Crispy Duck Legs and Parsley Potatoes

Bonjour à tous!  Hello, all, and here we are again at Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Today, we’re sharing our experience with crispy duck legs, a French recipe we recently acquired from Mark Bittman’s now discontinued (L) cooking column in the New York Times.  We have gotten many great ideas from him and we’re giving him full credit for the success of this one.  On the other hand, even a great recipe can turn out badly if it isn’t executed well and that’s where my wife-chef shines.

Since our first cassoulet dinner over a year ago and especially since our first visit to France last year, we have become fans of duck.  I might even call it “the other dark meat.”  It is dark meat poultry, has the texture and satisfaction of red meat, can be prepared in a variety of ways, and renders a fat that is simply fantastic for cooking.  Mary will talk about that below when she describes the parsley potatoes.  Here in the Jackson area, duck is available only at specialty stores, not at regular supermarkets, but it is not hard to find.

This recipe is a bit of a twist on braising.  The general idea of braising is long cooking with liquid to produce very tender meat, leaving the meat deliciously moist, but crispness is often out of the question.  I won’t steal Mary’s thunder, but the basic idea with this recipe is to add only enough braising liquid to come about halfway up the duck legs.  What is above the stock is roasted, so the recipe is actually a combination of braising and roasting.  Who knew?  So, here’s Mary to talk about ingredients, prep, and cooking.  Take it away, mon amour.

I didn't take an ingredients picture this time, but it's really a fairly simple recipe.  I bought a pack of duck legs for the recent cassoulet dinner (there is a post on that you can read if you like), but it had 8 duck legs!  I used 4 in the cassoulet.  We used the other 4 for this dinner.  The other ingredients were just the vegetables for the mirepoix (carrots, onions, celery), homemade chicken stock, salt and pepper.  That's it!

I put the duck legs into a cold, oven-safe frying pan and then heated them over medium-low heat for browning.  That’s important because if the heat is too high, the rendered fat will burn and not be good for cooking the potatoes.  Using lower heat renders nice, clear, colorless duck fat, which is what we want.  Even on low heat, it doesn’t take long to brown the duck legs.  As the duck was browning, I carefully poured off the fat into another skillet to use for the potatoes.  That allowed me to increase the heat on the duck legs for a really nice browning.

After they were browned, I took the duck legs out of the pan, leaving only a little duck fat to cook the mirepoix.  This part takes only 10-15 minutes.  Then I returned the duck legs to the pan on top of the vegetables.

At this point I added the chicken stock, enough to come halfway up the duck legs.  The vegetables are also covered, of course.  Brian insists that I say that the homemade stock is so much better than using canned broth.  I make stock from the carcass every time we roast chicken and freeze it for cooking.  It’s easy, convenient, and makes such a difference.  It’s also wonderful for gravy.  Now, back to the duck legs.  Put the frying pan into a 400 degree oven for a half-hour, then lower the heat to 350 degrees for another half-hour, undisturbed.  You don’t have to touch it, no turning, basting, anything!  The liquid reduces and the duck legs come out of the oven brown and crispy.  Isn’t this pretty?

Now the potatoes.  First, I chopped the parsley and about 6 cloves of garlic so they would be ready when the potatoes are almost done.  I love to use fresh herbs when I can find them, which is most of the time, and parsley is always available.  I prefer the plain curly parsley over the Italian flat leaf parsley.  I just think it’s easier to chop.

I recently bought a mandolin and it makes cutting vegetables a dream!  I paid about $20 for it at the grocery store.  Stores like Williams-Sonoma have fancier versions that cost over $100, which I think is unnecessary.  This basic mandolin has two blades, one for thin, one for thick.  For the parsley potatoes, I used the thick blade.  You could actually use both to have some thin and some thick, which would give a nice mixture of crispy and soft potatoes.

The potatoes are cooked in the rendered duck fat on high heat, turning for browning.  Don’t worry about making them all the same.  Some will be well done and crisp, some will be soft and moist.  I think the variety of textures and doneness enhances the dish.  Cooking the potatoes takes about 15 minutes.  With just a minute or so to go, add the parsley and garlic, stirring to cook them and release their flavors.

Drain the potatoes on paper towels, plate the duck leg with the potatoes and, voilà!  We shared three of these between us.  Brian had a business dinner the next night and I had the leftover duck leg for dinner.  I thought it might be dried out and tough, but it was still delicious with just microwaving!

Here’s Brian again to talk about the wine.

