bouquet. 

Pairing 3: Wine on top Cider on bottom

WINE

• Without food: It smell of straight alcohol. All burn leaving no room for anything else. It tastes like medicine. A nasty syrup sweet alcohol. Just so much ew. You can't hold it in your mouth to try to glean more flavors from it because it would just burn a hole in your tongue. 
• With food: The food makes it even more a disaster, even more like medicine. The dessert itself is basically pepto-bismal in color and in flavor and especially viscosity so adding the medicinal alcohol burn of this wine just round it all of to bizarrely unpleasant experience. 

BEER

• Without food: It smells light a very light candy. Like pear flavored cotton candy. The taste is quite sweet as well, very sugary feel with some fruit mixed in. 
• With food: The shot of spicey limey pepto-bismal erases the sweetness of the cider and turns it completely into vaguely carbonated water. There's just nothing left to taste after you eat that pink muck.

Overall the food and drink ended up being pretty sadly disappointing. I've heard great reviews from many people of this restaurant so I'm willing to believe this was just an off day. Or perhaps they were experimenting with new things on us poor college kids who were only there to get points for class. 

No matter what happened with the food it was a great time. 

Tristan and Ed

Douglas and Katie

Me and Peter