Wild Game and German Wine Dinner at Fora

Sunday October 24, 2010

Tonight Fora Restaurant, www.fora-naples.com, and Rudi Wiest Imports along with the Wine Country, www.winecountry.com, hosted a "Wild Game" dinner.

I missed the one two years ago so I made sure that I found time for this one. Terry & Cora joined me tonight. Terry has eaten a lot of game and so have I. We were real anxious to set what tonight's dinner would bring.

The "wild" game are raised on a million acre ranch in Texas. I brought up the website and it was very interesting. Common folk like me can purchase these delectable delights. www.brokenarrowranch.com,

We started out with Pickled Herring, Smoked Trout and Anchovies with onion and sour cream. I think there may have been a very thinly sliced piece of green apple in there also. I thought the dish was great. I can handle strong flavors so I am not turned off by them. The wine was a 2008 Dr. F. Weins-Prum Estate Riesling, Mosel. Slightly sweet but dry. I thought it was an extremely good pairing.

Next was Wild Boar Sausage with Red Cabbage and Sweet German Whole Grain mustard. I really liked the flavor of these sausages. According to the website they are smoked. The wine pairing was a 2007 Schnaitmann Samtrot, Wurttembeg. This is a new wine grape varietal for me. Which brings my total up to 250 different wine grape varietals tasted

Then came the Deer Medallions. The menu said antelope but the chef switched the dishes around and did not tell anyone. I thought the "antelope" looked dark. Antelope is a lighter color, more like lamb or goat. But it had the Bread Dumplings with it so I assumed I was wrong.So did Terry. But the dish was good. The sauce excellent. Served with a 2007 Heger Pinot Noir, Baden.

Finally the Antelope Cutlet arrived. Had mushrooms & root vegetables with it. Wine was a 2007 Schnaitmann Lemberger, Wurtemberg. Good pairing but I think I would have preferred the Pinot with the antelope and the Lemberger with the vension.

Then we got a surprise from the kitchen. They served us a cutlet of Sitka deer. This deer is small and is native to Japan. So the meat was lighter than the venison that was served earlier.
They also brought out a small amount of deer liver. The liver was not strong and was very moist and tender.

A plate was brought out with a piece of Cambozola cheese, a Buckshot Brownie, Apple Strudel and Vanilla Creme Anglaise. I ate the cheese and since the Anglaise would not last the night I ate that also. Took the strudel and brownie home along with leftover meat. By this time I was overly stuffed.

The dessert portion was served with a 1999 Bert Simon Serrig Herrenberg Riesling Auslese, Goldcap, Saar. The wine was excellent but I cannot get into sweet with sweet. To me it is total overkill. I thought the wine with the cheese was excellent and would have liked more cheese to go with it.

To me the wine of the night was the first one. The 2009 Riesling. It was dry but not overly. Just the right amount of residual sugar to be just barely there. And my best dish would have to be the boar sausage. Great flavor, not gamy but since boar is a not raised like our domestic pigs it was not fatty. But then is wasn't overly dry like some sausages can get.

A very enjoyable dinner, great food, good wine and fabulous friends.