Spanish Tapas Wine Pairing Dinner at Grape Wine Springs in Grapevine

TR and I arrived early and ordered a glass each of sparkling wine.  When friends Maureen and John joined us, we had another glass and they also each had a glass.  But almost immediately, they came to pour the glass of wine that went with our first two courses--a Chardonnay/Semillion Blend.  It was lightly oaked and went ok with the food, but not by itself. 



 
 
 
 

 

 

 

Our first course was warm dates with manchego and bacon.  I could have made a meal of these, alone.  We had already decimated the the olives, so we asked for more.  There were also lightly salted almonds at our table.  These went well with all the wines (except the last.)

 

 

Our second course was arugula and Serrano Ham with a Lemon-Olive Oil Vinaigrette.  I forgot to take a picture of this which was a shame, because it was a delicious salad with a mild and slightly lemony dressing.

 

Then there was Garlic Shrimp with garlic roasted tomatoes, grated Manchego and crispy Prosciutto.  Unfortunately the shrimp were much too peppery for my tender palette.   Luckily, TR loves spicy food, so he got my second shrimp while I shoveled almonds and olives into my mouth.  With no bread and no water on the table, this was my best recourse, and it worked.

 

Below you see one of our servers pouring the Sangiovese which was to be our wine for this and the next course.  Since both of these courses were fish, I questioned the wine choice, but wound up only taking a couple of sips of each of the next two wines, the brut and the chardonnay blend still gracing my place went well with both dishes.

 

 

Then came one of my favorite dishes of the night.  This was Scallops with Saffron sauce.  It said in the menu it would be paired with Spanish Paprika Potatoes.  Thank goodness it wasn't.  The potatoes came with our next course and were very spicy.  They would have drowned out the delicate flavor of the creamy saffron sauce and the perfectly cooked (and even harder, cleaned) scallops.  The toast point included, when dipped in the saffron sauce, cooled the remainder of the spice from the shrimp of the last course. 

 

The only meat course was also lovely (except for the way too spicy Paprika Potatoes, which I shared with TR).  The Beef Skewers with Orange and Garlic was paired with Grape Wine Springs' Night Watchman, a Petit Syrah and Zinfandel blend).  Again, I took only a couple of sips of the wine which was an apt pairing, but I was finishing off my whites and they also went quite well (what doesn't go well with sparkling brut?)    The beef,  perfectly medium rare--a feat for caterers--was beautifully tender and seasoned.  I know some people would object to the only slightly cooked red onions on the skewer, but for me they added a tasty and crunchy element along with the red pepper and yellow tomatoes that won TR over completely.

 

The final course of Valencia Orange Cake was huge, moist, and mildly orangey.  The Decadence Chocolate Port it was paired with was, as always, to die for.  Maureen and John were surprised by how good it was and they left with a couple bottles of it.  We left with a case of sparkling--half brut and half almond.  At 30% off on bottles bought for the evening, they had made us a deal we couldn't refuse.

 

Conversation had been lively all evening long.  For the first time in a while, there was no live music for the dinner which was a good thing, since it usually overpowers the ability to talk in the small venue.  We were able to discuss and even solve some of the world's refugee problems.  Quite satisfying!

 

We left full but not stuffed, happy but not drunk, and basking in the glow of having great friends.



Taste of Italy and Wine Pairing at Grape Vine Springs Winery

I tried to get a picture of the two new bottles of wine that were being introduced with this dinner, but my computer is telling me the disk from my camera is corrupted!  Ahhhrgh!  So, I am using a stock photo from the winery's website.

This winery starts you with a glass of wine when you walk in--a choice of white or red.  We always choose white and received a light pinot...a perfect starter.

With the Amuse Bouche of two mini crab cakes with red pepper Romesco sauce (a bit large for an Amuse Bouche, but small for an appetizer), we were served their first new wine--a brut sparkling that they call Celebrate.  It was, to our tastes, as good as Homestead's Celebration used to be (before they ran out) making it the best sparkling for the best price in Grapevine!  It complimented the delicious crab cakes well--I am often wary of crab cakes--I've encountered too many shells--but these were exceptional.  When the owner told us all wine would be 30% off that evening, we started plotting how many we should buy.

A mini antipasti plate came next with marinated mozzarella, salami, about the best prosciutto I've ever had, olives, and a lovely hard nutty cheese--Manchego???  This was paired with a lightly oaked Chardonnay, which we normally hate, but the pairing was perfect.  We couldn't stop commenting on how well the wine complimented all components of the dish--even the acidic single cocktail onion.

Gorgonzola and cracked black pepper pork chops with potato gnocchi and sage Alfredo sauce, prosciutto roasted garlic zucchini and cheese biscuits followed.  The pork chop was huge and delicious--I hated that I could only finish half of it--creamy and moist--perfectly cooked--a very difficult meat to pull off when catering.  I also just tasted the gnocchi--I'd been looking forward to it having seen in made on many cooking shows, but, the reality of it was a disappointment.  As far as I was concerned mashed potato with flour, rolled, cut and boiled kind of had the texture of paste that has gotten too dry in the jar.  The sauce was good, though.  The zucchini was way too strong of garlic for me (and that is hard to do--I put garlic in everything), and the asparagus was overcooked, thin, and wilted.

With this was served a Malbec--fruity and strong, which complimented the pork wonderfully.  They came around asking us if we wanted more Malbec, but, knowing what red wine can do to us, we both declined.  The first serving was quite adequate.

The dessert was an apricot mascarpone cake with toasted sliced almonds.  This may have been the weakest dish of the night, or I may simply have been too full to appreciate it.  After sending half of my pork chop back to the kitchen, this piece of cake looked about twice as big as necessary and I ate less than half of it.  It was also too sweet for my tastes.  It was served with the second of their new wines--This Wine A'int Bad.

This wine comes with a story.  Back at the brewery their attempt to bring the Port to it's full 18% alcohol level had stalled at 9%.  Nothing they did could make it finish its fermentation process.  So, they dumped their three kinds (Raspberry Chocolate, Chocolate, and Chocolate Cherry) together and tasted it.  Their first reaction after tasting this concoction became the name of the wine.  They bottled about 320 bottles of their mistake and were selling it for just $18.95 (before the 30% discount.)

What did TR in, I think, was first that they poured a very generous serving of This Wine A'int Bad...so generous that I could only finish half of it.  TR then proceeded to finish both my wine and my dessert...and wound up with a hangover next day.  I had known I was feeling it and that I was driving, which is why I stopped.

We bought 5 bottles of the Celebrate and one of This Wine A'int Bad.  Probably should have gotten more of the sparking, but we will be back.  We have to introduce Julie to it.