Taste of Food and Wine Archives

Norway and Paris on a plate…and in a glass

June 14, 2016

The family summer holiday in Norway and Paris led to some interesting wine and food discoveries…..

Norwegian Mood

Gavlax and more. Scandic Ornen, Bergen. Mussels salad at lunch at Roast, Scandic Ørnen. In the background: crab salad.

Gravlax (left) and mussels salad, part of the lunch at Roast, Scandic Ørnen

There’s salmon, and then there’s Norwegian salmon. And then, so much more. Like the pickled herring to the nutty caramelized brown cheese for a Scandinavian-style breakfast, or the all-seafood dinner spread put out for our group of nearly 300 – an eye-popping smorgasbord of deliciousness aboard a dinner cruise on the handsome Norwegian barque Statsraad Lehmukul anchored at Norway’s prettiest, most historical city, Bergen. Later, we chatted with Fredrick Hald, executive chef in charge of product development of Lerøy Seafood, Norway’s largest sustainable seafood producers and the world’s second largest producer of salmon, who organized the dinner. He said that there was much more to Norway than their famed salmon (laks). They took immense pride in the quality of their cod and trout, for instance.

White chocolate and fresh fruit – a wonderful dessert by Bocuse d’Or 2015 winner Chef Ørjan Johannessen at Bekkjarvik Gjestgiveri. Earlier, we drank the unusual blend Ca del Magro Custoza Superiore from Azienda Agricola Monte del Fra 2013

The seafood theme set the tone for a gastronomically indulgent two weeks in Norway. One notable meals was a short ferry boat ride away at a restaurant called Bekkjarvik Gjestgiveri (5397 Bekkjarvik), on a small island just outside Bergen, where chef Ørjan Johannessen (winner of Bocuse d’Or 2015) and his brother Arnt, put out a lovely three course lunch of – seafood, of course – crayfish with shrimp followed by delicate monkfish for the mains accompanied by a white wine, Custoza Superiore “Ca’ del Magro” Monte del Frà from Azienda Agricola Monte del Fra (a unique blend of Garganega, Trebbiano, Chardonnay, Cortese and the Incrocio Manzoni, as I discovered). Dessert was a gorgeous fresh berry and white chocolate dessert with the fresh, fruit-laden sweet wine, Falchetto Brachetto d’acqui 2013. The next day, at the rooftop grill restaurant, Roast at the Scandic Ørnen, ( Lars Hilles gate 18, 5008 Bergen) a view of Bergen combined rather beautifully with a lunch of fresh and diverse seafood and Prosecco.

More memories were created at Restaurant Lofoten (Stranden 75, 0250 Oslo) on Oslo’s Aker Brygge seafront. As we watched the sun set into the sea, we dined on a flavourful fish soup, scallops with stewed apple and balsamic reduction for starters; and salmon in miso broth with fresh enoki, and lobster for the mains. The wine, recommended by our server, was a stunning Albariño from Rias Baixas, Spain: Santiago Ruiz O Rosal 2014: aromatic fruit and minerality coming together powerfully, the structure strong, the finish long. One of the most balanced, more-ish whites I’ve tasted in ages, and one now entered in my little notebook.

Did I eat only fish? No. We indulged in other Scandinavian delicacies like elk, reindeer, venison (I drew the line at whale). But for me, the hero of the trip was the seafood.

On drink: Norway has very strict laws relating to consumption of alcohol. Ergo, only beverages with 4.7% abv or under may be found on supermarket shelves. The rest, including wine and beer, are available only at the state-run Vinmonopolet, even the local aquavit (akevitt). Norway makes some very basic wine of their own, but brings in many good imported brands.

Paris when it drizzles

After wonderful weather in Norway, the law of drizzly averages hit us and when we landed in Paris the deluge had started. No matter. I’d decided skip the Michelin stars this visit and try the next rung of equally well-rated but smaller bistros and brasseries on the Left Bank this time. It would be a culinary adventure of gastronomic discovery. Or as Edith Piaf might have husked, “C’est si bon.”

