Tuna Tataki and Grenache Blanc

Perfectly prepared Japanese food is not what you expect to find in the gastronomic desert of the Languedoc but this superb dish of rare tuna was a brilliant match for the richly textured white wine I drank at Côté Mas the other day.

The newly opened restaurant just outside Montagnac belongs to Jean-Claude Mas and is a major step forward for Languedoc wine tourism. He has installed a Japanese chef - Taïchi Megurikami - his marketing manager Brigitte told me, not to cook Japanese food but to bring Japanese influences and precision to the local cuisine.

The dish, which was part of a tasting plate of starters, was outstanding: a beautifully cut piece of tuna, served almost sashimi-rare, lightly rolled in finely chopped herbs and served with a julienned salad of cucumber and whipped cream with wasabi.

It was paired with the 2012 Mas des Tannes Reserve Blanc an unctuous, oily Grenache Blanc which had exactly the right texture and flavour for the soft, almost buttery fish.

At Côté Mas you can buy the wine from the shop and pay just 5€ corkage (or order it by the glass for 3€) but even in the UK it’s not a bad deal. Noel Young has it for £10.95 a bottle or £9.83 if you buy a case and Soho Wine Supply for £10.99.

Probably a good style of wine to pair with other Japanese dishes, I suspect.

I ate at Côté Mas as a guest of Domaine Paul Mas.