This is another classically French dish that would pair well with many red wines.  I think it would be hard to go wrong.  American wines would work well, too, but I recommend avoiding the big, very ripe, high alcohol wines that would overpower the complex flavors of the dinner.  I chose a red blend from the southern Rhone commune of Gigondas.  We visited there a year ago and loved the area and the wines.  It is mostly Grenache and may include one or more of the other southern Rhone red varietals.  This particular wine has Grenache, Mourvedre, and Syrah, a common cèpage.  Gigondas wines often have nice red fruit along with savory herb, spice, and meaty notes.  They are balanced, versatile, can be complex, and pair well with today’s dinner.  Here are my notes on the wine.

Domaine Brusset Gigondas Les Hauts de Montmirail 2004.  This wine was totally enjoyable with a dinner of crispy duck legs.  The aroma profile showed dark berry and earth notes.  The palate was smooth with low to medium acidity, medium body, and flavors of minerals, earth, dark berries, a nice, savory quality, and spiciness that I love in wines of the southern Rhone.  Nicely balanced, moderately complex, medium in length on the finish, it was a very nice wine, especially with the dish.  55% Grenache, 25% Mourvedre, 20% Syrah, 14.0% alcohol.

Before signing off today, I want to alert everybody that Mary and I will be traveling soon to spend some time again in Burgundy, the Loire Valley, which is new to us, and a little time in Paris.  We plan to blog frequently while we’re traveling to share our food and wine adventures.  Stay tuned!

That’s our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it and found it interesting.  We’d love to hear your comments and ideas about the blog and future topics.  Keeping coming back to Cépage et Cuisine for more articles on food and wine.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian

Braised Lamb Shank with Polenta

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  This is Mary talking first today.  Easter is very soon and I think of lamb at this time of year.  My mother usually cooked a leg of lamb at Easter.  I have such wonderful memories of those times back in San Francisco.  My parents, my brother, sister and I and sometimes several relatives gathered in our small dining room in the Sunset.  It was a time for us to be together, to share love of family, and great food.  Now, all these years later, I still want lamb at Easter and in the springtime.  So, today, our post is about a dish I prepared recently, braised lamb shank.  We also had a rack of lamb recently at our Cabernet Sauvignon event.  You can read about that in an earlier post.

The first thing I noticed when I went to the market for the lamb shank was that it was enormous.  I originally thought I would prepare two, one for each of us, but it was so large I decided we could share it.  As it turned out, it cooked down quite a bit, but we still had plenty.

Here are the ingredients: the lamb shank, garlic, rosemary, olive oil, white wine, anchovies, and salt and pepper.  Look at the size of that lamb shank!

I sautéed the garlic and rosemary in olive oil just until they were both fragrant. The lamb shank was added, browned on all sides, seasoned simply with salt and pepper.  I added just enough white wine to cover the bottom of the pan, and that simmered, covered, for about 2.5 hours.  As we have said in earlier posts, we like to use La Vieille Ferme blanc.  It is perfectly nice for drinking, but inexpensive enough to use for cooking.  It’s available for about $10. 

This was when I added the wine for braising.

I really don’t like anchovies, but Brian insists that I include them.  They are chopped finely and mashed, so you really can’t see them, and he says they add flavor and richness.  Whatever.  He even eats them on salads.  The recipe called for them, so I went along.  They were mashed together with a little vinegar and added to the mixture and simmered for about 15 minutes.  By now, I noticed the lamb had cooked down quite a bit.

While the lamb was cooking, I prepared polenta, which is just corn meal cooked in boiling water for about 20 minutes with a little real Italian parmigiano reggiano added at the end.  The polenta must be stirred to keep it from clumping.  I tried a recipe recently that called for preparing it in the oven that turned out well.  I might try that again the next time I make polenta.

When the lamb was done, it was moist, tender, falling off the bone.  It was delicious with the polenta, a little mint jelly, and it brought back those great memories of family dinners at Easter.  Here’s Brian to talk about the wine.

As a Southern boy, I don’t have all that much experience with lamb.  Mary has tried to teach me, but I am definitely a novice at the unique flavors and texture of lamb.  Maybe it was the polenta and the Mediterranean herbs, but I thought the dish evoked Italian influences.  I decided an excellent pairing would be a Barolo.  The grape is Nebbiolo, a sturdy, yet elegant and finessed red wine of Piedmont, the northwestern area of Italy.  It is near Turin, the site of the 2006 winter Olympics.  The southeastern area of France is just to the west.