Rainy days and foie gras

Foie gras platter at Le Petit Prince. Tortellini, petit pois, ricotta et bouillon de champignon, Frenchie bar a vins

Foie gras platter at Le Petit Prince. Veloute de courgette, tartine de courteau, sur pate feuilletee at Frenchie bar a vins

I’ve dined at Le Petit Prince de Paris (12 Rue de Lanneau, 75005 Paris) before, and the restaurant, true Parisian style, is tiny, with tables so close you can inhale your neighbour’s perfume. No matter, they were ready to feed us, and with a bottle of Pierre Amadieu Romane-Machotte 2013 from Gigondas, Rhône on the table, I ordered a platter of foie gras. Added a smidge of fig jam… and all’s right with the world.

Vive la différence: Quaint, tiny and characterful.One of the few eateries open late (until midnight) and on a Sunday. Usually unheard of in France. (more…)

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Taste of Food and Wine / Tastings

The Marchesi di Barolo table: the king, the queen, their family and friends

March 8, 2016

There’s something about an evening done Italian-style. For one, there’s always great food and excellent wine to go with it and finally there’s the warmth of the hosts. For Italians, much of the best of life happens with friends and family around a table laden with food and wine.

The Abbona family: Ernesto and Anna with Davide and Valentina

And so it was with the Abbona ladies. Anna Abbona, wife of Ernesto Abbona of Marchesi di Barolo, and her daughter Valentina see themselves as ambassadors of their brand. But it’s more than a brand to them. Their wines are living, breathing products and they are the proud family members, descendants of Pietro Abbona of Marchesi di Barolo of Piedmont, who spread the word – through good food, wine and conversation around the dinner table. Anna says as much, “An evening is made by good food, good wine and good company.” The wine, I would add, is the protagonist.

And so it was at the Marchesi di Barolo wine dinner at Le Cirque Signature restaurant at the Leela Palace, Bangalore that evening. The Abbona ladies were warm, friendly hosts, introducing and discussing their wines and their region (Langhe, in Piedmont, is a UNESCO Heritage site) with genuine love and affection, and the conversation moved along easily, touching on both the personal and the professional.

The king and queen: Barolo and Barbaresco, Marchesi di Barolo DOCG

Far from being an occasional India visitor Valentina is familiar with India hand, having had a month-long stint studying business at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad in 2009. Why India? “I was curious about India,” she said, “I wanted to go to Brazil to study but my parents wouldn’t agree.” It was a decision that worked well: she loved it so much, she wept when she left, she confessed. The India experience was an eye opener to the director of sales for the company, who now flies all over the world promoting her wines.

We start the dinner with the Gavi, Marchesi di Barolo 2013 paired with a rich white asparagus soup with wild mushroom, black truffle pesto, basil oil. White wines aren’t really given their due in Italy, coming in second after their magnificent reds, but this one from Piedmont shows off the character it draws from its soil – sandy marl and clay which gives the Cortese grape its mineralty. Anna laughingly tells us the most common question she faces during her travels: “which wine is closest to Pinot Grigio?” (The correct answer is none.) But Pinot Grigio has become the ubiquitous white Italian wine, sweeping the west with its light, easy drinkability. As a result it has typecast all Italian white wines. Gavi, is in fact the name of a village just two hours from Barolo, the small Piedmontese village with a big name and a big wine. Barolo itself has a mere 600 inhabitants. (“As you can imagine, everyone knows everything about you when you live in a small village like this,” she laughs.) (more…)

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Interviews / Taste of Food and Wine

Of full moons and wine dinners to remember

February 27, 2016

Last Sunday was a quite red-letter day for me, wine-wise.

I returned from a hectic trip, fighting jetlag and exhaustion, straight to a wine dinner. But in a few short hours, I went from wrung out to exhilarated. Blame it on the wine.

