Need some help on the final draft

I got some good help on the last post and would like your input again. Are the wine pairings going well with the food? Should I serve one dish or wine before another? Is there something I should add or delete. Sorry about the poor formating This site does not like to modify text.



Antipasti a le mani with Domaine Carnernos Brut
An assortment of food to take and eat by the hand

Anti pasti
Prosciutto & pears and mint with Sancerre Lucien Crochet 2007
Bosc pears sugared and sauteed in butter, tossed with fresh mint and dressed with 600 day old Prosciutto

Mozzarella Caprese with Sancerre Lucien Crochet 2007
Bufala Mozzarella and vine ripe tomato with 25 year Balsamic and extra virgin olive oil

Scampi della casa (optional) with Guigal Viognier 2006
Large shrimp sauteed and nesteled in a square of Puff pastry dressed in a Lemon butter. With a oven dried tomato marmalade

Primi
Seared scallops and chardonnay Veal Reduction with Guigal Viognier 2006
Jumbo Sea Scallops seared and plated with a Chardonnay veal demi

Lentil soup con Prosciuto di Parma with 2006 Margaux Pavillion Blanc
Drizzled with Extra Virgin Sicilian Olive Oil

Pasta
Linguine con Pomodoro e Balsamico with 2006 Margaux Pavillion Blanc
Di Cecco Linguini tossed with roast garlic, Heirloom Tomatoes, fresh herbs, basil; drizzled with 25 year old balsamic and garnished with shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio

Intermezzo
No wine served
Meyer and regular lemons with sugar and a vanilla rosemary infusion

Secondo
Braised Lamb shank in white wine
Baby New zealand lamb browned and braised with vegetables in white wine and veal stock; garnished with fried match stick leeks, plus green beans with mortadella and walnuts
2004 Hacienda Monestrio Contorno
2000 Chateaux Clinet
2004 Phelps Insignia

Insalata
Arugula and Treviso Radicchio tossed in a lemon garlic vinaigrette.

Dolce
Tarte Tatin with 2005 Rieussec Sauterne
The classic on a puff pastry crust. Served with a dollop of Cream fresh Garnished with homemade candied lemon peel
2004 Sauternes Guiraud .375
Projected food cost Gioia Luisa Limoncello


Gary Bobier

[Jenise]

Gary, you're right, our software doesn't allow tabbing and stuff, but to help I edited your post to finish the draft in the way you started it, with every course in bold, and I added spacing in between so the divisions are more clear, which will make it easier for others to give you the help you seek. Please note on your original draft that I corrected your spellings of 'Lucien Crochet' and 'viognier', neither of which might get caught by a standard spell checker. What I didn't dare do, though, was make any assumptions about the part of your menu that didn't quite make sense to me, like the exact positioning of the Chateau Clinet and Phelps Insignia relative to the lamb, green beans and salad (which doesn't appear to have a wine match). Could you provide clarification or edit your text to make that clear? I know others will question that.

Thank you for the help in the formating.

All of the red wines will be served at the same time with the lamb shank. The green beans are just a side plate. I thought the beans would go well with all of the reds.
Thanks for seeing the type-O's

Gary

Looks like a very nice menu. Lucky guests!
My only serious concern (others can testify I'm a source of many quibbles, but let's stick to the serious one) is the Viognier. Shrimp, lemon, tomato. For all (especially the lemon and tomato) do better with higher acid whites. Plus the next dish it's paired with has a Chardonnay reduction. Viognier is a fairly low acid grape, and mostly noted for its floral character. Personally I'd replace with a higher acid wine, ideally a Chardonnay (maybe Chablis) due to the sauce. If I had to stick with those wines, I'd do the Viognier with the pear dish, and the Caprese and shrimp with the Sancerre.
From a wine standpoint I'd note the Clinet is likely to be REALLY tight, and suggest decanting several hours in advance.

[Jenise]

Looks like a very nice menu. Lucky guests!
My only serious concern (others can testify I'm a source of many quibbles, but let's stick to the serious one) is the Viognier. Shrimp, lemon, tomato. For all (especially the lemon and tomato) do better with higher acid whites. Plus the next dish it's paired with has a Chardonnay reduction. Viognier is a fairly low acid grape, and mostly noted for its floral character. Personally I'd replace with a higher acid wine, ideally a Chardonnay (maybe Chablis) due to the sauce. If I had to stick with those wines, I'd do the Viognier with the pear dish, and the Caprese and shrimp with the Sancerre.
From a wine standpoint I'd note the Clinet is likely to be REALLY tight, and suggest decanting several hours in advance.

Right re the Clinet. And I think your switch on the viognier and the Sancerre is a good one, but I'll throw in that it's not because I don't think viognier and tomato go well together. They are, in fact, usually a terrific combination (serve some viognier with a tomato bisque sometime, you'll see), and I like the sound of Gary's dish. But I do think the Sancerre will be great with the lemony shrimp and the balsamic vinegar in the caprese, and the viognier and the pears sound like a particularly good match, too.

I only have one suggestion, but it's a very strong one that I think you really need to try:

Send me an invitation with time and place.

Thank you all for your great info.

My thought on the order of the food was to build to a finale (sp) being the lamb. I wanted to do the same with the wines. The light brut to the Margaux and the Spanish red to the Insigna. The lemon in the burre blanc I feel is light enough to go with the Viognier in the shrimp. I feel it will also be needed to bolster the scallops but I am thinking of going with the Pavillion blanc because the dish could use a tad more acid. I was going to go with a Le Clos Chablis but I have had poor luck finding a good vintage here in Las Vegas. Also Viognier is a favorite of some of the tasters at the event.

Any thoughts on what Sauterns I should serve first?

