Match of the week
Cecina, potato and kale soup and Chateau Montus Madiran
The idea of matching a soup with a full-bodied south-western French red wine might seem bizarre but it proved a surprisingly good pairing.
Admittedly it was a freezing cold, snowy day which put one in mind for both. I was already drinking the wine - Alain Brumont’s wonderfully dark rich damsony Château Montus 2004 at our local wine bar Flinty Red and couldn’t resist the idea of the soup of the day, which was cecina, potato and kale - a creative trans-Iberian spin on the Portuguese Caldo Verde. Cecina is a Spanish air-dried beef which has a savoury, salty tang which balanced out the soft potatoes, bitter greens and grassy olive oil.
It was more a stew than a soup which is why it worked with such a full-bodied wine. The Montus would also have been very good with cheese (especially sheeps' cheese) if I’d ordered some with it as you can see from my recent report from its stablemate Château Bouscassé.
Cheese and Château Bouscassé Vieilles Vignes 2000
As those of you who are familiar with this site will know I’ve got issues about drinking red wine with cheese. It may seem an obvious partnership but all too often it seems a warring one.
However yesterday our cheeseboard harmonised quite beautifully with the tail end of a bottle of Château Bouscassé Vieilles Vignes Madiran 2000 from Alain Brumont which had already taken some roast guinea fowl with spicy stuffing in its stride.
The cheese was admittedly chosen to inflict minimum damage on whatever red we decided to serve. The selection included a very young fresh Pecorino, a creamy Sharpham Brie, a mellow Devon Oke (less sharp than an artisanal cheddar) and an unusually creamy Picos Blue from Spain. (Note: no stinky cheeses!)
The wine was also mature and untypical in style for Madiran - beautifully supple rather than tannic and not over-extracted as many can be. (It’s tannin that tends to interfere with cheese matches).
You can buy current vintages from Fortnum & Mason, Noel Young and Hailsham Cellars for between £18.95 (Hailsham Cellars) and £29.95 a bottle (Fortnum’s) which seems a huge discrepancy. Happily we bought ours direct from the cellar a couple of years ago about which I now feel rather smug :)
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