Dinner - "Palisades (Wines around the World... With a Hop!)"

For this wine and food pairing, a few friends and I made the trip to The Palisades Restaurant in Eggleston. The restaurant is very quaint and had a bit of a rustic feel to it. We got there around 6:00, which was a little earlier than most people get there because it did fill up by the time we finished eating. We were seated promptly and all ordered the Wine, Beer, and Food pairing meal which was designed for this class. Check out the menu below!

For the first course, we had a baby kale salad paired with a Cotes du Rhone Rose and Shooting Creek Buffalo Brown Beer. The the nose of the wine was pretty floral and also had some hints of flowers in the taste. The salad was really good. The bits of bacon provided a nice crunch and the pickled onions were a different taste. After eating the salad, the wine tasted slightly sweeter than before taking a bite of food.

The second course of the meal was probably my favorite.  It was a lobster bisque which was amazing. It was very rich so the small mug was plenty. The wine which was paired with the bisque was Dr. Loosen's Sweet Riesling and the beer was Foggy Ridge Handmade Cider. The wine was definitely very sweet and although the flavor did not change much after tasting the bisque, the sweetness seemed toned down slightly which allowed for the flavors to become more pronounced. It tasted like most Rieslings I have had previously with slightly more appley flavors coming through. The cider was also delicious and easy to drink.

The third course consisted of a salmon puff pastry. For my taste, it was a bit too fishy and salty but it was definitely tasty. The wine was Frontier Red which was quite tannic and had a thinner feel than the wines with the first two courses. It did balance the saltiness of the salmon well and the food tones down the tannins as well. The strong flavor of the fish balanced well with the slightly weaker flavor of the wine. The beer was the Parkway Bridge Builder Blonde which was pretty good, slightly hoppy, but not overly so.

Personally, I thought this was a great experience with delicious food and drinks. It was definitely nice to have someone pair wine with the food with thought. Usually I just grab whatever wine is on hand if I am going to drink it with dinner. We are definitely hoping to make another trip to the Palisades for the Wine and Food Pairings later this semester.