The tables being set up . Image courtesy Bespoke Catering by Chef Abhijit Saha

It had started when a friend asked me to help out with the wine selection for a dinner being hosted at his home. I wasn’t really sure how I could juggle both my travel and this, at first. I had a hectic week of work, and curating a wine dinner requires some planning and effort, to say the least.

And then I heard about the wines.

The host (my friend’s friend, who was bringing his wines into town and hosting the dinner in honour of his visiting business associate, a leading Swiss watchmaker, along with a group of friends) has an enviable cellar, and over an hour-long phone chat, as I heard about some of the wines he was offering up as choices, it became hard to say no. The host was keen to offer grand cru classés from the Left Bank of Bordeaux, along with his personal favourite wine, a 98-point Châteauneuf-du-Pape. And options to finish with a first growth Sauternes. I would need to curate and source the rest of the wines and stitch the whole wine menu together.

I was sold.

So I started working on the wine list. A few calls to importers known for their stellar wine lists, and I began putting it all into the order it deserved. This was an exhilarating project.

Chef Abhijit Saha worked personally on the menu and in the kitchen on the evening, pulled out the stops with food to match. The wine notes I wrote up very simply, only to give a brief impression of the excellent wines we would taste. I wanted the guests to form their own conclusions. The challenge of finding sufficient decanters for all the red wines (two hours in the decanter) for the evening was handled through help and collaboration.

Seafood bisque served with the Salus Staglin Family Vineyard Estate Chardonnay 2012. Image: Bespoke Catering by Chef Abhijit Saha

The aperitif wine served with a selection of hors d’oeuvres would be Hugel Gentil 2013, a wine of restraint, balance and breezy easiness which belied its formidable ancestry – from Alsace’s Famille Hugel. It would be refreshing, elegant and just right to lead into an evening of serious wine quaffing paired with multiple courses.

While I was keen to stick to Old World wines right through, in keeping with the ‘timeless’ theme of classic Swiss watchmaking, I was convinced to try out a New World classic, a Rutherford Chardonnay from the Staglin Family Estate – the Salus 2012. A first impression of fruit – pear, melon and citrus eased into length and complexity from the wine’s barrel ageing – this was a perfect counterpoint to the light, flavoursome seafood bisque.

Course: Herb & Lemon Grilled Seafood Bisque, black olive powder, garlic crumbs and mixed greens/ Fresh burrata, carpaccio of beetroot agro dolce, fig, black olive powder, garlic crumbs and mixed greens

Wine: Salus Staglin Family Vineyard Estate Chardonnay 2012, Rutherford, USA

Cult Napa Valley wine by the philanthropist Staglin family. All profits of Salus go to support brain health research. A barrel-aged and barrel-fermented Chardonnay of complexity and balance.

Clarendelle 2007

So, on to Bordeaux for the first course. The host had sufficient Clarendelle 2007 to keep the guests happy, and I knew it had the gentle elegance and delicate fruit that made its first-growth cousin, Château Haut Brion so well-beloved of connoisseurs. The host was keen to add another grand cru classé with this course, and this one was a personal favourite for me – Château Giscours 2009 came in magnums, was drinking superbly on the night, and paired wonderfully with the tenderloin done perfectly à point.

Course: Picada of grilled tenderloin/ chicken, Gorgonzola, truffle oil flavoured cauliflower puree and petit vegetables

Wine 1: Clarendelle 2007, inspiré de Château Haut Brion, Bordeaux, France

Made by Haut Brion’s own winemaking team in the style of the premier grand cru classé, Bordeaux. Prince Robert of Luxembourg says of his wine: “Clarendelle’s style and structure represent elegance, complexity and balance.”

Wine 2: Château Giscours 2009, Margaux, Bordeaux, France

Impressive third growth grand cru classé from Bordeaux. Textured, polished, creamy with ripe tannins and smart acidity. “The finest Giscours in my professional career.” said Robert Parker, 93 points. WS 95 points.

