Winophilia

What is the most memorable wine-with-food combination you’ve enjoyed recently?  And what was it about the combination that made it so special?

Here are more responses to this question from some of the world’s most talented winemakers.  We’ll have yet another installment to come in the next few weeks.

Manfred Krankl, Sine Qua Non (California).  My general attitude toward that question is that I have never had a really great dish and a really great wine and found myself unhappy.  However, every once in a while all the gastronomic stars align just so (it is almost always happenstance and not planned) and then it is just pure magic.  I had one of these unforgettable palate titillations a couple of weeks ago at home.

One my great heroes is Fergus Henderson of London’s famed St. JOHN restaurant. We have his cookbook—“The Whole Beast:  Nose to Tail Cooking” (not a living soul should be without it)—and decided to make his simple, but oh so unbelievably sexy Roasted Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad. Scooping the quivering, succulent, perfectly roasted marrow from the bones, gently placing it on a piece of crusty, grilled country bread, topping it with a dash of refreshingly tart parsley salad and then washing it down with a hefty sip of Château Simone Palette Blanc 2000 has got to be the gustatory equivalent to being kissed by an angel (I have other, more low-brow analogies in store, but for this here report I have decided to stay out of the gutter).

The wine is from the south of France and as I understand it, it is made from predominantly clairette and grenache blanc, with a touch of muscat and ugni blanc. There is a deep, rich minerality to this wine that makes it sleek and creamy, but at the same time there is a very lively acidity and a honeyed, slightly oxidative nuttiness that is intellectually and hedonistically stimulating. It simultaneously presents a counterpoint to the off-the-charts richness of the marrow and a perfect synchronicity. It is hard to describe such a perfect pair of treats, but let me just say this:  Anthony Bourdain said that the last meal he wants to have before he faces the firing squad is Fergus’ Roasted Bone Marrow with Parsley Salad.  If I find out that he gets it served with that Château Simone Palette Blanc, then I’ll commit a horrid crime just so I can join him.

Matt Donaldson and Lynnette Hudson, Pegasus Bay Winery (New Zealand).  Our most memorable, exciting recent wine/food combo was at a little restaurant in Wellington (our capital city) called Sweet Mother’s Kitchen specialising in authentic southern home-style cookin’, influenced by New Orleans with Cajun and Creole dishes.

We opened a 2007 Rottgen Erstes Gewachs from Heymann Lowenstein, which was a great match with most of the dishes, but especially the jambalaya.  The oily concentration of the wine stood up well and complimented the rich full flavour of the dish.  Both wine and food were powerful and complex, yet neither seemed to dominate.  Truly a marriage made in heaven.

Christian Moreau, Domaine Christian Moreau Père et Fils (France).  Yesterday on my way to my ski resort, L’Alpe d’Huez, we decided to stop for a light lunch at Domaine des Séquoias at Bourgoin-Jallieu just after Lyon.  The lunch menu was very attractive so we went for it and for the second course we had the venison.  The filet was served with a red wine sauce, mushroom and artichoke Topinambour.  I asked the sommelier to choose for us a glass of red wine (I still had an hour and a half of driving remaining!!). He came with a bottle and I recognized the neck label (Jaboulet ), and after tasting the wine I was thinking of a Cornas…and it was a Cornas 2001. A perfect match with this game filet:  nice brown color, very spicy, peppery taste and quite complex.  To me the perfect wine with a strong dish.  Bravo le sommelier for the choice.

Marc Kent, Boekenhoutskloof Winery (South Africa).  An aged Rigotte de Condrieu (this goat’s milk cheese only recently received its AOC status) from Val Ferme, the spectacular vendor of regional produce (near Ampuis) with a 2006 Condrieu from Francois Gérard. It was served by Mme. Gérard in her home perched high above the town of Condrieu. The floral, peachy flavours of the wine were beautifully balanced by the texture and flavour of the aged Rigotte.