Barolo is famous for requiring time to reveal itself and to allow the tannins to settle and integrate.  This particular wine was produced by E. Pira e Figli and is from a single vineyard site called Cannubi.  It was from the 1997 vintage, a classically great vintage in the Piedmont.  Here are my notes on the wine.

E. Pira e Figli Barolo Cannubi 1997.  This wine was delicious for its elegance, balance, and complexity.  Tasted blind, I would have guessed Pinot Noir.  It was perfumed of red fruit and flowers, especially rose petals.  The palate texture was very smooth with medium acidity and body.  The texture was the highlight of the wine, so smooth, balanced, and food friendly.  Red cherries, herbs, and licorice were all present on the flavor profile.  As we sat and talked and the wine evolved, the aroma profile developed more pronounced floral notes and kind of a tar character.  Nicely complex with good length, it was a delicious wine.  13.5% alcohol. We paid $55 for this wine, not an everyday wine but terrific for a special occasion like Easter with friends and family.

One last point…notice the label indicates the place, Barolo, but not the grape, Nebbiolo.  This is typical of many European wines and indicates the emphasis on place and how different places provide distinct experiences of wine flavors, aromas, and textures.

Well, there you have it, tender braised lamb shank with polenta and a delicious, mature Barolo to share with friends and loved ones during the promise of Spring.  With everything that is happening in the world, the simple pleasure of gathering around the kitchen table to share food and wine helps us stay grateful for the lives we live and in touch with what is really important.

That’s our post for today.  We hope it was interesting to you.  We’d love to hear your comments about your own traditional Easter dinner experiences and foods that bring back memories.  In the meantime, keep checking back for more wine and food adventures at Cépage et Cuisine.

Cheers,

Mary♥Brian

Wine of the Week - Clos La Coutale Cahors

Bonjour à tous.  Hello, all, and welcome back to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Today, I am highlighting Clos La Coutale, a producer of Malbec from the Cahors area in southwest France.  It is a wine we have enjoyed a few times over the past several months, including at our recent cassoulet dinner (see our previous post about the event).  I first tried it when my brother, Phil, brought it to a family gathering, then I acquired a few bottles to try with various foods.

Malbec is enjoying huge popularity as the signature grape of Argentina, especially the Mendoza region.  The wines are big, splashy, fleshy, fruity, can be a bit jammy, and often high in alcohol.  They work well as leisure wines, or what I sometimes call conversational or patio wines, wines you drink while relaxing with family or friends, not necessarily as an accompaniment with food.  The ripe, plush, high alcohol style is popular among many modern wine drinkers, especially in the U.S., and among influential wine writers.  To be sure, this style isn’t true of all Mendoza Malbec.  Even the modern international wine style can pair well and bring pleasure when paired with foods such as grilled meats, which is also characteristic of Argentina.

Although the Malbec grape was exported to other places in the world, its genetic origins are thought to be in Cahors.  Here are two maps to help you understand the location.  The first is a zoomed out version to give you the perspective of Western Europe.  The second is zoomed in to southwest France.

You can see the town of Cahors and the region is midway between the Atlantic on the west and the Mediterranean on the east.  The River Lot snakes through the region, twisting and turning.  The town of Cahors is on a peninsula formed by the river.

Malbec from Cahors produces a wine that is nearly black and inky in color intensity.  The grape has thick skins and produces a wine with prominent tannins, which enables long aging.  Appellation rules allow up to 30% Merlot to be added to the wine to soften it, add to the perfume, and enhance its approachability while young.  The aroma and flavor profile are much like the color, dark fruit, earth, licorice, sometimes tar.  Because of the climate of Cahors, the same latitude as Portland, Oregon, the grapes retain their freshness and balance.  As a result, they ripen at lower sugars than the Argentine Malbec and so produce balanced wines with lower alcohol.  Cahors is robust, hearty, fruity, but still has complexity and at least a degree of elegance.  It pairs well with classic foods of the region, like the cassoulet, but is not expensive and would work well with a variety of everyday red meat dishes.  You could enjoy it with pizza, nachos, meat loaf, burgers, veal, pot roast, and hearty poultry dinners.

You can enjoy a fantastic video about Cahors at GrapeRadio.  Visit http://www.graperadio.com/ and scroll to the program called The Scent of Black.  It is about 12 minutes in length and well worth viewing.

Clos La Coutale is the Cahors producer that we can obtain here in Jackson.  It is apparently widely available since my brother also found it in Chattanooga.  I saw several listings for it at the WineBid wine auction site.  Here are my notes on the bottle we opened recently at the cassoulet dinner.

