Food and Wine Pairing

We had a fabulous wine dinner at Carol’s at Cat Springs last night.  The menu was great as usual and the wine pairings were perfect and some unusual.

The first appetizers and first course were served with the Messina Hof Pinot Grigio.  I had the Mango Puff Pastry.  The puff pastry offered a delicate taste of sweet mango that was nicely balanced with the Pinot Grigio.  I normally do not enjoy sweet with Pinot Grigio as it does not highlight the wine.  But this was light enough to highlight the wine.  The first course was a creamy peach soup which was very fruity but has some fresh ginger grated into it that offset the sweetness of the peach and made the wine sing!

The second course featured Marble Farms Quail on molasses whipped sweet potatoes with baby greens and citrus vinaigrette.  The Messina Pinot Noir was well served by the glaze on the quail and the sweetness of the sweet potatoes balanced with the very delicate citrus of the vinaigrette.

The third course was a pan seared halibut with a lemon mint couscous an da garlic butter mousse.  The strongest flavors were the lemon mint balanced by the rich garlic butter.  It was a perfect pairing with the Messina Hof Unoaked Chardonnay.  The wine sang!

The fourth course was a Texas Osso Con Gremolata that proved perfect for the Messina Hof Barrel Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.  The Texas braised veal shank served atop grilled grit cakes and veal au jus was rich, tender and highlighted the fruit in this wine.

The dessert was a chocolate truffle mousse in phyllo cups served with fresh Texas Brazos Berry and our Messina Hof Barrel Reserve Port.  The chocolate was silky and rich and really made the natural chocolate cherry flavor of Messina Hof Port sing.

Thank you, Carol, for such a lovely meal!