Jean-Marie Fourrier, Domaine Fourrier (France).  Chateau Rayne, Sauternes 1869:  Last November in the U.K., I was invited to a restaurant (The Ledbury). It was Thanksgiving, and the place was full of people celebrating it. I came with some English merchants who brought a few good things. Then dessert came, and suddenly this wine was served blind.  The person who brought it didn’t have much expectation but thought it would be interesting to try: coffee color, white flower aromas, and still a touch of sweetness.  And suddenly the fantastic dessert (Caramelised Banana Galette with Salted Caramel and Peanut Ice Cream ) was less important than this piece of history.  The history of this bottle, how good it was, and made without any enologist: I was suddenly dreaming of the man, so ignorant of science, so close to Mother Nature, who created this wine. A hundred forty years later it was so good that it made me forget the fantastic dessert I had in front of me.

Patrick Campbell, Laurel Glen Vineyards (California).  My pairing is from 1998.  After the ten-hour drive over the Andes from Santiago, all I wanted was a good bowl of pasta.  Someone had recommended that I check out Trevi, a faded Italian restaurant in downtown Mendoza, so I stopped by and ordered tallarines a la guitarra primavera: house-made noodles with fresh tomato and basil and chunks of garlic.  I washed down the heavenly dish with the first malbec I had ever tasted this side of Cahors.  Several days later I had secured a contract on an excellent vineyard and hooked up with a nearby winery.  Then the rains began.  And neither we, nor virtually anyone else that year, harvested a single grape.

Philippe Cambie, consulting enologist (France).  My greatest gastronomical experience took place at La Fenière, Guy & Reine Samut’s restaurant in Lourmarin (Provence). The theme of the meal was “simply good” and the meal was organized for the 10^th year anniversary celebration of  Tardieu-Laurent wine company.  I ate the best grand lièvre à la royale (king’s-style hare) of my life, prepared according to Senator Couteau’s recipe, using a red hair hare. We drank a fabulous Chateauneuf du Pape Clos du Mont-Olivet 1966 and this wine was my most intense tasting emotion and the most perfect food and wine pairing I have ever experienced. The complex aromas of the wine—dry figs, stewed black prunes, black pepper and star anise—married beautifully with the hare.  It is for me an incredible memory.

Dominique Lafon, Domaine des Comtes Lafon (France).  There are so many nice bottles with wines, from great to simple but enjoyable.  Let’s talk about a nice Macon with rosette and goat cheese while fishing at ten in the morning…

The last great time with wine and food I had was last fall,with Etienne and Marielle Grivot for Etienne’s 50^th birthday. We cooked dinner at home.

Billecart rosé aperitif.  Montrachet 1992 with fried scallops, which I finished with a bit of balsamic vinegar, served with salad (mache).  Biche filet marinated in red wine cooked in the oven, still pink inside; wine reduction sauce made with the marinade with different purées, carots, potatoes and celery. We had the Henri Jayer Vosne-Romanée Cros Parantoux 1990 with it; this was a gift from Henri. I had been waiting for a great occasion to open it. The wine was a nice color, not too dark, still fresh, with a bit of more mature color to it. Fresh nose, more fruits than flowers. The mouth was elegant,not overwhelming.  It had smooth,silky tannins and a very long aftertaste,s till young. The mache with the filet was good,as we didn’t over cook it and the wine sauce was light. It wasn’t too gamey.  I think what happened that night was a combination with great friends, good food, and that bottle that I had waited for. Sharing it with Etienne was fun as we used to visit Henri’s cellars every year together long time ago.

Gilles Nicault, Long Shadows Vintners Collection (Washington).  One of the most creative pairings I’ve enjoyed recently was a dish created by executive Chef Bear from the Marcus Whitman Hotel in Walla Walla, WA.   He prepared a lobster in a very hearty saffron-scented lobster stock with braised fennel and crispy Serrano ham, plus some oven-dried tomato and cress.  It was like a bouillabaisse deconstructed.