Clos La Coutale Cahors 2008.  This is an example of what is old is new again.  Cahors is the ancient home of the Malbec grape.  Now, it is better known as the signature grape of Argentina, but it is thought to have originated in the Cahors region of southwest France.  It is making a comeback there and the region's wines are beginning to appear more often on the shelves of American wine merchants.  The color is very dark, almost inky, with mineral aromas and dark fruit.  This example from Clos la Coutale has a small amount of Merlot to add fleshiness and complexity.  Nonetheless, it is powerful, especially in its youth.  The palate is not rough, but not yet completely smooth.  The acidity was medium with medium body, almost full-bodied.  Dark cherry, berry, and exotic minerality is appreciated.  Nicely balanced, moderately complex, medium to long finish, it is a very versatile wine, enjoyable with many different hearty foods.  It can be consumed on its own, but pairs well with food.  It is more elegant and finessed than many Mendoza expressions of Malbec, but this is a matter of preference.  80% Malbec, 20% Merlot, 13.0% alcohol.  We paid $18 for this wine at Briarwood Wines in Jackson.

That’s our post for today.  Thanks for reading us.  Keep coming back for more wine and food adventures at Cépage et Cuisine.  Pass along the web address to others you think might be interested.  We’d like to increase interest in the blog.  Feel free to comment, offer suggestions, and share your own experiences.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian



Cassoulet and a Flight of Red Wines

Bonjour, les amis du vin et de cuisine.  Noûs aimons les cassoulet!  Hello to friends of wine and food.  We love cassoulet!  Welcome back to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Today’s post is all about cassoulet, which we shared recently with a group of friends.  Needless to say, we also enjoyed a selection of several wines, which I’ll review later.  Cassoulet is a traditional hearty bean and meat dish of France, especially characteristic of the south of France and the southwest in particular.  From the outset, let’s stipulate that if you’ve had one cassoulet you’ve had one cassoulet.  There are many, many expressions, varying from village to village and even house to house.  Ariane Daguin, owner of the specialty food supplier, D’Artagnan and a native of southwest France, says making cassoulet is not so much a recipe as it is an argument.  The common denominator is the beans, but it’s the wild, wild southwest after that.

Many chefs recommend duck and pork, so that’s the approach we took, drawing inspiration mainly from Julia Child’s book (who else?) and from other recipes in various publications.  This was our third go around with cassoulet, so Mary says she thinks she’s getting the hang of it.  A couple of things should also be said at the outset.  First, this is not your basic 30 minute meal at the end of a busy workday.  It is an adventure that lasts at least a couple of days.  Second, it does not qualify as a low fat, low cholesterol meal, to say the least.  It’s a hearty stick-to-your-ribs dinner to enjoy with friends.  Invite a few friends and family to join you, open a few wines, and have fun.  Here’s Mary to discuss the ingredients and preparation.  Grab a coffee…this could take a little while.

Did he say coffee? How about a bottle of cooking wine?  Of course, cooking wine is wine you drink while you’re cooking!  Preparing cassoulet is not for the faint of heart, nor is it a romantic dinner for two. It’s a meal for a small crowd of friends or family.  It’s a one-pot dish that takes every pot in the kitchen to prepare, so we only make it about once a year.  But it is worth it and the flavors are fantastic.

There is a little prep work to be done a couple of days ahead.  Homemade chicken stock is preferred, so you need time to make that.  Making stock from a chicken carcass and fresh vegetables makes SUCH a noticeable difference in the richness and flavor.  Canned broth from the supermarket pales in comparison.  The pork roast has to be cooked in advance, so I did that a whole day before so it was ready the morning I was cooking everything else.

The ingredients call for a bunch of meat: a 2-lb pork loin, about 12 oz of bacon, a lb of smoked sausage, and DUCK quarters! The beans are also cooked separately, then everything is put together in layers and heated in the oven.  Julia suggests marinating the pork loin the day before, which I did, and it was fantastic.  So, here we go:

I covered the pork loin with salt, pepper, dried thyme, sage, bay leaf, allspice, and garlic. Julia calls it a marinade, but it’s really more of a dry rub.  The pork marinated overnight, then I browned it and roasted it for a couple of hours in the oven with onion, carrot, and spices.

 

Two pounds of dried white beans that we brought back with us from France specifically for cassoulet went into a large pot with a bouquet garni of fresh parsley, thyme, garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaves. 

Four or five whole cloves were stuck into a whole onion and added along with a cut up carrot and the bacon. The beans simmered for a couple of hours and were set aside.  Be careful not to overcook the beans, as they will cook again in the oven when the cassoulet is layered.

