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A Mishap in the Orient

Posted on May 9, 2012 by lilliebette

I have not been very faithful to this blog, dear readers. April was not kind and I was overwhelmed with work, visits and travel. It’s May now and excuses are officially out. This is no way to run a blog. So here I am again. Just don’t call it a come back.

This particular post pairs a wine and candy from the same locale: China. I suppose it’s timely too because this experience did not quite work out like I wanted. It is not to the same scale as the crisis with Mr. Chen but nonetheless, I raise this glass to you Hilary.

I went into this pairing totally blind. (Ok I know that sounds awful considering I just referenced Chen. But I wrote that completely unwittingly. It’s just too late now.) I chose a wine and candy off the smallests of criteria. Let me tell you. It wasn’t a good idea.

The Wine: Kuei Hua Chen Chiew, Grape Wine. Beijin Dragon Seal Wines Co.

White? Red?…Orange?

The Candy: The Coconut Candy

It is What it Says it Is

The Dream: 

An awesome, great, totally perfect experience that I planned based on endorphines and the thrill of being in a Chinese store (I’m a country bumpkin!). Oh and run-on sentences.

Some Pairing that I Used to Know

The Reality: 

This candy reminds a  lot of Creamsavers (anyone remember those?) It is extremely creamy and the flavor is thick in your mouth. I actually love it and I’m quite rapidly working through the bag. It takes awhile to go through just one, which is ideal. But for my sommelier expedition, it did not work. You can not drink and eat candy at the same time, so you have to sip after finishing one candy. This wine simply tasted like grape juice and extremely sweet. Make no mistake, it definitely is wine. Sam actually enjoyed it, which worked out well so it can not be too terrible.

Would this wine go with anything? I want to say something bitter, but my experience is that a bitter candy does not fix a very sweet wine. I actually could see this wine with Chinese food or something extremely salty.

I don’t know if I will venture into Chinese wine again, but if I do, there will be a carton of Chinese right next to me.


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Musharoom About Nothing

Posted on February 12, 2012 by lilliebette

Friends, I have been challenged. And I am afraid I have not met up to the expectations. But every time I “lose” a challenge, I plan to revisit it until I can satisfy both my ego and my readers.

The Challenge: Couple a foreign wine with a foreign candy

Seems simple, doesn’t it? I already had an Argentine red wine in mind, all I needed was a tasty candy. I knew I wanted something unusual and definitely something I had not yet tried. I also wanted to buy something you could get at a regular grocery store. I will branch out in the future to stranger tides, but I want this blog to be accessible. If you can’t find the candy, what is the point? How can I advise you?

I found quite an unusual candy and thought it could make a dashing suitor for my Argentine wine.

The Wine: Funky Llama, 2010, tempranillo

A Funky Taste Sensation

The Candy: Chocorooms, Meiji, Japan

A Splendid Chocolately Combination and Crispy Cracker

The Dream:

I did not know anything about this wine except that it was red (what else is there to know, right?) And I don’t allow myself to cheat, because that is not how you learn. Looking at the wine, I didn’t think it was sweet. How could a funky llama be sweet, after all? I figured it would have a strong flavor, because that llama looks like he means business. So these cute little ‘shrooms seemed just the thing. They looked crisp, with just the right amount of milk chocolate. And they had personality. I wasn’t confident, since I did not know much about “tempranillo”, but I felt comfortable with my pick.

Crisp chocolate with personality

The Reality:

It wasn’t….bad exactly. But also not great.

Tempranillo, according to Wiki, “is a variety of black grape widely grown to make full bodied red wines.” It is known to have flavors of vanilla, tobacco, berries, plum, and herbs.  Our llama has a citrusy, almost lemony flavor. It is strong and extremely flavorful. At the same time, I tasted a high amount of tannins. It ended on a bitter note, while remaining lovely.

Not Bad, Not Great

But the Chocorooms sort of wilted underneath the strong flavor of the wine. The flavor was too subdued. Although tasty, they would probably go better with a Sauvignon Blanc than a Tempranillo. They pairing was not unpleansant-they went together fine. But I would suggest something bolder. In terms of international candies, I am not exactly sure what this would mean. I wouldn’t recommend anything with a crispy cookie part. It just didn’t work. I might suggest a gummy candy, like Haribo Berries. These Haribo, if I recall correctly, are strong. But their subtle sweetness would go well with this wine.

 

One reoccurring question this blog keeps bringing up: do opposites attract? Or not? It is certainly a factor to consider in the future.

Stay tuned for the Valentine’s Day special. In that blog post, I’ll be singing sweet nothings to the planet Earth by pairing an organic wine and candy.

 

 

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Cheers, Salut, Etc.

Posted on February 6, 2012 by lilliebette

Welcome to Uncorked, Unwrapped

I love to drink wine. I also love to eat candy.  But recently, I found myself asking: what if I could make those two worlds collide into the perfect combination of flavors? It would, without any sense of hyperbole, be spectacular. I owe a lot of this idea to one bottle of Malbec as well as the this post by MattBites: “Anything Inside a Tortilla.”

Some would argue that wine pairing is an art. From a hefty steak to a gourmet Asian dinner, there is a wine for the occasion. A wino, a very sophisticated wino mind, would be the only one fit for the task.

Well, I’m not that person. I stumble through wines. I pair my dinner with whatever wine bottle is the coolest or my latest obsession. I will drink only Malbec for months, bringing it to parties so I don’t have to explore other options. I’ll walk lazily through a store until I can find a Cupcake that suits my needs.

It is time for me to learn through the best means possible: by eating candy.

This blog will not be snobby. It will most definitely not be classy. It will not be a restaurant review from the New Yorker. I will sample the cheapest wines with the worst store-brand jellybeans. Sometimes I will try to pair candy with wine, or wine with candy. Most of the time I will probably fail. But when I succeed, it will be…not to be cheap..pretty sweet.

With my glass raised, her goes nothing:

Wine: Andean Sky, 2011 Chardonnay

"The Height of Freshness"

2011 Mendoza, Chardonnay

Candy: Lindt Excellence. 90% Cocoa Supreme Dark

"Deliciously intense, Surprisingly Balanced"

The Dream:

My choice behind the pairing was so simple, it was too good to be true (hint: it didn’t work). To me, white wine is either dry or sweet. Since I go into these pairings without any research, I based the choice on my preconceived notion that Chardonnay is a sweet wine. Balancing the sweet was the challenge at hand. Chocolate seemed obvious, because the other bitter candies were either salty or not bitter enough. I chose the darkest chocolate available at my neighborhood Giant: Lindt chocolate 90% cocoa.

The Reality:

Although the two make a pretty picture, they don’t necessarily compliment each other. The wine had a soft flavor instead of an overwhelming sea of sweet. It tasted subtle and smooth. It turned out, this chardonnay needed a partner that could compliment its softer side. The chocolate was far too dark-the expected sweetness of the chardonnay was supposed to balance the dark, intense flavor of the chocolate. Instead the thick and almost chalky Lindt stuck to your mouth as the Chardonnay could barely battle such strong flavors. It was still a tasty treat, but not the pairing I had hoped.

A doomed pair

Takeaway: Chocolate is the type of candy to pair with a chardonnay. The challenge is to find the right type of chocolate. Is milk chocolate too sweet? Or is there an ideal middle ground? Or is chocolate not the way to go?

I’ll keep this blog as updated as possible. I am welcome to challenges. Do you want to know what wine goes well with a Mallow Cup? Do you enjoy a good Pinot Noir, but can never find the perfect licorice to match it? In these cases, I will try until I succeed. Whatever the costs.

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