Bordeaux done, it was time to move to the main course – Chef Saha’s specialty of sous vide lamb – and with this, bring out the

The white wines

big boys of Old World wine. Il Poggione Brunello di Montalcino 2010 wasn’t awarded 98 points by Wine Spectator for nothing, and having had the privilege of visiting the winery in Sant’Angelo in Colle and meeting the unassuming genius winemaker Fabrizio Bindocci, I knew what this vintage could hold. (I must say here that I think it will drink even better over the next 5-8 years, or even more.) It came with another stunning gorgeous wine from a region that remains one of my firm favourites for complex red wines – Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The Clos des Pape 2003 from Domaine Paul Avril sang in the glass and on the lips. The magnums had help the tannins integrate perfectly to create a wine of depth, length and utter complexity. You could drink this and sigh ‘enough’.

Course: Sous vide cooked rotolo of lamb with porcini red wine risotto, porcini and red wine jus/ ricotta-stuffed Morel, red wine risotto, porcini and red wine jus

Wine 1: Clos des Pape 2003, Domaine Paul Avril Châteauneuf-du-Pape, France (more…)

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Paris, je t’aime….

December 6, 2015

…and other tales of food and wine. November 2015

Terrine de foie, sel et poivre with chunky country bread at Yannick Alleno’s Terroir Parisien

On the night of 13^th November I was sitting with my sons in a Paris bistro, having dinner. It was 9 pm. I had just flown into Paris that morning from Bangalore en route to Reykjavik, and was meeting up with them in the 11^th arrondissment’s Bistrot Paul Bert. A traditional Paris bistro of some note, now serving more American tourists than French locals, as we discovered. The food flavours were robust, though something short of remarkable – I’m spoilt in Paris, I’m afraid. The wine too, was decent though not quite stellar. The highlight of the meal was the dessert: a melt-in-your-mouth Grand Marnier soufflé. Then we stepped out, walking down the narrow lanes to the metro station.

That night the three of us had a close miss, as barely a few hundred yards away, in several restaurants just like the one we were at, innocent diners were gunned down by terrorists in a horrific display of savagery, possibly at almost the very

The Crozes-Hermitage 2013, by Yannick Alleno and Michel Chapoutier at Terroir Parisien

moment I was spooning the soufflé into my mouth. Later, as news trickled in, I was shocked and shaken at our near miss. I had two more days in Paris and I was determined to step out, wine and dine as planned, in support of the very Parisian lifestyle which had come under attack.

Our options were limited, I discovered the next day. My favourite bar à vins and restaurant Frenchie, was unreachable, so the next night we visited Michelin 3-star chef Yannick (formerly of Le Meurice) Alléno’s casual modern eatery, Terroir Parisien near the Sorbonne. I wanted familiar French food and wine, a tiny reassurance that life was not forever changed. The minimal-chic bistro was full of diners, a reassuring sight, the long central bar lined with wines and champagne and jars of quality teas and jams for patrons to buy. I ordered a glass of champagne and a terrine de foie, sel et poivre from the abbreviated menu which features among other things, Alléno’s version of veau-chaud (A Parisian ‘hot dog’ made from tête de veau), hambourgeois (hamburger), sandwich jambon-beurre (ham & butter sandwich) besides French bistro specialties like croque monsieur, saumon fumé (smoked salmon) and boudin noir (black pudding). For my main course, a filet de boeuf, sauce béarnaise, paired well with a house Crozes-Hermitage, Guer-Van 2013 that Alléno makes in collaboration with big-name Rhône winemaker Michel Chapoutier. And finished with a poire de

Autumn soup at Spring

chez Surgis au vin rouge. Balance of life was slowly being restored.

Then it was off to Iceland, a happy, simple yet stunningly beautiful country and a memorable visit with friends. Lots of wining and dining here to, but that’s for another story. On my way back, I stopped for a night in Paris again, anxious to find life returning to normal. It was, though in truth, I doubt the people of the city will ever feel normal again. In celebration of this, we had booked dinner at Chef Daniel Rose’s Spring. Here was a true example of how France, its food and culture can deeply impact those in search of simplicity and quality.

