World of Syrah and Duck Confit, Oh, My!

Bonjour, amis du vin et de cuisine et bienvenue à “Cépage et Cuisine.”  Hello, friends of wine and cooking and welcome to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Most of our blog entries are about mainly food or mainly wine, but this one is about both.  We’ve been planning a Syrah event for a long time, shopping and acquiring just the right wines for almost a year.  We wanted to pair the wines with duck and have been experimenting with different preparations of duck breast and duck legs.  We’ve had several dinners of amazing duck confit at restaurants in the U.S. and France.  After several trial runs here at Maison Mary et Brian, we decided to try our hand at making our own duck confit.  Hold on to your hat, folks.  We had huge fun while learning about Syrah and a rather elaborate food event at the same time.  We have lots of information and photos to share, so here goes!

Duck confit is a popular dish throughout France, but is native to Gascony, the region of southwest France near Spain, roughly from Bordeaux down to the Pyrenees.  It is essentially duck leg that has been cured with salt and herbs, cooked and preserved in its own rendered fat.  Just as an aside, duck fat is less saturated and lower in cholesterol than butter, so it is healthier (or at least less unhealthy) than most animal fat.
 
The wine event was on a Saturday.  We finalized our decision on duck confit the preceding Saturday.  For duck confit to be its best, it needs at least a little time in the fridge to cure and take on the flavors of the salt, herbs, and fat.  We already had the duck legs in the freezer, so those came out for thawing and we worked on them Sunday.

Here you see the ingredients, the duck, shallots, garlic, and a variety of herbs, spices, salt, and pepper.

The first step is the preparation of the dry marinade. The shallot and garlic are both chopped.  We grow the thyme in a pot on our deck where you see many of our wine bottle photos.  Bay leaves are crumbled.  The spice mixture you see in the mixing bowl is called quatre épices, or four spice blend.  It includes cinnamon, ground cloves, ginger, and nutmeg.  We also added white pepper.  The salt and freshly ground black pepper are also in the blend.

Everything is mixed together, producing a dry marinade, although the fresh shallots and garlic provide a bit of moisture.

The duck legs are rubbed thoroughly with the marinade, then placed in a glass casserole dish, covered in foil and put in the fridge.

Tuesday, two days later, we took the duck from the fridge.  Mary used a dry paper towel to clean the marinade from the duck legs so the ingredients don’t burn during the cooking process.

Here’s a tub of duck fat from the fridge, turned on its side so you can see that it solidifies when chilled, much like butter.

This jar of duck fat is at normal room temperature, about 75 degrees.  It isn’t completely melted, but you can see that it is pourable when the jar is turned on its side.

Duck fat melts to a clear yellow liquid when heated.  We used a Le Creuset enamel-coated cast iron pot for cooking.  The duck legs were added to sufficient melted duck fat that they were pretty much submerged.  Using a candy thermometer, I (Mary delegated the cooking of this one to me) brought the temperature up slowly to about 200º F, which takes at least a half-hour.  The duck simmers along at that temp for another two hours.  Doneness was tested with a bamboo skewer.

The duck legs were removed from the pot and placed in a casserole dish.  The fat was strained over the duck legs, again submerging the duck legs.  I put the dish in the fridge, uncovered overnight.  By morning, the fat had re-solidified.  The casserole dish is then covered and can stay in the fridge like that for up to three months, getting better and better.

That gets us to Saturday, the day of World of Syrah!

Syrah is one of the noble grapes, meaning it is a grape which produces wines of high quality and which is grown in many areas of the world.  Among red grapes, the other “nobles” are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Pinot Noir.  Like all great wines, Syrah takes on the characteristics of the site where it is grown.  It can be grown in cool or warm climates.  Cool climate Syrah often produces a wine with blue and black fruit as well as a peppery, meaty, savory quality.  Warm climate Syrah produces bigger, more powerful wines with flavors of ripe, dark fruit such as blackberry, plum, and chocolate, often with fuller body and higher alcohol.