Is the order of service correct on the reds?

Will there be any hints of smoke on any of the reds? I was thinking of serving a small bit of smoked Tri tip as a garnish with the lamb.


I am intending on double decanting all of the reds 1 hour before service and then decanting them back into the decanters right befor service. I have a hard time keeping the wine at the correct temp when it is in a decanter. I do not have enough room in my wine storage unit.

Another dumb question. I will be opening and tasting all of the wines at the wine shop (I want to be sure they are sound) What will the best method of closing the bottles so I can bring them to the tasting in a safe manor.

1 flip the cork over and jam it back into the bottle

2 Use a vac-u-vin stopper and pump them down

3 Use my corker and recork the bottles with the orig. cork. (I make my own mine)


Gary Bobier

[Jenise]

Gary, thanks for the additional clarification. I would absolutely reverse the order of the two whites, that is, viognier before Sancerre because of the acidity. The lesser acidity in the viognier could make the wine seem flabby after the sauv blanc where in the reverse order, it will be a good progression. I don't think the foods will suffer for the re-arrangement at all.

Do not know about smoke on the Spanish wine, but you won't get any to speak of on the other two (like you often do off of Argentinian and South African wines, say). Doesn't mean the contrast of the smoke in the tri-tip wouldn't still be interesting, though!

Re the last question, VacuVins are controversial--some think they work, some don't. Either way, no problem reusing the original corks and that's what I'd plan to do, but I'd have a pocketful of extras because sometimes the original corks just don't fit back in.

Re the last question, VacuVins are controversial--some think they work, some don't. Either way, no problem reusing the original corks and that's what I'd plan to do, but I'd have a pocketful of extras because sometimes the original corks just don't fit back in.

Jenise,

Not that you care a whit about whether I use a VauVin or not, but I will point out that I alwayspump and stopper a bottle of wine that I will lay down in the fridge to save. This type of stopper is so far better as a stop leak system than the original cork that there can be no comparison. Using the original cork to stopper a bottle that is stored upright works just fine, but not so if the bottle is laid down in a horizontal fashion. Of course this is MO only.

[Jenise]

Jenise,

Not that you care a whit about whether I use a VauVin or not, but I will point out that I alwayspump and stopper a bottle of wine that I will lay down in the fridge to save. This type of stopper is so far better as a stop leak system than the original cork that there can be no comparison. Using the original cork to stopper a bottle that is stored upright works just fine, but not so if the bottle is laid down in a horizontal fashion. Of course this is MO only.

Bob, why do you always have to presume someone's calling your baby ugly?

#1: We use a VacuVin here at home all the time. Not that we often have leftover wine, but when I hear that pop upon removing the cork I do feel that something good was going on. So you and I both like VacuVin--but does that mean Gary should use one in this circumstance? (By the way, I've had leakers. The corks get tired after awhile and need to be replaced.)

I don't think so, because #2: For bottles that I open prior to transporting the day they'll be consumed (something I do to about 50 bottles a month, let me add), I always reuse the cork from the bottle. Gary is going to be recorking wines purchased in a wine store and transporting them to the site of his event--standing up, I'm sure. So in this case, taking along a VacuVin will just add to the baggage that has to be moved from place to place, something totally unneccessary when the original corks will be both there and presumably be reusable. Since occasionally a cork is not suited for reuse for one reason or another, I suggested he take a few extras in pocket, but that's just a precautionary thing. The original corks should be just fine, additional precautions won't be neccessary.

Jenise,

Not that you care a whit about whether I use a VauVin or not, but I will point out that I alwayspump and stopper a bottle of wine that I will lay down in the fridge to save. This type of stopper is so far better as a stop leak system than the original cork that there can be no comparison. Using the original cork to stopper a bottle that is stored upright works just fine, but not so if the bottle is laid down in a horizontal fashion. Of course this is MO only.

Bob, why do you always have to presume someone's calling your baby ugly?

#1: We use a VacuVin here at home all the time. Not that we often have leftover wine, but when I hear that pop upon removing the cork I do feel that something good was going on. So you and I both like VacuVin--but does that mean Gary should use one in this circumstance? (By the way, I've had leakers. The corks get tired after awhile and need to be replaced.)

I don't think so, because #2: For bottles that I open prior to transporting the day they'll be consumed (something I do to about 50 bottles a month, let me add), I always reuse the cork from the bottle. Gary is going to be recorking wines purchased in a wine store and transporting them to the site of his event--standing up, I'm sure. So in this case, taking along a VacuVin will just add to the baggage that has to be moved from place to place, something totally unneccessary when the original corks will be both there and presumably be reusable. Since occasionally a cork is not suited for reuse for one reason or another, I suggested he take a few extras in pocket, but that's just a precautionary thing. The original corks should be just fine, additional precautions won't be neccessary.

Jenise,
I am not going to respond to ugly babies at all. But I must say that I do not understand your #1 and #2 responses at all. I am not advocating against re-corking with the original cork, and certainly not for transporting opened bottles. In fact ALL I said is that for bottles I will lay down horizontally I use the VacuVin, because it give me a better seal against leakage.

The more I post on WLDG the more I believe I should make the forum a read only forum, in order to avoid this kind of confrontation. Or at least, I should take potential confrontational posts off line to avoid confrontation.

[Jenise]

But I must say that I do not understand your #1 and #2 responses at all. I am not advocating against re-corking with the original cork, and certainly not for transporting opened bottles. In fact ALL I said is that for bottles I will lay down horizontally I use the VacuVin, because it give me a better seal against leakage.

Bob, I'm sorry if I misunderstood your comment. It sounded like you were unneccessarily leaping to its defense as well as advocating its use in this situation.