Daniel Rose is a young American chef who adopted Paris as his home when he came there to study. He went on to be inspired by several great French chefs, including Alain Sailhac

Vegetable broth with steamed haddock and chive oil with champagne, at Spring

and Yannick Alléno. He opened Spring, then in a tiny space with only 16 seats in 2006, shopping daily for fresh produce, cooking and serving himself. As he grew famous over time he moved to larger premises. Larger being a relative word – the new Spring is still quite small. With an unpretentious open kitchen in the middle of the room where you watch the chefs cook and plate your food as you sip wine recommended by their award-winning young sommelier Jonathan Bauer-Monneret (Meilleur Sommelier de France 2014). Rose’s philosophy is all new-French – fresh quality produce, minimum fuss and handling, artful simplicity which lets ingredients shine through. There are no menus here – you have the 5 course menu du jour based on what’s good in the market on the day, and the only concessions made are for possible food allergies. You might dine on scallops, or equally end up with sweetbreads or venison. (more…)

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A Vintage Paris

November 12, 2015

The De Vinis Illustribus cellar, filled with special vintages of French wine and vintage port

At a restaurant, a major attraction for me is the wine list. I read it the way some people immerse themselves in Facebook, detective fiction or food blogs. And in France, where the word ‘food’ cannot be mentioned without ‘wine’, it is always of particular interest.

In France when it comes to wine, provenance is of vital importance. French wines dominate their wine lists in restaurants, and rightly so. Support your own, I say. (Ditto Italy, where Tuscan wines dominate most Tuscan restaurant wine lists, and so on.) It’s mostly in the more ‘starry’ restaurants that you usually get a mix of different wines from different countries, and that also makes for exciting reading and some phenomenal pairings with food.

Back to France.

On my last trip, I discovered a little jewel of a wine cellar-store. De Vinis Illustribus would probably be known only to the connoisseurs and treasure seekers of French wine: it is off the beaten track in the 5^th arrondissement in an old, lovingly restored multi-levelled wine cellar. And its owner, Lionel Michelin (no relation to the stars) is a walking encyclopaedia on all wines French. (The name, which means “about famous wines” pretty well sums it all up.)

Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1975 is one of the relatively young Bordeaux First Growths in the cellar

I was scheduled to attend an hour-long private tasting at his cellar one afternoon, but by the end of it, one hour stretched to almost three and we were firm friends. His wife, the very affable and hospitable Dominique, plied us with a deliciously nutty rare 2 year old artisanal Comté cheese which proved spot-on with the wines we tasted. Once Lionel figured out my interest in French wine regions, he opened up a few special bottles for me to taste. Among them, one was especially memorable not as a big name but an unusual one: a Domaine Isabel Ferrando Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvée Colombis 2011– a special pure Grenache cuvée which retails for €110 – if you can find a bottle. A very small batch (no more than 500 cases made per vintage) by a rarity in the Rhône – a female winemaker, once a banker, who stepped into winemaking on a whim and soon started beating the big names of the region at their game. Michelin, with his finger on the French wine pulse was quick to pick up a special allocation for his store which has since completely sold out. The wine we tasted was deep, dense, red berry-luscious and just growing up into a gorgeous stunner of a CDP. That made my day. (more…)

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Interviews / Taste of Food and Wine

Discourse with ‘Don’ Drappier

November 6, 2015

Michel Drappier sips his champagne at the Bangalore Wine Club dinner. Image courtesy Ritz Carlton Bangalore

Michel Drappier visited India and left his mark. Sitting down to analyse why, several things popped into my mind. One, that he was fluently expressive about his champagnes – probably one of the most fluent and expressive winemakers I’ve met recently. And he was also friendly and engaging enough for a fellow blogger to swooningly refer to him as the Don Draper of the champagne world. Quite a hyperbole, but then again champagne, they say, is all about bubbles, the good life and perhaps a few Mad Men. Not that there is anything mad about Drappier. He is sharp and articulate. It also helps that he makes very good champagne.