Syrah is thought to have originated hundreds, possibly thousands, of years ago in the northern Rhone Valley, specifically on a single broad hillside above the town of Tain-l’Hermitage, usually simply called Hermitage.  This part of the Rhone Valley is south of Lyon and well north of Marseilles on the Mediterranean.  The red teardrop arrow on the map below shows you the location.  The Northern Rhone is a cool climate, relative to most Syrah growing regions.  Grapes struggle to ripen and often produce the savory, meaty characteristics along with fruit aromas and flavors.

Syrah is the only red grape in the Northern Rhone, cultivated from Côte-Rôtie in the north to Hermitage in the middle to Cornas in the south, a distance of only about 42 miles.  Many of the vineyards are on very steep hillsides, sloping down to the Rhone.

 

Côte-Rôtie is divided into two “côtes.”  Côte Blonde is lighter with limestone and silica and which produces elegant, finessed wines.  Côte Brune is heavier soil with more iron, which produces a more structured, powerful, mineral wine.  The appellation rules of Côte-Rôtie allow a small percentage of Viognier, a white varietal, to be added to Syrah for enhanced floral and fruit aromatics and, curiously, darker color.  The Côte-Rôtie I selected for our event was produced by E. Guigal, perhaps the most well known producer in Côte-Rôtie.  The wine is called “Brune et Blonde,” from the 2000 vintage, and includes Syrah from both Côte Brune and Côte Blonde, along with 4% Viognier.

I also selected a wine from Hermitage, specifically a climat on the hill of Hermitage called La Chapelle, one of the most famous and prestigious vineyards in the Northern Rhone.  The name of the vineyard derives from a small chapel which was built near the top of the hill by monks in the 1500s.

This series of photos shows the town of Hermitage and the Rhone River from La Chapelle, me standing next to the chapel, and the interior of the chapel, still maintained by the church after centuries as a noble sentinel of the Rhone.  The producer of La Chapelle is Paul Jaboulet Aîné.  Jaboulet is the sole producer of La Chapelle.  Although white grapes are cultivated on the hill of Hermitage, La Chapelle is 100% Syrah.  The bottle opened at our event was the 1999.

Cornas is a small appellation with only about 40 or so acres under vine.  Syrah is the only grape grown in Cornas.  There is no white wine production.  Cornas has the image of the “country cousin” of the Northern Rhone, perhaps a little more rustic and old school.  Herbal notes such as olive and sage often complement other flavors.  I selected a wine by Domaine Auguste Clape.  The Clape family produces wines that definitely help define the profile of Cornas, well structured, a little rustic, complex.  We opened the 2001 vintage at our event.

Syrah is widely grown along the U.S. West Coast in both warm and cool climates.  For our event and partly because I tend to prefer cooler climate wines, I selected a wine by Lagier-Meredith, the 2001 vintage, which actually carries the Napa Valley appellation designation but is grown high atop Mt. Veeder.  As I’ve shared in other postings, mountain grapes are grown on thin soils, which cause the grapes to work harder to ripen and often produce lower yields of more intensely flavored, complex grapes.

 

The Lagier-Meredith site is just north of San Pablo Bay, which you can see here on this map.  The altitude of the mountain vineyard provides cooler temperatures.  Steve and Carole also get the cool breezes from the chilly waters off the bay.  With abundant sunshine and a growing season with minimal rain, the grapes can mature longer on the vine.  The cooler conditions, especially at night, preserve the balance of the grapes.  The aroma and flavor profile sort of has one foot in the Rhone and one foot in warm climates because of longer hang time.  Among U.S. Syrah producers, they are one of my favorites.  The event wine was the 2001 vintage.

The other California wine was by Peay Vineyards.  Their site is really out there.  We visited a few years ago, and remote and rugged are accurate descriptors of their location, to say the least.

They are way out on the true Sonoma Coast near the community of Annapolis.  You can see their location on this map.  They’re only four miles from the ocean as the crow flies, but most of their site is above the fog line.  Once again, they have cool temperatures from the ocean, but usually good sun and hang time for flavor development.  We opened the 2005 vintage at our event.

