Birthday Gift, Part II

Friday night was the 2nd night of my birthday gift from Aimee - a wine tasting class at the neighborhood wineshop.  The theme was Thanksgiving food paired with a variety of wines.  We sampled a Dry Riesling, Chardonnay, Beaujolais, Shiraz, Cherry Lambic (a beer made by spontaneous fermentation, which sounds sort of like spontaneous combustion), and Cream Sherry.  The foods we paired with the wines were a corn  pudding, butternut squash risotto, beer-brined turkey breast, cranberry sauce, cranberry & onion confit, and pumpkin gooey butter cakes.  All the wines tasted great with all the food, which surprised the teacher, who was hoping for at least one bad pairing.  The Cherry Lambic was eye-opening - it was unexpectedly delicious and perfect with cranberries.  And the Cream Sherry paired with the pumpkin cakes was a wonderful dessert combination.