Drappier’s wine is also expressive. And different. A little apart from the majority of delicate, elegant grandes marques so beloved of the champagne-quaffing cognoscenti attending every fine dinner and celebration. Here are wines with body, made to be paired with food. Reason enough for Champagne Drappier to be named one of the top #3 Champagnes You Never Heard Of by Forbes magazine. A non sequitur? Peut-etre. Read on.

The Drappier Carte d’Or on ice

An hour before a 50 guest, 6-course sit-down dinner at The Ritz Carlton Bangalore featuring six stellar and distinct Drappier cuvées, I sat down for a tête-à-tête with Michel Drappier. My first question to him was one that I ask many producers of fine wine who come a-calling to India. With its tough taxes and niche profile of wine drinkers, what made him think India was worth the major spend in terms of time and effort?

“Yes I do,” he said, “I agree, India is very small for Champagne – there are only 17 champagnes listed in India out of the 5000 houses in Champagne. Even China, for that matter, has only 100 champagnes listed. But in Champagne we feel these numbers will grow. I am optimistic. I don’t want to be big. I just want to be available in places where champagne lovers live.”

This July’s much awaited listing of Champagne as a World Heritage site by UNESCO has moved things up a notch for Comité Champagne, the powerful trade organization representing Champagne growers and producers. Drappier is situated a little off the beaten track in the Côte des Bar region in southern Champagne’s Aube – a tiny village called Urville. “The heart of Drappier beats in the village,” he said dramatically, going on to describe with passion the soil, so similar to that of Chablis nearby. The rich soil lends minerality and heft to the Pinot Noir which forms the backbone of Drappier’s champagnes. (Michel’s grandfather Georges was the first to plant Pinot Noir grapes in the Aube, earning the nickname Père Pinot.)

(more…)

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Interviews / Taste of Food and Wine

Chef Vivek Singh adds some spice

November 3, 2015

Clove smoked loin of lamb with Rajasthani corn sauce (swetha) (2002)

Chef Vivek Singh has a reputation.

A reputation for mixing it up, challenging established tastes and classic styles and adding the unusual to his takes on Indian food.
In Bangalore for a Cinnamon Collection pop up at The Ritz Carlton’s Riwaz from 3rd to 7th November 2015, Singh plans to showcase select classics from his menus at Cinnamon Club, Cinnamon Soho and Cinnamon Kitchen in London. Singh studied with Ritz Carlton executive chef Anupam Banerjee, and like many relationships in the hospitality industry, the ties have endured over the years.

In Bangalore, diners would taste a selection of his specials which have played a starring role in his restaurants over time – from watermelon jhalmuri, Bangla Scotch eggs (quail egg wrapped in spiced Bengali style beets and veggies), Surf n’ Turf (scallop and lamb galouti), rogan josh shepherd’s pie, shrikhand– filled cumin profiterole and plenty more. Demos, lunches and wine gala dinners are on the cards – plenty of gastronomic exploration and experimentation to look forward to. (more…)

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Red, white and sparkling with Zonin

May 29, 2015

It’s always nice to see members of the wine trade – importers, writers and enthusiasts gather at a wine tasting. At the very least there are some stories to tell, some wine to taste and something new to learn.

On a busy midweek afternoon, all the seats at Italia at The Park were full. (more…)

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Interviews / Taste of Food and Wine

Guessing games with Craig Wedge

May 29, 2015

Last night, I was at JW Marriott Bangalore’s Food & Wine Appreciation dinner. In their Italian restaurant Alba, their very nice, white gauze white draped PDR was the venue for our rather fun table of 10. I say fun, because at the head of the table was Craig Wedge, Aussie brand director, FineWinesnMore and Fratelli Wines who has made India his home, and learned to embrace it, bad traffic, government taxes et al. (more…)

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Always the time and the place and the loved wine, all together*

July 28, 2014

(*with apologies to Robert Browning)

The foie gras salad at Séguret, one sunny afternoon lunch

I think everyone knows by now, that most Indians like to drink their wine as an aperitif. Which is why, I think, several Indian wine companies are deliberately tweaking their wines to an easy-drinking, supremely quaffable style.