Coincidentally, chef Bear paired the dish with the Long Shadows Saggi [a project of Giovanni Folonari], a wine he knows well, based on sangiovese and cabernet sauvignon with a smaller fraction of syrah. The sangiovese’s delicate balance of acidity and red fruit flavors, enhanced by the structure of the cabernet Sauvignon and the subtle spiciness of the syrah, played the perfect compliment to the firm white meat of the lobster and the complex flavors of herbs, spices and smoke.  The richness of the dish and the well-balanced acid in the wine were a welcoming interaction.  The whole thing just worked perfectly in concert, but it all hinged on the lobster and saffron.

Martin Meinert, Meinert Wines (South Africa).  This one’s fairly local, but it is the most memorable match I’ve had in recent times.  I’ve been making small quantities (two barrels) of white merlot, based on the merlot bianco style from Ticino in Switzerland, for the last two years. Though I’d intended making it in 2005 already, 2008 was the first year, and the wine turned out to have a beautiful onion skin colour, which meant that our authorities would not allow me to call it “White Merlot,” so it’s called “The Italian Job.”  The wine, whole-bunch pressed, barrel-fermented and put through malolactic fermentation, has a salty, flinty, buttery taste but with a fresh, crisp finish. It’s rich but not fat. My friend Marco Nico from the restaurant Marco Paulo in Durban, South Africa, paired it with a rich smoked salmon risotto for a wine dinner. The wine is fascinating on its own, but the dish played on the salty smoky flavours and made it look great.

Bernard Hervet, Domaine Faiveley (France).  My best recollection of a wine/food combination is something I have tried very often and which continues to give me a great feeling.  The last time I did this experiment, it was with the 1996 Chablis Butteaux from Domaine Raveneau, served at the end of a meal and combined with a mature Comté cheese aged 30 months.  I buy this Comté at the covered food market in Beaune.

This mix between a 14-year-old white premier cru and a mature Comté is perfect.  Of course, the richness of the wine, its minerality, its iodine-salty side, mixes perfectly with the creaminess of the cheese, whose character, saltiness and essence of salt crystals create a explosion of tastes on the palate.  This experiment can be done with other Burgundy premier and grand crus, especially with Corton-Charlemagne, and always proves to be amazing.

Dave Powell, Torbreck Winery (Australia). I was at Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck in Bray just outside London last May just before the London Wine Trade Fair.  I’d heard that Heston was a fan of my wines and I’d been meaning to make a journey for some time.

To say that the wine and food was incredible is an understatement.  The highlight amongst many was his famous snail porridge, served with truffle toasts and foie gras, presented amongst the smells of the forest floor – goodness knows how but just breathtaking from beginning to end, an incredibly complex amalgam of aromas, flavours and textures!

The wine was a 2001 DRC Le Montrachet which was magnificently structured, young and tight but just so texturally rich and exciting. It will live in my memory forever.  Bravo Heston, and the Domaine de la Romanee Conti for giving me one of life’s most indescribable sensory pleasures.

Marc Hugel, Hugel et Fils (France).  Last week at home for dinner with a British wine merchant, and friend, Marcel Williams. My wife Marie-Claude prepared for us an original version of haddock on cabbage with mashed potatoes and leek and cooked in the oven (not really an Alsacian recipe!). I thought that a Gewurztraminer Jubilee from the Grand Cru Sporen vintage 1971 could suit. The combination was perfect : firm and subtle at the same time, endless. The strong and smoky taste of the haddock was in perfect harmony with the smoky and spicy character of this mature gewurztraminer. The complexity and depth of this nearly 40-year-old wine even magnified the charm of the moment.  And the last drops of this Gewurztraminer 1971 were the perfect companion for a fantastic traditional Munster fermier cheese from Humbrecht (not Léonard…!).

Should I try the same experience again, the only detail I would change would be the size of the bottle… Santé!”