Salmon Crackers with Herb Spread

In the spirit of collaboration (and handily coinciding with Strudel and Streusel’s Happy Hour month), my good pal Stephanie has triumphantly returned to blogging in the most glorious of ways – with a wine tasting! And when you’re testing four different wines (plus maaaybe a few more after the official tasting), you obviously need food to soak up all that wine. What’s a Strudel to do but help out a friend?

Stephanie hosts these events every few months, and this month we tasted Pinots… which, for my purposes, meant that I needed to pair foods that specifically go with, and bring out the flavors in, Pinot Noirs. (Let’s be real – the tasting gave me an excuse to make a few butter-packed foods that I’ve been wanting to try out for a while, but needed an audience of eaters, since I can’t be trusted with said foods in my own house).

Before we get to the food, let’s first talk about My Wine Tribe, and why it’s rad. Stephanie started up her blog a few years back to better inform folks about wine and help people understand what flavors they’re drawn to. She’s got a great quiz that puts you into a “tribe” – a grouping of wines that speak to your own palate. She hosts these tastings every few months to give people to the opportunity to learn how to better identify the wines they enjoy. For this tasting, the four Pinots she chose cost between $18-$95 (i.e. I got to taste a $95 bottle of vino!). More on the tasting after the link.

Oh, and also – these Salmon Crackers with Herb Spread went over very well!

So here’s how it worked: Stephanie blinded all the wine bottles, and poured each of us a glass

We completed a form to describe each wine

As we tasted, Stephanie gave us some pointers about what flavors we might be tasting, or how food might impact the flavors of the wine

And in the end, it was the $18 bottle of wine that everyone loved the most (seriously!) Here it is (and if anyone wants to acknowledge my bravery in wearing white pants to a red wine tasting – I’m in complete agreement)

If you’d like more info on the tasting, and the wines we drank, check out mywinetribe.com!

These salmon crackers paired really well with the wines – they were delicious tasty bites that were a great happy hour snack. Quick and easy to make, they were also quick and easy to polish off!