Pate - Venison, Pork, etc.

Living in Tennessee, I am fortunate enough to not only have tons of friends who hunt, but no one to compete with when I ask for the deer hearts and livers (even the meat is considered second rate). One of these friends, Allen Mann, is consistently successful, and is the source of all of this year's meat. During the fall, I was lucky enough to receive a few livers from him (he killed a good number of deer, but these were the only ones that made it without being tainted by stomach acids or excrement, being blown to bits, etc.).
Since I had never made venison pate, I decided on a simple method: boil the liver with wine and a spice, cuisinart, add enough butter to complement, then salt and pepper to taste. I chose 4 combinations, red wine + star anise, red wine + tarragon, white wine + star anise, and white wine + tarragon. My first surprise was that venison liver tastes nearly identical to pork liver (of lechon asado fame - side note - how does ankimo taste like liver?!?). I had settled on my method while investigating with pork liver, but continue to be amazed as to how butter balances liver. Adding local butter spoonful by spoonful, pushing the cuisinart button, and tasting, the successive combinations went: liver, liver, liver, liver, absolutely divine. Making fresh alioli told me to stop right then, and to marvel at how the butter had retained the full taste of liver, but had somehow made it approachable! I felt the same way I had when I saw my first garlic olive oil combination thicken! It was fantastic.
The undisputed winner was the red wine star anise combination (admittedly, it was winter/fall), but I bet a white wine + star anise + white pepper combination would work this summer with your favorite liver!