An event called World of Syrah would not be complete without a Shiraz from the Barossa Valley in Australia.  Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape, but the Aussies call it Shiraz.  The Barossa Valley is the most well known of the major growing regions of Australia, located in South Australia and north of Adelaide, as you can see on this map. 

Barossa Valley is sometimes described as the Napa Valley of Australia because of being so famous.  It is very hot and very dry in the summer.  Grapes from old vines in the Barossa produce typical expressions of warm climate wines, quite ripe, characterized by dark fruit flavors, chocolate, not as much of the peppery, savory qualities, very full-bodied and often high in alcohol.  I chose a wine by Two Hands, a producer that has become especially highly regarded by American wine writers.  Their Bella’s Garden from the Barossa has ranked among the top wines in yearly rankings by Wine Spectator.  For our event I acquired the 2005 Bella’s Garden.

World of Syrah was a blinded event.  That means no one knew what was in the stems.  We do that by putting the wine bottles in plain paper bags, then removing the corks.  I do that while Mary is out of the room.  Then I leave the room.  Mary comes in, unaware of which bottle is in which bag.  The only thing she sees is the very top of the bottles.  She pours the wines into color-coded decanters, then the wine is poured into color-coded stems.  Double blind!  Here’s a few photos to show what I mean.

We tasted through the wines, one by one, discussing them and taking notes.  It was such fun to compare our impressions and preferences and guessing which wine was which.  Here’s Sara and Sheryl, studying intently.

Once we tasted through all the wines and ranked our preferences, we turned our attention to the food.

Mary prepared an appetizer course of baby Portobello mushrooms stuffed with Chevre and topped with a crust of parmigiano reggiano, herbs, and pepper.

To finish the duck confit, we put the casserole dish in the oven on low heat to melt the duck fat, then put the duck leg in a frying pan, skin side down, using low heat to crisp the duck leg.  No additional cooking is needed.

We served the duck along with a salad of greens and walnuts and ovals of gratin dauphinois, scalloped potatoes.  The duck was divine!  Everyone loved it.  True to its countryside origins, it became finger food for some of us (moi!) to get at that delicious last bit of duck on the bone.  It was meltingly tender, rich, moist, pulled right off the bone, salty, savory, wonderful.  Just fantastic.  There was almost nothing left on anybody’s plate.

We finished with an assiette de fromage, a plate of assorted cheeses.  In the French tradition, we had four cheeses of different geographies and milk sources.  Clockwise from the right side of the plate, the cheeses were Vivace Bambino (cow) from Cato Corner Farm in Connecticut, Abbaye de Bel’loc (sheep) from Notre-Dame de Belloc in the French Basque region of the Pyrenees, Tome des Recollets (cow and goat) from Jean d’Alos in Bordeaux and the Loire Valley, and my favorite, Epoisses from Berthaut in the Burgundy region of France.  They were all lovely.

As is usually the case, wine preferences changed when tasted with food.  Here are my notes on each of the wines.

Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas 2001.  This was the most preferred wine of the evening for Dick, Mary, and me.  The color was dense and leaned toward garnet.  The aroma profile was mostly herbal, particularly olive, along with earthy and meaty notes.  The palate showed a smooth texture, not quite the chalkiness for which Clape is often known, with medium acidity and body.  Blue and black fruit, roasted meat, and pepper were noted on the flavor profile.  Very nicely balanced, complex, and long finishing, it was the only bottle that was completely consumed.  13.0% alcohol.  We paid $60 for this wine.

Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle 1999.  This was my second most preferred wine.  It was the most mature-appearing of the wines, even in the glass.  The color was decidedly garnet, almost turning amber, but still fairly dense.  It was more elegant than the others, showing some floral notes, perhaps violet, and the bacon and roasted meat of a great Hermitage.  There was almost no fruit on the nose.  The palate showed medium acidity, on the high side, quite smooth in texture with medium body.  Fruit characteristics did appear on the palate, red fruit such as strawberry and raspberry, cherry, but still the savory and spice notes of Syrah.  Beautifully complex, long finishing, well balanced, excellent.  It was a close second for me.  13.5% alcohol, $55.

