Match of the week

Gooseberry and saffron crème brûlée with a southern French Muscat
Once you get a feel for food and wine matching you don’t always need to taste a wine with a dish to know what will work. So it was with a simple, seasonal dessert I had last week at my favourite local, Culinaria.
It was described as a gooseberry and saffron custard but in fact was more like a crème brûlée with its crunchy sugary topping. The original was apparently conceived by Joyce Molyneux of the Carved Angel at Dartmouth, who has been a big influence on Culinaria’s chef Stephen Markwick.
I wasn’t in the mood for a sweet wine but if I had picked one it would have undoubtedly been a southern French Muscat which goes really well with gooseberries. Cream is a neutral factor in a sweet wine match - it pretty well always works - but the clincher was the addition of saffron which has a slightly bitter note that would have really enhanced the fruitiness of the wine. I almost wish I’d had a glass . . .
Image © Jiri Hera - Fotolia.com
Les-Baux-de-Provence and civet de sanglier (wild boar stew)
I went to a great little bistro the other day in St-Rémy-de-Provence called - appropriately enough - Bistro Découverte. It’s run by a very talented young sommelier I used to know in London called Claude Douard who worked for Marco Pierre White and Joel Rebuchon.
As you’d expect, the wine list is awesome but there are also plenty of good local wines to drink at modest prices, several of which are available by the glass. We particularly enjoyed a soft, plummy La Chapelle de Romanin Les-Baux-de-Provence 2003, the unoaked wine of Château Romanin which was a perfect match with the plat du jour, a robust wild boar stew served with a sauce grand veneur (classic French game sauce). Made from the estate's younger vines, the wine was a typically southern French blend of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvdre, Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise with some added Cabernet Sauvignon.
The bistro is apparently well patronised by local winemakers - the legendary Eloi Durrbach of Domaine de Trevallon was sitting on the next door table.
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