Dinner 1 - Zeppoli's

I attended a wine dinner at Zeppoli's Restaurant on Wednesday March 22nd. I also brought a friend with me to share the experience along with enjoying some good food and wine. When we arrived the initial tasting room was crowded so we sat at another table in the restaurant, but we still took part in the tasting that was offered. They served several hors d'oeuvres before as starters previous to the tasting.

There were 10 different wines offered (5 red, 5 white) and we also ordered entrees to go along with the tasting. The first wine we tasted was Vinterra Sauvignon Blanc 2015 New Zealand. By the time the wine arrived at the table we finished most of our starters but had a little fish, salad, and pasta left on our plates. We tried some fried fish & salad with the Vinterra and it paired very well. As expected the fish & cool lettuce complimented the fresh, tropical note of the Vinterra. This was a great kick off the dinner as it gave our mouths a flavorful start to the evening. As we waited for our entrees, we tried the next 5 wines served in this order respectively: Siegal San Elias Sauvignon Blanc 2016 New Zealand, Rubus White Blend 2015, Tres Ojos Rosado Calatayud 2016 Spain, Vinterra Pinto Noir 2015 New Zealand, Cortenova Primitivo 2015 Italy. Finally, our food arrives. My friend got beef ravioli with garlic & cheese a side order of bread and I got chicken Alfredo with broccoli. In our opinion we thought these were good meals to choose because we were familiar with them and believed they could compliment all the different varieties of wine we drinking. If it didn't complement all the remaining wines it would least be a good meal regardless. Good thing the 3 wines we paired with our entrees were all varietal reds with similar characteristics and features.They all had dark fruit tastes, with hints of spice & thick tannins which went well with the meats.The reds we drank with our main course were: Tres Ojos Granacha Castayud 2013 Spain, Rubus Reserve Red 2014 Australia,  and Thorn Clarke Shiraz 2015 Australia. At this point in the evening we've been stuffed with so much food & wine that we almost said no to dessert, but since we had one more wine to try we figured why not. So we ordered a strawberry cheesecake to see if it would go well with the Mt. Monster Shiraz 2011 Australia. This pairing did not go as well as we thought. Even though the cake was very sweet & fruity, the wine was flavored with dark berryfruit & spice which gave the cake a unique taste. Still a very good dessert to finish off an extensive tasting filled with great food.

The service at Zeppoli's was great & I would definitely come back to this restaurant again whether is for wine tastings, lunch or dinner. This meal was probably the best Italian meal I've had in Blacksburg in the 4 years of me being a Hokie & I look forward to going back.