Guigal Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde 2000.  This was my third most preferred wine, especially on its own, but it didn't perform quite as well with dinner.  It had all the desirable Syrah characteristics, at least in terms of aroma and flavor profile.  Dark berries, earthy notes, roast meat, smokiness, leather, quite a complex aroma profile.  Blackberry, dark cherry, savory, meaty notes, and spicy pepper were noted on the palate.  It was medium in acidity, fairly smooth in texture, medium in body.  The length was only medium, but it was nicely balanced and complex.  13.0% alcohol, $45.

Peay Vineyards Syrah Sonoma Coast Les Titans 2005.  With food, this was the most preferred wine of the evening for Sara and Sheryl.  The initial assessment was interesting.  The aromas were off, musty, with diminished fruit.  I thought it might be corked and was thinking of unblinding it to open another bottle.  With more time in the glass, the off aromas dissipated and became fruitier and savory, more of what we would expect from a good Syrah.  By the end of the evening, it was quite elegant and nuanced.  The palate was quite nice from the beginning.  Berry fruit, cherry, roasted meat, and pepper characteristics all appeared.  The texture was smooth, not quite silky, but not at all rough.  The wine was medium in body and acidity.  Nicely balanced, long finishing, fairly complex.  14.0% alcohol.  We paid $25 for the wine but it generally sells for around $40-50.

Lagier-Meredith Vineyard Syrah Napa Valley Mt. Veeder 2001.  I have enjoyed this wine a number of times and there was not a thing wrong with it, but it settled in my second tier.  I think the comparison with the other wines just revealed my stylistic preference for wines of the Northern Rhone over more powerful, dense wines of the New World.  It was quite dark in color density and on the purple or ruby end of the spectrum.  The nose did show a nice savory and dark fruit character along with herbal notes.  Dick suggested pipe tobacco, which resonated with everyone.  The texture of the wine was not exactly rough, but not exactly smooth, the tannins still resolving.  It was more full-bodied than most of the other wines and had a lower acidity, not hot or flabby, but not what I would call fresh.  The balance was fine, although relatively low in acidity.  It had nice complexity and a nice, long finish.  14.3% alcohol.  We paid $35 for this wine.

Two Hands Shiraz Barossa Valley Bella’s Garden 2005.  I'm glad this was a blind tasting so that my impression wasn't biased by knowing what was in the glass, but Mary and I both guessed the wine correctly just by the color density, an almost opaque, black, dense purple.  Interestingly, it had a distinct buttery aroma, which I normally associate more with certain white wines.  It also had dark fruit and earth.  Not surprisingly, the palate showed low acidity and a lush, full-bodied texture, very mouthfilling.  It is a massive wine, surely a wonderful example of Barossa Valley Shiraz for fans of the style, but I'm afraid I am not among them.  Dark berries, plum, earth, some savory notes, and chocolate were all apparent on the flavor profile.  Although low in acidity, it was not overtly hot or flabby and didn't taste overly raisined, so I would have to say it was adequately balanced.  It was definitely long in the mouth and fairly complex.  The alcohol checks in at a whopping 15.2%.  Perhaps owing to the publicity it has garnered, it is quite expensive at $80.  Unfortunately, I didn’t photograph the label and Sara took our other bottle off our hands.

It was a wonderful evening of wine, food, and friends.  We learned about Syrah, we experienced a new culinary creation for us, we had a great cheese course, we laughed and talked.  I think it was certainly one of our most enjoyable and educational wine events.  I’m looking forward to the next one.  Here are a few more photo memories.

 

That’s our post for today.  It’s long, but I hope you enjoyed it.  Keep checking back at Cépage et Cuisine for more wine and food adventures at Maison Mary et Brian.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian