Category: Team 1 Miguel

Wine name: Pier 40

Grape Varieties with Vineyards:

50% Sauvignon Blanc. North Fork, Long Island

40% Orange wine. North Fork, Long Island

10% Chardonnay. North Fork, Long Island

Tasting Notes:

This wine blends a bright and refreshing taste with zesty flavors of lemon and green apple and subtle hints of minerality from the Sauvignon Blanc. The orange wine adds texture and hints of dried fruit and spices, while the Chardonnay gives it a smooth, mild, buttery finish. Together, they create a balanced wine that’s crisp, slightly fruit-forward and leaves a long, refreshing aftertaste.

Food Pairing:

This blend pairs well with grilled sea bass or baked fish with roasted vegetables drizzled in olive oil. The mild acidity would complement the fish and cut through the richness of the olive oil and vegetables.

My thought process to develop my final blend was to incorporate aromas and flavors that would resonate with my menu item. A light, crisp, refreshing blend, such as a rosé to go with the savoriness of the vegetables and fish. Although my original idea did not pan out, I decide to go for a triple white blend. A Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and a skin-on Chardonnay. Alone these grapes give are superior in on their own so combining them would be ideal for my dish. I just had to trial and error many times to get the right consistency for what I was looking for.

The process was not what I was expecting as I want to do a blend that would create a rose but that was a challenge on its own. Instead, Professor Goodlad suggested if it did not work out to have a plan B. Indeed, it did not work and decide on a white blend.

My first blend did not taste nor smelled as expected. It was too dry and just not pleasing to the palette. This was the rose blend I had in mind but did not work out. So, I switched it up to another variation of whites. The base wines all had distinct types of aromas and flavors. I thought the skin-on chardonnay by itself would have been ideal for my menu item. However, the final blend I chose was a mixture of 50% sauvignon blanc, 40% skin-on chardonnay, and 10% regular chardonnay. The aromas that gave off from this mixture were underripe green apples, a very mild citrus smell, lemon comes to memory. The taste was crisp, a bit of tartiness from green apples, subtle hints of butter, and what I thought was a nice balance amongst the three with a low body finish.

My blend was not identified as the “winning blend” by my peers, although a close second to the chosen one. The winner’s blend consisted of the same grapes just different percentages.

On our trip to the Red Hook Winery, we tried and tasted several types of wines. For the white wines, we tasted Sauvignon Blanc and several Chardonnays. The reds we tried were Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Pinot Noir. We also tried an orange wine but cannot recall much other than it was crisp and savory. The Sauvignon Blanc we tried smelled like green apples, faint hints of oak, and subtle vanilla notes. It was a light-bodied wine, with bright, tart green apples, a slight mineral taste to it, and a low finish. Furthermore, the Chardonnays we tried had similar aromas and taste profiles. The aromas were: green apple, pears, honeydew, hints of wet stone, vanilla, oak, some funky notes, and some stone fruit. Due to the malolactic fermentation some of the wines had more of a silky mouthfeel to them, a buttery taste, green apples, Meyer lemons, medium-bodied, medium finishes, hints of oak, wood, and some salted caramel.

However, the red wines were more complex in their aromas and flavor profiles. The Pinot Noir was the red with the lightest body, hints of red fruit and spices were at the forefront thus having a low tannic profile. Raspberries, hibiscus, and cloves were some of the notes I tasted. In this respective order Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon were how I found them to be about their body complexity from medium to full. The Cabernet Sauvignon gave aromas of red and black fruit, baking spices, licorice, and oak. As for the taste, the fruit, both red and black dominated the tongue with spices such as cardamom and nutmeg following afterwards. A light-to-medium body with a light finish to it.

In addition, the Merlot smelled like a combination of equal parts black and red fruit. Hints of chocolate, Subtle smells of anise, figs, clay pot soil, and oak. This Merlot was pleasantly well-balanced, I enjoyed the blackberry, raspberry, and tart cherry combination I got from this wine. It had a medium tannic profile, was medium-bodied, and a medium finish. Lastly, the Cabernet Sauvignon had aromas of black fruit, nutmeg, and subtle hints of figs. This wine I found to be a full-bodied wine with the taste of black currants, blackberries, and some notes of nutmeg. It was very tannic as it dried up my mouth quickly.

With consideration to the menu item, Baked Fish with Tomatoes and Mushrooms, the dominant flavors would be due to the fish filet, halibut was the chosen fish as it is a popular white fish with a firm body and a mild taste to it. The halibut would allow the other ingredients to shine and work well with each other by not having a strong fish smell or taste. Dried thyme and parsley are stuffed into the cavity of the halibut while it gets seasoned with salt and pepper, inside and out. In addition, the vegetables (onions, shallots, and mushrooms) get a quick sauté in extra virgin olive oil with some salt and pepper for seasoning. All ingredients are put into an oven pan with the addition of the white wine. Overall, the dominant flavors would be savory, slightly tangy, and mildly sweet flavor profile, with the wine’s acidity brightening up the baked fish, onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes.

For the blend what I have in mind is to pair Cabernet Franc and Merlot grapes together to make it into a rosé. A rosé would pair well with all the components of this menu item. The blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot would work well as a rosé due to their characteristics as a single blend. They are similarly alike but where one lacks the other makes up for it. Merlots tend to be more fruit-forward than Cabernet Francs. But Cabernet Francs lean savorier and more tannic-heavy. By working with each other, they can produce a rosé that will work with the sweetness of the tomato’s concassé and give it a nice balance in part of the merlot grapes. Therefore, elevating it while also complimenting the earthiness of the mushrooms, shallots, and onions from the Cabernet Franc grapes. The acidity from the tomatoes and white wine should mellowed out by this blend and give the fish a more profound flavor profile. In conclusion, this should work well.