Wine, food & friends – better than Valentine’s day

We had our annual anti-Valentine’s day party two  nights ago, and it was a blast. Everyone brought something, and my wife and I filled in the rest. We had barbeque from Lockhart, gulf shrimp, farmer’s market goodies, and stuff from the garden all whipped up into a feast. Of course there was wine to go along with this good stuff, and we tried them all to see what paired the best.

One highlight of the food and wine parings included boiled shrimp and cocktail sauce with Riouolo Prosecco Vento ($10). This off-dry sparkler was full of sweet apples and acid aplenty to go with the gulf shrimp. I really enjoyed this wine with the shrimp, but it would be a little sweet for me as an aperitif.

We also tried Riouolo’ Spago Rosso, Sheraz ($12.50). Sparkling red wines are somewhat of a curiosity. I have been served sparkling red wine in Germany, and it is made by several producers in Australia, but this is my first Italian. The wine is opaque and the froth a pleasant purple. In the mouth, this is a medium-full bodied, dry sparkler with dark fruit. The Spago Rosso was a hit with smoked sausage we had brought home from Smitty’s Barbeque in Lockhart, Texas.

We also had a bottle of ’07 Laurenz Singing Gruner Veltliner ($13). We liked the ’06 Singer from Laurenz and the ’07 was just as good. This vintage has a little more body than the previous, but is still a medium sized mouthful of fruit and light. We really enjoyed paring the Veltliner with a mushroom, onion, and goat cheese tart that was accompanied by a garden salad. The sweetness of the onions and the tangy goat cheese simply played with the wine — it was great.

Perhaps the most interesting pairing of the evening was a sweet potato gratin from Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill Cookbook and the 2006 Macon-Bussieres Le Monsard from Dominique Lafon ($25 on close out). The gratin was rich and sweet with a little heat that simply married the mineral acid of the Monsard.

We finished with chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of Perrie-Jouet. Everything was simply wonderful, it was another great party without Hallmark.

Check out these related posts:

1. Food and wine pairing: Oysters, red snapper, and mushroom risotto
2. Our food and wine pairing party on New Year’s Eve
3. Food and wine pairing: oysters with Champagne, Prosecco, and Cava
4. Half-price oysters and sparkling wine at Parkside
5. Food and wine pairing: 2007 Clean Slate Riesling & 2005 Les Bois Menestrel Vacqueyras