Food and Bordeaux: What they served at the gala dinner at Mouton Rothschild

I make a point of not going to Vinexpo, the biennial wine fair in Bordeaux (too hectic, too noisy) but it does mean you miss out on the occasional treat like the gala dinner that was held at Château Mouton Rothschild to celebrate the opening of their new chai.

A colleague* who went told me about it though and the menu and wines sounded so extraordinary I thought I must share them with you.

Guests were apparently served glasses of Baron Philippe de Rothschild champagne when they arrived then treated to a foie gras trolley that was wheeled around with terrines of foie gras, walnut biscuits and fig jam. (Even though I don’t eat foie gras I must admit that sounded amazing)

The first course was equally show-stopping: soufflés de brochet (pike) served in a copper pans - some feat for 600 - with 2005 Mouton-Rothschild and 2005 Clerc-Milon: an unconventional but apparently successful pairing.

Then blanquette de veau (a creamy veal stew) with imperials of 1975 Mouton-Rothschild (see above). An interesting - and wise - choice for an old wine, avoiding an intense jus that might have fought with the wine - and definitely more flattering than cheese with which I gather the same wine was also paired (correct me if you were at the dinner, and I’m wrong on that)

Finally a cherry clafoutis (batter pudding) which was served with a 1989 Château Coutet, apparently also an admirable match. It sounds like quite some feast.

I gather Bordeaux leading chateaux always vie with each other to put on the best spread during Vinexpo, even if not normally quite on this scale. My colleague Jane Anson, who reports from Bordeaux for Decanter, told me about this meal at Chateau Pavie (excuse the rather loose translations):

Saumon Mariné, avocat pilé, perles d'oeufs de saumon avec Champagne Egly Ouriet 2003 en magnum (marinated salmon, crushed avocado and salmon roe)

Homard en cote de Romaine, petits légumes juste croquant, vinaigrette au piment d'Esplette avec Monbousquet Blanc 2010 (lobster in lettuce, possibly? with just-cooked vegetables and a spicy hot pepper dressing)

Agneau en file rôtie, frotté aux herbes, carotes fane et marmelade d'aubergines fumées, jus d'agneau tandoori with Pavie 1998 in Imperiale (this sounds pretty wild: Herb-crusted roast lamb with a smoked aubergine compote and tandoori lamb jus)

Food for thought here: the Bordelais don't necessarily stick to conventional accompaniments and seasoning with their best wines.

If you went to any of the other dinners during Vinexpo this year do let me know what you ate and drank.

*Charlotte Hey who works on the marketing for this website

Photograph © Lucy Shaw of The Drinks Business.

Pairing Indian wine with Indian cheese

Chef Shaun Kenworthy reports on what he believes to be a unique tasting of Indian wine and Indian cheese.

Shaun writes: "There is a rumble of change in almost every facet of life in today’s India. If we go back not too many years the idea of drinking wine as opposed to whisky and any other cheese than the processed stuff that the whole country has a fascination for made by enormous companies such as Amul and Britannia were little known anomalies.

That said, India does have an artisanal tradition of cheese and wine making that goes back a couple of hundred or so years to the Portuguese and British. A scant few traditional cheeses are still made in the mountainous regions of northern India and I’ve personally taken some around the world demonstrating with them and showing them off but how much longer they have left, being made in such small quantities is sadly anyone’s guess.

India’s wines have traditionally been produced along the hilly ridges of southern India, which run through Maharashtra and Karnataka but by the 1950s whatever little interest there was in wine, dwindled once India became independent and it wasn’t until the 90s, that a whole new generation of winemakers started to come through using modern wine making techniques.

There has been much talk about Indian wines in India recently, so much so that sales have been doubling each year, with all the 5 star hotel chains and higher end restaurants in the major Indian cities putting home-grown wines on their lists.

A sommelier friend of mine, Keith Edgar and I were recently asked by the Calcutta Wine Club to do a cheese and wine tasting. It was such a great opportunity that we decided to do a completely blind tasting of four wines and six cheeses so that we could keep secret the fact that they were all Indian.

I’m not quite sure what the members were really expecting but more than likely some domestic and imported wines and imported cheeses?! Of which there are few that find their way into the supermarkets other than the likely suspects such as ricotta, mozzarella, gouda, parmesan, cheddar, Danish blue and brie although as hoteliers with access to wholesale suppliers we do get much more to choose from.

