spring {wine pairing} dinner party.

It had just been too long since my last dinner party. Yes, I’ve been crazy-busy – but that doesn’t mean my love for entertaining has to suffer. We’d been meaning to see a couple of friends of ours for an eternity, so what better way to reunite than over fabulous food and vino?

Spring {Wine Pairing} Dinner Party Menu

As I’ve been getting more and more into wine, I figured this was a perfect opportunity to host my first wine pairing dinner. Gone are the days when I used to be able to drink anything as long as it was under $10 a bottle. Don’t get me wrong – there are still plenty of inexpensive bottles out there that I’m more than happy to drink. But as I’m not learning, all are not created equally. Let me know if you guys are interested in learning more about wine here. Your wish is my demand! Plus, I really love to drink talk about the stuff. I’m certainly not an expert – but we can learn together, right? When you think about it, it’s the closest thing I may get to having an actual drink with many of you, so cheers to that!

And as for the food … Let me start by saying that if you’ve never roasted a leg of lamb, and you’re into entertaining a crew of people – it’s a must! It was definitely the focal point of this meal, and it’s partly what inspired the wine pairing idea. The other part of that inspiration really came from the dessert, which I had discovered on Pinterest and fallen in love with – but perhaps even moreso, I had fallen in love with the idea of serving it with Moscato. I’m not into drinking sweet wine just to drink it, but I will certainly enjoy it as a partner for my dessert. Moscato is kind of having a moment right now, and I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

Every good dinner party starts with a cocktail hour, and for a good while I toyed with the idea of doing a specialty cocktail here. I eventually gave it up once I realized that I had become too obsessed with my Moscato-dessert pairing, and I started to fully commit to the wine pairing-with every course idea. I had already picked out a starter recipe that I discovered on Bon Appétit, a gorgeous spring vegetable dip with goat cheese.

And by spring vegetables, we’re talking asparagus and artichokes: two vegetables known to be extremely wine-averse. This concept intrigued me. The idea is that certain amino acids and components in the vegetables “kill” the flavor of the wine if you drink after you eat. I’ve heard that some people simply eat the veggies and then hit the wine afterward, but I also read that Sauvignon Blanc makes a terrific pairing. Well, no one had to twist my arm to go that direction, because Sauvignon Blanc is by far my favorite white – especially the New Zealand variety (Kim Crawford, you are my friend) which was particularly recommended for the pairing.

One thing I can tell you about hosting a wine pairing dinner party is that it’s not cheap – so be prepared to throw down some bucks. I bought eight bottles total, so that’s two bottles of each type of wine. At a cost of $10 to $15 a bottle, this takes you to $80 – $120, and that’s obviously before any food even reaches the shopping cart. Should I be embarrassed to say that there were six of us? We went through the first two bottles really quickly, so I learned that the wine goes much faster in the beginning. If I did it again, I would start with three bottles for the first course, three for the second course, and two for the last. We only drank one of the dessert bottles but I think that’s because we had enough with the main course. So, you could go with one, but I always like to have extra rather than not enough.

No matter how fancy the food, one of the requirements of my dinner parties are that they must be super-chill and comfortable. See how we all opted to sit cozily around the coffee table instead of a formal dining table? Okay, fine – so my dining room table isn’t exactly big enough to seat more than four people. Instead, I opted to serve the meal buffet-style on the dining room table, and everyone just got up and served themselves.

Here’s the thing, though – even when I have the dining room table of my dreams one day, my parties will always-and-forever have the same relaxed vibe. See my plate on the bottom-left of the table? That’s my little spot on the floor, a.k.a. where I typically sit and eat every night. That’s what I call being in the company of great friends. Everyone needs to be able to let their hair down.

Here are the links to the recipes!

First Course: Spring Vegetable {Goat Cheese} Dip + Snap Pea Salad

Main Course: Rosemary-Garlic Roasted Leg of Lamb + Fingerling Potatoes, Honey + Thyme Roasted Carrots

Dessert Course: Tangerine Semifreddo with Salted Almond Brittle