We had Good Friends, Good Friends with a Dog, and Good Friends with Two Kids over our home for a wine tasting dinner.
We started off with make you own drinks on the deck, cheese and crackers, and some great appetizer made with a big cracker, garlic cream cheese, seedless cuke, artichoke heart, pickled red pepper, and a sprig of dill that Beautiful Wife whipped together.
All the wines, except for the Croation one, were purchased at the Fresh Market in Portsmouth. The staff there was friendly and a great help in determining the pairings for the different parts of the meal. I wholeheartedly recommend that you stop in there some time.
After everyone arrived I put the Gorgonzola Stuffed Mushrooms on the grill and paired them with a 2002 and 2003 Thornbury Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. I purchased two bottles and it turned out that they were from two different years. One year still had the cork closure and the following year was when they switched over to screw cap.
After this was done we served a Red Pepper Gazpacho, a 30 MM recipe, with some fancy corn chips. It was slightly sweet which made it a little different from most gazpachos. It was paired with a 2003 Chateau Tour de Mirambeau. This is a rose' style wine from the Bordeaux region that uses the cabernet sauvignon grape.
Beautiful Wife served a great salad that included mandarin oranges, avocado, and almond slivers. It was a nice and refreshing break before the entree was served.
The main course consisted of Sugared Sirloins (or portobellos for those that wanted a non-meat dish instead) and steamed corn on the cob with a compound butter that consisted of jalapeno and lime. These were also made from 30 MM recipes. We paired them with a 2000 Dingac-Skaramuca wine that is grown in the Dalmation region of Croatia.
I had this wine first when on business in NJ and bought the remaining 8 bottles that were available in the wine store across the street from the restaurant. The grape variety for this wine is Plavac Mali which is a natural crossing of Zinfandel and another obscure Croatian variety called Dobricic.
This was followed up by a fruit parfait that was home-made by Beautiful Wife. It was a custard type base, folded with whipped topping, and then nested between layers of blueberries and raspberries. It was incredibly good. It was paired with a 2003 Martin Weyrich Moscato Allegro. This is a great dessert wine that is attractively priced and well worth the money.
We retired to the living room, and more comfortable seating, to enjoy the dessert and the wine that was served in chilled glasses.
Sadly, the time to head home arrived and our friends departed. We made plans to have the next dinner at GFW2K's home and tentative plans for a road trip to Montreal in the near future.