Guineafowl with cherries and Beaujolais

I’ve been so busy catching up after my Alsace trip that I haven’t had much time for new food and wine discoveries but here’s one we had at Les Temps Changent in Chalons-en-Champagne, a hotel we frequently stop at to break the journey through France.

It was a guineafowl leg stuffed with a white boudin-type farce, served with a light jus and some warmed through fresh cherries and went perfectly with a half bottle of Morgon. (Which one? Afraid I can’t remember. After four full-on days in Alsace it was nice to order something without feeling I had to make notes about it.)

A word of warning though. The pairing worked because the sauce was not too intensely cherry flavoured. If that had been the case it might have stripped the cherry flavours out of the wine. Or, if the wine had been sweeter and more intense, like a New Zealand Pinot Noir, for example, it would have made the combination too sweet and detracted from the flavour of the guineafowl.

A Belgian-style cherry beer (Kriek) would also have been good.

Roast turkey and 2009 Beaujolais

We decided some time ago we were going to drink Beaujolais with our turkey in memory of the late Marcel Lapierre who very sadly died back in September. I thought his vibrant fruity 2009 Morgon would be ideal with the classic Christmas feast and so it proved to be, mirroring the tartness and fruitiness of the cranberry sauce.

We also cracked open a bottle of the charming 2009 Raisins Gaulois on Boxing Day. Just a shade lighter (we chilled it slightly) and intensely quaffable, it was perfect with our Boxing Day lunch of cold turkey and bubble and squeak (which I actually prefer to the main meal).

I wouldn’t extrapolate from that to say that all Beaujolais would do the job. Marcel’s Morgon is particularly full-bodied and generous and 2009 was an exceptionally ripe vintage. It certainly helped that both were young wines (I'm not a fan of venerable reds with turkey). And it does show that in a good year Gamay can do the biz.

Steak tartare and Beaujolais

This was a wine pairing I hadn’t thought of putting together before but once experienced last week at Racine it seemed supremely logical.

Steak tartare can easily be overwhelmed by the sort of full-bodied red you’d choose for a chargrilled steak and in my view needs a lighter wine to fully appreciate its smooth texture and complex seasoning. Previously I’ve had a sneaky fondness for a glass of Champagne which also works brilliantly well with the usual accompaniment of chips but following my successful experience with a vibrantly fruity Coteaux du Languedoc earlier this year we’d ordered an inexpensive bottle of chilled young Morgon (2008) from Jean Descombes* in the hope that it would hit the spot. Which it did, the cool fruit picking up beautifully on the touch of spice in the mix.

Harris’s steak tartare, for the information of fellow fans, is generally regarded as one of the best in London. Interestingly he starts off with a seasoning purée then adds his chopped ingredients. I’m hoping to prise the recipe out of him so watch this space!

* apparently part of the Georges Duboeuf stable. You can find it in the UK from The Colchester Wine Company, the latest incarnation of Lay & Wheeler, here.

Lamb tagine with dates, prunes and apricots and a very good Beaujolais

Now here’s an unexpected match. I would be wary of pairing a Beaujolais - even a Morgon - with something as sweet as a lamb tagine with dried fruits thinking it would make the wine taste slightly sharp but the combination worked perfectly.

The wine, admittedly, was an exceptional Morgon from an unusually warm year (2005) from a celebrated winemaker called Marcel Lapierre we visited in the village of Villié-Morgon the other day*.

He makes his wines as naturally as possible, without filtering them and frequently without any sulphur though for wines he exports he adds a touch. He also uses natural yeasts which means you don’t get any of the standard banana-y, bubblegummy aromas and flavours you do with more commercial wines from the region.

The wine we tried was in perfect balance - ripe but not oversweet, dense but supple, refreshing, as wine always should be, but with plenty of backbone and personality. It reminds you, if you need reminding, of all the virtues of Beaujolais and how versatile it is with food.

* Sadly, Marcel died in 2010 though the estate is still being run by his son Mathieu.