Re: Wine dinner help

I am organizing another dinner and could use some more of your expert advice. The top portion of this post is the menu I am thinking of with a few of my wine ideas. At the bottom area a few other wines I am considering.Would you be so kind as to give me your matching ideas

Fresh grilled Prawn
Sparkler

Roasted Tomato soup
Sancerre

Fried goat cheese with Sundried Tom marmalade
Pavillon Blanc du Château Margaux


Meat ball stuffed with mozzarella with homemade pasta
Vino Nobile di montepulciano

OR
Shrimp ravioli with tarragon butter sauce or Ricotta egg raviolo with brown sage butter

Intermezzo

Braised lamb shank or Beef wellington

Grilled Caesar

Pear poached in red wine with Pistachio mascarpone filling



Pavillon Blanc du Château Margaux

FX Pichler Sauvigion Blanc

Maculan Torcolato

Felsina Fontaloro or Rancia

Bruno Giacosa Arneis

Didier Dagueneau Pouilly Fume

Chateau La Fleur Petrus

Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Avignonesi or something close in quality.

Alois Kracher #10

Sweet Vin Santo from Fontodi or other quality producer.

La Scolca Black label Gavi

Anselmi Capital Foscarino Soave

Reciotto della Valpoicella Allegrini

Vintage Tunina Jermann

Opus One 1996

Quality California sparkler Mendocino or Carneros

Using only wines you mentioned

I'd probably do sparkler on own

Fresh grilled Prawn
I'd go for a bigger white, the Pavillon Blanc, the Soave (in this case yes the Soave is big), or the Dagueneau. Or the Austrian SB

Roasted Tomato soup 
Gavi or Arneis?

Fried goat cheese with Sundried Tom marmalade 
Goat cheese for me means SB- so Didier Dagueneau Pouilly Fume, Sancerre, or FX Pichler Sauvigion Blanc ( I know that the PB is also all SB, but it never tastes like that to me)

Meat ball stuffed with mozzarella with homemade pasta
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Avignonesi or Felsina

Shrimp ravioli with tarragon butter sauce
Pichler or maybe Pavillon Blanc

Ricotta egg raviolo with brown sage butter 
Anselmi Soave?

Braised lamb shank
Felsina Fontaloro or Rancia,

Beef wellington
Chateau La Fleur Petrus or Opus One

Grilled Caesar
Not sure what this is!

Pear poached in red wine with Pistachio mascarpone filling 
Kracher or Vin Santo or Maculan Torcolato (but better on their own)

Mostly what Dale said, but I would change a few of his suggestions:
- I don't suggest Gavi with the tomato soup. I think the acidity of the soup will make the wine seem flat.
- Can you find a gruner veltliner for the ravioli courses?
- I would like the recioto rather than chianti with the lamb or beef.
- The poached pear already has wine! Serve vin santo and cantuccini afterward.


Jeff

Mostly what Dale said, but I would change a few of his suggestions:
- I don't suggest Gavi with the tomato soup. I think the acidity of the soup will make the wine seem flat.
- Can you find a gruner veltliner for the ravioli courses?
- I would like the recioto rather than chianti with the lamb or beef.
- The poached pear already has wine! Serve vin santo and cantuccini afterward.

I'll bow to Jeff on the Gavi, tomato soup definitely needs acidity, Gavi isn't something I drink much of, didn't know the La Scolca Black label is a lower acid white.
I'll disagree on the Allegrini Recioto della Valpolicella, I think that is too sweet for my tastes with most mains. A drier styled Amarone would work for me with those dishes, but to me the Allegrini comes across porty.
Agree re dessert (had to look up cantuccini).

Sorry about the Caesar. It is romaine hearts seared on a my very hot Weber grill then tossed with homemade dressing. It will sit on a Parmigiana crisp. In the next few days I will get availability and cost on all of the wines. I do like the idea of serving the pears alone and then do the dessert wine with the cantuccini as the last dish before cafe and grappa. My thought was to serve the recioto as a a dessert wine.
I was thinking of adding an Amuse to this dinner. Maybe a mini carpacio and serve the bubbly then.

Dale and Gary,

Have you ever tried the old British pairing of rare roast beef with a glass of Port? You'd be surprised how nicely that works. (Use a ruby port so it has some fruit; don't waste a glorious VP.)