Mirrasou Wine Dinner at Woodfire Grill

Crisp fried laughing bird shrimp with confited shrimp salad, ginger, chile, meyer lemon vinaigrette.

I was recently invited to a dinner event sponsored by Mirassou Winery and held at Woodfire Grill. This was a wonderful event and gave me the opportunity to try famous Top Chef Kevin Gillespie's creative cooking. The first course, shrimp paired with the winery's 2008 Sauvignon Blanc, was my favorite. The neat thing about the dinner was that the winery asked Chef Gillespie to create special dishes to go with 6 different wines. Before tasting the pairings, Chef came to talk with us about his choices. We also dined with and heard from David Mirassou, who is from the Mirassou family's 6th generation and knows lots about wine.

Mirassou is one of America's oldest winemakers, going back 6 generations to France. During the gold rush of the 1800's the family originally immigrated to the US, bringing grape vines with them in their suitcases! Hope you enjoy the photos.

We had lots of glasses.

Woodfire's Chef Kevin Gillespie explains how each dish pairs with each wine.

Amuse of charred local peach, spicy pepperonata, pecorino di puglia.

The Mirassou label. Overall I really enjoyed the wines, especially the Sauvignon Blanc and the Pinot Noir. These wines can be found at your local grocery store and are reasonably priced.

Pan roased day boat scallop, sweet potatoes, winter squash, black lentils, pear and cashew salad, green chile jus, paired with 2009 Pinot Grigio.

Border springs lamb crepinette (sausage), cured olive tapenade, lemon cream mint, paired with 2008 Pinot Noir, the winery's best selling wine.

Wood grilled local bob quail and smoked pork belly, roasted local okra, hakurei turnips, lacinato kale, chicken jus, paired with 2008 Merlot.

Wood grilled border springs lamb leg, roasted pac choi, mixed young beets, parsnip puree, cardamom lamb jus, paired with 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Peach streusel cake, almond mascarpone mousse, peach puree, peach ice cream, feulletine crumble, paired with 2009 Riesling.