Dinner: Blu Mother

Me and my mom at Blu.
She was not excited to drink wine. 

     When I texted my mom and told her she was going to do a wine-dinner with me, she was excited to help me with a school assignment, but not necessarily one involving wine. She is mainly a margarita gal and occasionally a super sweet, white wine person. But despite her reservations, she set aside her Sunday afternoon to try it out and she even foot the bill.

     We went to Blu, a restaurant off of Main Street in Norman. I had never been to the restaurant before, and I had never paired wine with food, so what an experience! We sat on the patio on such a perfect, beautiful day. The two days before had been in the 40's. This Sunday, the sun was shining and it was about 72 degrees all day. At one point my mom just said "Look at how blue that sky is!" This amazing, carefree atmosphere set the scene for our tastings. 

The view of the blue sky from our patio table.

     While I had intended on doing my own research to decide on wine pairings with the menu, we had to make a last minute change on venues, so I relied mostly on the suggestions of the staff. When testing the wine, I divided it into three categories: swirl and sniff the wine, the wine alone, the wine with the food.

     

     First we had the Maytag Blu Cheese Potato Chips as our "appetizer". The manager suggested a glass of Verdejo with this food. The selection was a Marques de Caceras Vederjo from Spain at $6 a glass. While I was waiting for my wine to come out (which was delayed due to a mix up. The waitress couldn't understand that I wanted all three wines for three different dishes), we ate the chips alone. They tasted good, but I got tired of them quickly. The blue cheese dressing was so strong and overwhelming that a few chips was good for me. 

     The wine came out. I swirled, then sniffed. For a white wine, it seemed extremely tannic simply from the smell. It was hard to get past the strong tannic/acidic smell, but once I did, I could get some flowery accents.  Tasting it by itself, I liked the wine, but the acidity was so overpowering. Like the smell of the wine, it took several sips, and swishing it in my mouth for a while before I got flavors behind the acidity. Mainly light floral flavors. 

     Pairing the wine and the food changed everything! The powerful blue cheese seemed to overpower the acidity of the wine. At the same time, the acidity of the wine tempered the blue cheese. Suddenly the wine was refreshing and hydrating. The manager who paired it later explained she chose these pairings because of the "oily" blue cheese dressing and the wine's acidity. 

   

    The second dish I tried was their Margherita pizza. The manager suggested that I pair one of their pinot noirs with it. I chose the Macmurray Ranch Pinot Noir from California at $8 a glass. Later when I asked the manager why she suggested it, she said "Pinot Noir goes with everything. It is the middle ground of the red wines. I didn't think any one wine would go best with the pizza, I thought this would be good."

     Smelling the Pinot I got strong licorice and strawberry smells. The laste was very low in tannins and so light of body. This is what I imagine the disciples drank when Jesus turned water to wine. While I enjoyed the wine alone and could see myself drinking it by itself, drinking it with the pizza made it even better! It brought out the spices of the wine. While alone I got a lot of the fruitiness, the salty tomato and cheese brought out the spice of the dark licorice I had only sensed by smell before. The body was suddenly bigger and added to the experience of the drink. Unlike the Verdejo where the body was lightened, this was made fuller. 

Almost everything we had to eat and drink, except for the Sauvignon Blanc.
(Blu's policy dictates that only two glasses can be served to one diner at a time.
Since my mom was only sipping of my wine, everything technically went to me.)

     The final dish was a chicken quesadilla with salsa and sour cream on the side. The Sauvignon Blanc's smell was intensely flowery. The taste was extremely sweet. Paired with a light body, it's no surprise that this was my mom's favorite wine of the three (and the one she sipped off the most).It was my least favorite wine on its own. My first bit pairing with the food, I had used a lot of salsa. I learned that when pairing this with the wine, this was not great. the salsa was pretty hot, and it so overpowered the wine, that even if I could get any taste of the wine at the front of my palate, all was gone by the time I swallowed. The only taste that I was left noticing was the salsa. So the wine did a lot to bring out the spiciness, but the food did nothing positive for the wine. However, when I had sour cream with the chicken quesadilla, It got so many sweet flavors from a dish that would by all accounts be labelled as salty. I didn't know that a non-Chik Fil A chicken would be so sweet! Suddenly I was finding sweet, flowery accents in the sour cream, tomatoes and chicken! I could now taste the sweetness of the wine better, but it seemed mostly water when compared with this food. 

My glass of Sauvignon Blanc. 

     Unfortunately this pairing was suggested by the bartender, and I could not get a hold of her to ask her why she suggested this pairing. When I went home, I researched the pairing and found many sites that suggest Sauvignon Blancs with Mexican food. Here is one quote I found from Wine Folly: "Herb Color Foods with a lot of green herbs tend to beg for wines with higher acidity and more herbaceous flavors. Sauvignon Blanc is a great example of an herbaceous wine with higher acidity. Because of the spice in most Mexican dishes, we suggest a more fruit-forward Sauvignon Blanc, such as New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc." Surprise! My Sauvignon Blanc was Outer Sounds Sauvignon Blanc from... New Zealand! 

     Overall, this was such a great experience! I finally understand what Professor Boyer has been saying all semester: Wine is a food! It is meant to go with other food! Pair your wines! This whole time I've been thinking "Yeah yeah, that's a nice thought, but I love drinking the stuff just fine." Was I proven wrong! Every wine and every food I tried was changed when paired. Whether I personally felt it was better or worse, it was changed, and I had no idea it could do that until I tried it! 

     Even my mom was impressed. While she hasn't converted to the dark side to become a regular wine-o, she admitted she understood why people paired wine with food. She especially noted that she liked the blue cheese sauce on the chips better when it was tempered by the wine. After that, she wasn't as impressed. Overall, she truly enjoyed the experience and told me to let her know the next time I needed to do this assignment and she would join me. I would call that a win for sure!