 Add enough water to cover the beans by about an inch.

The mirepoix ingredients: onions, garlic, wine, and tomatoes.   

I browned the duck legs in their own fat and set them aside.

I browned the sliced smoked sausage in the same pan and set it aside.

The onions, garlic, wine, and tomatoes were simmered in the pan...then the beans were added.

 Now we’re ready to layer the cassoulet!

First layer: duck legs

Second layer: a third of the beans

Third layer: the cut up pork loin 

Fourth layer: another third of the beans

Fifth layer: smoked sausage

 Sixth layer: the last third of the beans

 Cover everything with chicken stock.

Top layer: fresh bread crumbs and fresh chopped parsley

The entire assemblage goes into the oven for an hour or so.  The oven rack bows under the weight.  There should be a nice crust when it comes out.  Enjoy a nice salad while the cassoulet cools a bit.  Voilà!

 Here’s Brian to discuss the wines.

Cassoulet calls for robust, well-structured red wines that stand up to the hearty, complex flavors of the dish.  I chose five different types of wines from both California and France.  Following the rule of drinking the wine you like to drink with the food you like to eat, you’ll be fine with most wine and food pairing.  I don’t think a lean, light-bodied Pinot Noir or Beaujolais would work here, but you could use most other reds.  All of the wines I selected did okay, but most people at the table agreed that with the dish, the wines that retained more natural acidity paired better. 

The consensus favorite of the evening was another Mt. Veeder wine.  Random Ridge is a small artisanal producer of very high quality wines, much like the Wing Canyon wine that we loved so much at our recent Cabernet blind tasting.  The Random Ridge is a 50-50 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.  It has the structure and balance to stand up to the food and has aged beautifully since 1993.  Irouleguy is a region in southwest France that is not well known to many Americans.  The grape for this wine is Tannat, so named because of its fierce tannins.  It leaves an astringent, drying sensation on the palate when consumed on its own, but the tannins are tamed by the fat and protein in the cassoulet to create a wine and food combination that might be described as 1 + 1 = 3, just delicious.  Another region that is sort of off the beaten path for most Americans is Cahors, which is south of Bordeaux.  Cahors is the genetic home of Malbec, now more famous from South America.  This wine also had the stuffing to stand up to the cassoulet, yet the finesse and elegance to be interesting on its own.  The other two wines, a Chateauneuf du Pape by Château La Nerthe and a warm climate Syrah from Adelaida Cellars in Paso Robles, were nice on their own, but higher in alcohol and lower in acidity.  As a result, they didn’t match the food quite as well as the others, but were enjoyable nonetheless.

We opened a fabulous Sauternes for dessert.  If you haven’t tried one of these, splurge on one sometime.  You won’t be sorry.  Our friends, Beverly and Mark, were kind enough to bring a couple of nice blue cheeses, a Maytag and a Stilton, along with some dried apricots.  Talk about a great end to a great evening !  Everyone loved the Sauternes!  Here are my notes on each of the wines.

Random Ridge Cabernets Mt. Veeder 1993.  This was the consensus favorite of the evening, with and without food.  The perfume was fantastic, complex, with herbal, floral notes and earth and leather along with a bit of currant and red fruit.  The palate was totally smooth, completely silky, with medium acidity and body.  The flavor elements were sage, red currant, and cherry characteristics.  The balance was perfect, at least to me, wonderfully complex, and the finish sailed on.  Thank you, Bill Hawley!  50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 50% Cabernet Franc, alcohol not labeled, but I’m guessing it’s in the low 13s.  This was a magnum (equivalent to 2 regular bottles) which I picked up for $56.  Amazing.

 

Clos La Coutale Cahors 2008.  This is an example of what is old is new again.  Cahors is the ancient home of the Malbec grape.  Malbec is better known nowadays as the signature grape of Argentina, but it is thought to have originated in the Cahors region of southwest France.  It is making a comeback there, and the region's wines are beginning to appear more often on the shelves of American wine merchants.  The color is very dark, almost inky, with mineral aromas and dark fruit.  This example from Clos la Coutale has a small amount of Merlot to add fleshiness and complexity.  Nonetheless, it is still powerful, especially in its youth.  The palate is not rough, but not yet completely smooth.  The acidity was medium with medium body, almost full-bodied.  Dark cherry, berry, and exotic minerality is appreciated.  Nicely balanced, moderately complex, medium to long finish, it is a very versatile wine, enjoyable with many different hearty foods.  It can be consumed on its own but pairs well with food.  It is more elegant and finessed than many Mendoza expressions of Malbec, but this is a matter of preference.  80% malbec, 20% merlot, 13.0% alcohol.  We paid $18 at Briarwood Wines in Jackson.

