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 :)

Pear frangipane tart with Pacherenc du Vic Bilh

If you want to show off a fine dessert wine the ideal match is a simple French apple or pear tart, so there should be no surprise then at this pairing of a pear frangipane tart (pears with a spongey almond base) and a Pacherenc de Vic Bilh cuvée 'Octobre'.

The most interesting aspect of the partnership was the wine which was came from one of the region's most celebrated producers Alain Brumont. Pacherenc du Vic Bilh is a tiny appellation in the south-west of France which makes wines similar in style to a Jurançon, both ideal partners for the local foie gras. Despite coming from the 2000 vintage it was still full of life with luscious peachy fruit and perfectly balanced acidity.

The tart was neither home-made (very few French make tarts from scratch, taking the view that that's what boulangeries - and even supermarkets - are for) nor particularly distinguished but paired with the wine and accompanied by a good scoop of crème fraïche d'Isigny the combination took on an extra dimension. Which is what food and wine matching is all about.

Image © Silvano Rebai - Fotolia.com

Duck confit and Madiran

The two days I spent in the Gers region of the south-west of France last week (members can see a full report here) reminded me just what a strong terroir-based match the local Tannat-based wines are with duck confit. I tried it both with a Madiran and a humbler Côtes de St-Mont which uses the same grape varieties.

Duck confit, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is made from duck legs which have been salted and then cooked in duck fat. It’s consequently, as you’d expect, both salty and fatty which sounds unappetising but the meat develops a wonderfully rich flavour and fall-apart-texture that makes it quite a delicacy.

The effect of the saltiness and fattiness also has the effect of subduing the tannins in the appropriately named Tannat and making the wines taste softer and more supple. I don’t know if it would be as good a match with Uruguayan Tannat which tends to be riper and more alcoholic. It’s the refreshing astringency of these south-west French wines that works so well - as you’d expect them to.

Madiran also pairs well with the great French bean dish cassoulet which contains duck or goose confit.