The local cheeses I chose were fresh and smoked Bandel, both a little salty and crumbly in texture, round and small in size, still produced in a small Portuguese settlement town, around 60km from the city, Kalimpong cheese which is still made in 12kg and 1kg wheels by a few different cheesemakers, the texture being like a rustic Caerphilly: white and crumbly in the centre and yellowy inside the rind with a bit of a tang. It’s made in Kalimpong, a small hill station around 200km from Calcutta.

The other three, relatively new cheeses made by La Ferme, Auroville, in the old French city of Pondicherry, close to Chennai (formerly Madras): a good strong tangy Cheddar, their Auroblochon (but don’t let the name seduce you into thinking otherwise - this cheese is similar to an intensely ripe Pecorino) and their delicious semi-soft Gorgonzola.

Thankfully it’s easier to introduce our wines for the evening as you’d know what to expect from the grape varieties but again they were all Indian: a Sula Sauvignon Blanc 2012*, Fratelli Sangiovese 2011, Four Seasons Cabernet Sauvignon 2011and finally, India’s only dessert wine, Sula’s late harvest Chenin Blanc 2012.

We started off, as you would expect, with the milder cheeses and lighter wines, not wanting to make this too challenging a test for the wine club. After much discussion and many ooo’s and aaah’s, we ended up with very few hits but at least we’d conducted what was probably the first completely Indian cheese and wine tasting in the world to date!

Our top Indian wine and cheese pairings:

Sula Sauvignon Blanc 2012

I think we both expected this to go better with the salty fresh Bandel but it wasn’t unpalatable and maybe a little extra fattiness in the cheese would have helped

Fratelli, Sangiovese 2011

A good pairing with the fresh and smoked Bandel and Kalinpong

Four Seasons, Cabernet Sauvignon 2011

The smoked, Kalimpong and the hefty cheddar worked best

Sula late harvest Chenin Blanc 2012

And I don’t think anything could take away from this star of the show with the Auroblochon and the Gorgonzola."

For more information about Indian cheese read this article in the Telegraph, Calcutta.

UK-born and bred, chef Shaun Kenworthy began his career in Yorkshire but worked for some of London’s best known restaurants including Bibendum, The Atlantic Bar, Coast, Air, Mash and Quaglino’s. Since he arrived in India in 2000 he has worked as an executive chef and consultant in Kolkata, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad. In whatever little spare time he has left he writes about his love of good food.

* which seems to be available in the UK if you'd like to try it.

Is red wine a good match for chocolate?

I’ve never totally bought into the idea but a recent wine and chocolate tasting put on by Australian Wine at Australia House in London went halfway to convincing me.

They put together a number of pairings with chocolates from Rococo who make some of the most delicious chocolates in London.

First off we actually tried two dry whites, a De Bortoli PHI Chardonnay, Yarra Valley 2007 which was paired with a Chocolate: Sea Salt Wafer and a 2011 Skillogalee Gewürztraminer, Clare Valley with a Chocolate: Rose Ganache.

The first was a case of ‘you could but why would you?’ There are so many other delicious things to drink with a classy chardonnay like that. I just found myself dreaming of scallops. The Gewürztraminer was more interesting though, really picking up on the rose flavours in the chocolate. I could get used to that . . .

Next two big reds, the 2008 d’Arenberg The Custodian Grenache from McLaren Vale 2008 with a Red Berry Ganache and a 2009 Mitolo GAM Shiraz with a Chocolate Blackcurrant and Violet Ganache. These both worked, amazingly, though I felt the almost porty 15% Mitolo had the edge. And again it was lovely with the filling.

We then moved on to two more conventional choices, the pretty Innocent Bystander Moscato with a really unusual White chocolate Cardamom and Saffron Ganache and Brown Brothers 2009 Orange Muscat and Flora, Victoria with a Mango, Passion Fruit and Orange Ganache.

Oddly these didn’t work as well for me. The orange flavours in the chocolate knocked out the same flavours in the Muscat and at 5.5% the Moscato was just a bit light for such a rich, exotic chocolate. But I took a sip of the Skillagolee Gewürztraminer with it which was terrific. I can imagine a slightly sweeter Gewürz being an amazing match for these flavours.

