Cellar & Stove: Chipotle Adobo Mac 'n Cheese + 2013 "Trentatre" Italian red blend

For another installment of my "Cellar & Stove" series, I'm going to pair a red wine with some homemade mac n' cheese. Instead of the easy box stuff, I'm making chipotle adobo mac n' cheese with black beans and arbol chiles from scratch, served with oven-roasted green beans and paired with an Italian red blend. Now, most of the prep work for the mac n' cheese is straightforward and not worth discussing here: mixing of spices, boiling pasta, etc. I ended up using some arbol chiles, garlic powder, black pepper, a little vinegar, and some olive oil for the adobo sauce. While the chiles were steeping in the sauce, and the pasta is cooking, let's talk wine.

The cheese and adobo sauce, before it reduced. 

In thinking of a wine to pair with dinner, I took the usual factors into account - the texture of the food and the flavor combinations. Since I knew the meal was going to be creamy and a bit spicy, I wanted to choose a wine that would be able to complement the flavors while also countering the creamy and oily nature of the food. I settled on the "Trentatre" rosso. It's a blend divided into three equal parts: Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon, all hailing from the Apulia (Puglia) region in southern Italy. When I toured Italy with my father in 2004, Montepulciano was our wine of choice for dinner.

I stuck the bottle in the fridge for a few minutes, and then let it open to the air before pouring. This way it drops the temperature down to around 50 degrees F, and then when the wine is opened, as it warms up and opens up to the air, the flavors develop. The whole process, from the moment it goes into the fridge to when I take the first sip, depends on the wine but is usually around 30 minutes.

There's some strong blackberry aromas on the nose, with some alcohol esters (the ester propyl hexanoate for you chemistry nerds out there.)  Esters are a chemical compound caused by a variety of possible reactions; both wine and blackberries share the same ester. Interesting aroma on the wine, but nothing new or surprising.

I first noticed the fruit tastes. The wine has nice dark fruit flavors with some blackcurrant skin flavors which add a very desirable dry tartness on the tongue immediately on the finish. It's surprisingly strong and smooth, pleasantly dry, with some of the tartness flavors dropping off after swallowing. The aftertaste is deep and crisp, and the dryness and tartness of the wine contrasted nicely with the spiciness and creaminess of the mac n' cheese. The great part about this pairing is that the wine cuts through the cheesy goodness to balance out those flavors. A good pairing, for sure, and next time I might use different cheeses but I'll still seek out this kind of red blend for the pairing. Another great success!