Domaine Arretxea Irouleguy 2003.  This is such an interesting wine, even the name of grape, Tannat, is interesting.  It is so called because of its fierce tannins and powerful structure.  By Irouleguy standards, this is still a young wine, yet the aroma profile was reticent, perhaps a little dark fruit.  Some attendees thought there was a petroleum element.  The palate experience revealed the character of the wine.  It had medium acidity for nice balance, full-bodied, with a bit of minerality, and pleasant red and dark berries and a savory, earthy quality.  Not obviously rough at first, the finish left an astringent, drying quality on the tongue.  When consumed with the cassoulet, however, the fat and protein tamed the tannins and what remained was the elegance of the wine and its flavor profile, complementing the food.  This wine is ideal for a dish like cassoulet.  13.0% alcohol.  We paid $32 for the wine at Kermit Lynch Wines in Berkeley.

Château La Nerthe Chateauneuf du Pape 1998.  I'm a great fan of Chateau La Nerthe and their Chateauneuf du Pape.  Mary and I visited the estate last year during our vacation in the southern Rhone Valley.  This wine, the 1998 vintage, had all the aroma and flavor elements of a good Chateauneuf, the savory, meaty notes of the Syrah and Mourvedre, the dark fruit and the spiciness of Grenache and the blend.  What it didn't have was the acid structure to stand up to the dish.  The acidity was low, especially noticeable when tasted after the Random Ridge, not flabby, but the food dominated the wine -- just not an ideal pairing.  Medium bodied, actually quite complex, with a medium finish, good to excellent in quality.  It just needed better structure for pairing with the cassoulet.  It might do better with a less complicated dinner, perhaps a simple pot roast.  50% Grenache, 31% Syrah, 12% Mourvedre, 5% Cinsault, 2% others, 14.0% alcohol.  We paid $40 for this wine.

Adelaida Cellars Syrah Paso Robles Viking Vineyard 2004.  We have nice memories of our visits to Adelaida, high on a hilltop west of Paso Robles, with a beautiful vista stretching toward the Pacific.  Viking Vineyard, nearly vertical in aspect, in the westside hills, is low-yielding with poor, rocky soil and produces an intense wine from a warm climate.  The aroma profile is mostly dark fruit, blackberry, dark plum, pepper.  Some folks around the table noted a mocha and vanilla quality from the barrel.  The palate was soft, plush, rich, full-bodied, with low acidity.  Once again, not unbalanced, but didn't have the acid structure to really enjoy with the dish.  Personally, I love the meaty, savory notes of a cool climate syrah better than warm climate expressions.  For those who like big, bold, New World expressions, especially when drinking wine on its own as a leisure beverage, this is very nice.  For those like Mary and me who consume wine almost exclusively as an accompaniment to food, it is not quite as friendly.  Although enjoyable, Mary and I both rated it our least favorite of the evening.  I think some others felt the same.  14.3% alcohol.  We paid $65 for this wine at the winery.

Château Rieussec Sauternes 1999.  Other than the cassoulet, clearly the star of the show, this wine was probably the highlight of the evening.  I made a few comments about the terroir of Sauternes and botrytized grapes, blah, blah, blah (LOL), but I think everybody was watching the bottle in my hand, as if to say, "Will you pour it, already?!"  So I did, and we were all rewarded.  The nose showed lemon, peach, apricot, honey, perhaps caramel or butterscotch.  On the palate, it was luscious, rich, the intense sweetness balanced by excellent acidity.  The balance was fantastic, the honey, citrus peel, and stone fruit flavors in harmony with almost a mineral character.  Beautifully complex with a finish that goes on and on.  Our friends Mark and Beverly brought Maytag blue cheese, Stilton, and dried apricots, heavenly matches for the Sauternes.  Our friend, Sheryl, said she had waited all week for this.  90% Semillon, 7% Sauvignon Blanc, 3% Muscadelle, 13.5% alcohol.  We paid $70 for this wine, and worth every penny.

Well, folks, that’s our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it and will keep coming back to Cépage et Cuisine.  Comment on the blog, ask questions, offer suggestions for future articles, share your own wine and food adventures.  We’d love to see more activity on the blog…the more the merrier!  In the meantime,

Cheers,

Mary♥Brian