And finally, more familiar territory - a couple of ‘stickies’, the Campbells Classic Rutherglen Muscat with a Pecan and Spice Praline and a rich, toffeed Grant Burge 10 year old Tawny NV with a Coffee and Cardamom Marzipan chocolate - both cracking pairings but as I don’t have a particularly sweet tooth I preferred the Grant Burge.

Pushing the boundaries of food and wine matching is always fun but doesn’t quite take into account how much mood is tied up with chocolate. If you had a gorgeous bottle of Chardonnay would you eat chocolate with it? Or would you hand chocolates round with the Shiraz at a dinner party? I suspect not.

That said, it worked better than I thought it would and the very original character of the chocolates with their exotic, spicy, floral fillings made it a hedonistic experience by any standards. Food for thought and a bit more experimentation here.

 

Possibly the best truffle dinner ever

Did I want to go on a truffle trip to Spain at the end of January? Balmy Barbados seemed like a better option but since that wasn’t on the cards and the enquiry came from an old friend I said yes. The 2 day visit - the annual Viñas del Vero ‘Days of Wine and Truffles’ in Somontano would include an outdoor picnic in the foothills of the Pyrenees (eek), a truffle hunt and - the clincher - a multi-course truffle menu by one of the region’s most talented chefs followed by a gastronomic brunch. “Bring the Gaviscon”. my friend sagely advised.

I’ll be writing about the truffle hunting in due course so let’s concentrate on the dinner at Bodega Blecua which was the best truffle experience I’ve ever had. It kicked off in style with a selection of truffle-flavoured canaps including truffle flavoured macarons, parcels of truffle threads in lambs skein (sic), tartlets of pigs trotters and truffles (awesome) and best of all, truffle flavoured truffles of the satiny consistency of the best chocolate truffles. These were served with Tio Pepe (also owned by Viñas del Vero’s owner Gonzalez Byass) and V de V’s fragrant Gewürztraminer which I’m not sure I didn’t marginally prefer, to my surprise. (The 2009 is currently on offer at £6.49 at Majestic)

The first proper course was a glassful of truffles served with a hot broth which transformed it into truffle consommé followed by ‘Royal de Trufa with egg yolks and passion’. Fortunately this turned out not to be passion fruit as I had feared but a sumptous blend of truffles and pork fat of the consistency of creamy mash, scattered with yet more truffles. (I hadn’t thought of the combination of pork fat and truffles before but it’s a winner, let me tell you). With that we drank the 2010 Viñas del Vero Clarion, a rich, structured white about whose components they were curiously reticent but which seems to be Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer and Chenin Blanc.

That was followed by one of my favourite dishes of the meal, cardoons with oysters and almond sauce topped with a truffle shaving. Again a really imaginative and delicious combination of ingredients. This was served with a 2008 Clarion in magnum which suited the dish better than the younger fruitier vintage would have done.

They then brought on a potato ‘mushroom’ with ceps, a mound of fluffy truffle-infused mash moulded into a ... well, not a mushroom, more like a potato but fantastic anyway and a good match with the Blecua 2004 served in magnum.

Blecua is the flagship wine of Viñas del Vero - a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Garnacha, and Tempranillo from seven different parcels and possibly one of the best wines you've never heard of. It has more warmth and generosity than many Bordeaux and more finesse and complexity than most Spanish reds. The '04 also went perfectly with the next course, a truffle infused risotto topped with an outrageous amount of truffles.

By this stage even I was almost truffled out but just about found room for a mouthful or two of veal shanks with truffle sauce and chestnut purée (particularly good with the richer, more complex Blecua 2005) and some local truffled cheese.

And I didn’t make much impact on either of the two interesting desserts - a semi-frozen cylinder of something faintly ice creamy with amaretti crumbs and ‘snow truffles’ on muscovado cream, a truffle-inspired but, to some relief, not truffle-flavoured finale.

The general conclusion? That truffle dinners could be a lot more inventive than they generally are, that Spanish cuisine, dare I say it, has a lot to teach the French and that truffles can take younger, fruitier wines than you might imagine. Quite an experience.

The event I went to was a private one but If you want to sample chef Carmelo Bosque’s cooking go to his restaurant La Taberna de Lillas Pastia it’s in Huesca. It specialises in truffles and has a Michelin star. Tel: +34 974 211 691.

I attended the dinner as a guest of Gonzalez Byass.