But the very idea of not pairing wines with food is still taboo in the Old World. the French would ooh la la at the very idea of drinking a top notch Bordeaux or Burgundy without the correct food to go with it. And those of us who have spent some time drinking wine would agree that there is no better way of underlining the structure and body of a well-made wine than by pairing it with the right food. In fact, reflecting on some of my favourite wine moments, I have to say I cannot think of some of the very special wines without thinking of the food I had with them.

The Domaine de Mourchon rosé

For instance, a simple, rustic meal we had during a family holiday in Provence – a hearty, delicious veal casserole with the most stunning purple potato mash (a specialty of the region, I was told) was made memorable by the equally simple, robust but well-structured house wine, a local Rhône red. Another time, it was a salad with foie gras, served on simple white plates on a sunny terasse restaurant in Séguret, which went deliciously well with a perfectly chilled and fairly lush Domaine de Mourchon rosé, bursting with red berries.

And a meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Avignon was especially memorable not just for the seamless service, perfect food flavours and plating, but because of the fabulous wine we drank with it. In fact, I picked the wine, a Viognier from Condrieu, rather hesitantly, I recall. I had ordered Chef Christian Etienne’s signature and ever-changing menu des tomates equally hesitantly, as I’m not a huge tomato fan, but I was intrigued by the way the chef had laced the courses together with this single food element, right down to dessert. Each course was varied, different; some vegetarian, others seafood or red meat. We wanted a wine to do justice to most. I picked the Viognier when the sommelier came to the table, wondering if I was doing the right thing. “Wonderful choice, madame,” smiled the sommelier. (All sommeliers should be so wonderfully friendly and reassuring, I say). What the heck, I decided, I wanted to drink the Viognier*, and drink it I would. At first sip, the wine was as seductively fruity and complex as I had imagined. Nectar in a glass.

Andre Perret Chéry Viognier 2011 from Condrieu

It also worked like a dream with the food. The husband, who favours big reds and was looking forward to our visit to Chateauneuf-du-Pape the next day, was charmed by this wine and its stunning aromas and gorgeous floral and citrus notes. And we ordered a second bottle to take us through all eight courses of the tasting menu (I especially recall the goat cheese mousse with green tomato chutney). At the end of the meal I summoned the sommelier and thanked him for not trying to veer me away from it. “It’s an excellent wine, madame,” he said, “I knew it would make you happy.”

That’s really what a good wine should do during a meal. Make you happy.

One of the courses from Chef Christian Etienne’s menu des tomates, at his eponymous restaurant in Avignon

That day, sitting at the restaurant overlooking the fabulous Palais des Papes, it was a wine and food voyage of a different kind. Wine pairings tend to do that to you. If you make a discovery, find a wonderful wine, and perchance, even by accident, pick the perfect food to pair it with, it’s a discovery worthy of saying Eureka!

Eat your heart out, Archimedes.

*The wine was Andre Perret Coteau de Chéry 2011, a stunning expression of the Viognier from a one of the most noted vineyards in the Condrieu appellation.

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Taste of Food and Wine

Norway and Paris on a plate…and in a glass

The family summer holiday in Norway and Paris led to some interesting wine and food discoveries…..

Norwegian Mood

Paris when it drizzles

Rainy days and foie gras

The Marchesi di Barolo table: the king, the queen, their family and friends

Of full moons and wine dinners to remember

Paris, je t’aime….

A Vintage Paris

Discourse with ‘Don’ Drappier

Chef Vivek Singh adds some spice

Red, white and sparkling with Zonin

Guessing games with Craig Wedge

Always the time and the place and the loved wine, all together*

(*with apologies to Robert Browning)

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