Match of the week

Roast chicken with tarragon and asparagus and oaked white Bordeaux

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on June 1 2009 at 15:03

When it’s as warm and sunny as it has been for the last few days I don’t really fancy a traditional English Sunday lunch or the sort of wines that go with it so yesterday we had one with a difference. A roast chicken, served warm or tiède, as the French call it with roast cauliflower and seared asparagus.

The chicken was flavoured with tarragon butter worked under the skin, as suggested by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in the Guardian this weekend and there was yet more tarragon, lemon and garlic inside the bird. No gravy, just the pan juices.

The obvious pairing would have been a good white burgundy or comparable cool climate Chardonnay but I thought it might work with a 2007 bottle of S de Suduiraut Bordeaux Blanc I had in the rack. Which it admirably did though whether that was due to the tarragon or the accompanying asparagus, which nicely picked up on the Sauvignon in the blend I’m not sure. Probably a bit of both.

The wine, which was sent to me to try, is an attractive one, made by a producer, Château Suduiraut, which is better known for its Sauternes. It hasn’t got quite the lushness you find in some oaked white Bordeaux but it is still quite young. I was also battling a cold. But in general I feel wines like this are distinctly underrated.

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