Birthday Dinner - Palisades (Virginia Wines)

February 25 is my boyfriend's moms birthday and after over five years of being together, I pretty much claim her as "mom" too. Although it took a long time to decide where her birthday dinner would be, I was pleasantly surprised when everyone finally agreed we should try the Palisades. To start, I must say I was not prepared to blog about the experience until after we got to the restaurant and it occurred to me - "this is a place we can do a dinner for GEOG 4054". Great dinner, wine tasting with food and a possibility for points? Sounds pretty sweet to me.

Palisades Restaurant found on Google) 

The decision to go to the Palisades was completely last minute, but a great decision at that. It's rare that everyone agrees on a place, so this was already a good start. Aside from my boyfriends dad, who has been to the Palisades many times for work functions, this was everyone's first trip. It ended up being five of us - myself, my boyfriend Johnathan, my boyfriends mom Stephanie, his dad Joe, and his younger sister Isabel. Again, I totally wasn't prepared for this, so I didn't snap a picture of the front of the restaurant, but Google had some good ones.

Menu of the amazingness

First of all I have to say how absolutely blown away I was with this place as soon as we walked in the door. Everything about it was fabulous - it was casual yet classy, the staff was incredibly welcoming and the menu was amazing! After speaking with the waiter, I realized that the typical dinner for GEO 4054 was held on Wednesdays and with this being a Thursday they didn't have anything specifically set up. However, they immediately told me that they would love to put something together for me following the theme for the week, Virginia wines, once I chose my meal.

The meal/wine set-up

For my meal, I ended up going with the mocha rubbed pork chop, red skinned mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley with cauliflower, broccoli and carrots. Once that decision was made, the waiter started with the wine selections. At this point, I was the only person even remotely interested in wine tasting and pairing with the food, but by the first wine everyone else was hooked (except for Isabel, since she's underage). Once our meals came out, the waiter brought three different wines and explained which order I should drink them in. I started with the sniff test of the first one and at this point, everyone wanted to sniff and ended up wanting their own wine, which definitely made the experience more fun. The three wines the waiter brought out were (in the order he suggested I taste) Ox-Eye Vineyards pinot noir 2013, Lovingston merlot 2014 and The Jefferson viognier 2014.

Ox-Eye Pinor Noir 2013

I started the wine pairing by doing the sniff test with the first wine, the Ox-Eye Vineyards (pictured to the right). If I'm being honest, the sniff test proved to be a little bit hard to do with the small glasses that they provided and it finally made sense to me why red wines require such large glasses. After literally snorting the wine on accident twice, I decided maybe I should drink a little to give the wine some room in the glass. I had my first taste before trying any of food and noted that the wine had a slight liquorish taste, and a hint of black pepper. I also wrote down that there was a bit of a tart cranberry in the finish and that it was overall a little bitter. After tasting this wine with the pork chop - oh my stars; it was AMAZING. First of all, the pork chop was the most tender, moist and delicious piece of pork I've ever had in my life. Secondly, the wine suddenly began to show more of a smokey flavor that really complemented the taste of the meat. P.S. I typically hate red wine, so this was a big step to love the pairing of the wine and the pork so much.

Lovingston Merlot 2014

Next up was the Lovingston merlot 2014. Again, I decided that the only way to get the scent was going to be by making room in the glass, so that's how I started. With my initial taste, I thought immediately of the "oak monster" that they talk about on Wine Library TV. While I found that this wine had a much more fruity flavor, the presence of the oak was hard to ignore. Beyond the taste of oak, I also noted that this wine was much drier and more bitter than the previous wine. The fruity flavors that came to mind were dark red grapes, and blackberry. After tasting with the pork, I really began to notice a vanilla taste to the wine. Additionally, I had a taste of Isabel's beef stroganoff to pair with this wine and found it to be a better match than the pork chop. I found that the oak became a little less strong in the finish, which suited my tastes a little better. Again, I was totally blown away at how there really was a difference that was noticeable in the taste of the wine with and without the food.

The Jefferson Viognier 2014

Last came The Jefferson viognier 2014. As always, I was excited for this part of the tasting because it was time for the white! Right off the bat, wow this was sweet. I'm not sure if it was because of the order that I did the tasting in, or possibly the food I had been eating, but despite being a bit dry, this wine was sweeeeet. There was a very light taste of grapefruit, which was nice and added to the acidic taste. I noted that it was very smooth to the taste and had a light feel on the pallet. The most exciting moment of the whole night was when Stephanie and I, who had been comparing our opinions all night, FINALLY agreed on a taste - we both got a taste of peach from this wine (which was later confirmed by the waiter). When paired with food, I have to say it definitely clashed with the pork, which really brought out the dryness of this wine. However, when I paired it with a bite of Johnathan's cheese pizza, the sweetness remained and there was somewhat of an almond flavor to it.

Stephanie after dinner

Overall I thought this was an amazing experience. I loved the restaurant, the food and the wine. Prior to this pairing, I had never experienced wine properly paired with food in a way that brought out new flavors. Not only did the whole family end up having a great time celebrating Stephanie's birthday, we also all (except poor Isabel) got to experience some great local Virginia wines with our meals. You know the wine and food was good when my wine hating boyfriend tasted the first wine and said, "wow - that's actually good," which for him is huge. After the amazing meal, we went home and got to enjoy an awesome cake from Our Daily Bread and watch Stephanie open her gifts. I'd say the night was a total success for everyone and I think I've officially found my new favorite restaurant, despite the far drive to get there.