Showing posts with label Chateau Guiraud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chateau Guiraud. Show all posts

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Playing with Pairings: The 2nd Annual Holyantle Anniversary Dinner

Last year my husband and I decided to make a new tradition out of our anniversary. Each year we are going to cook together and create a 3-4 course meal, complete with wine pairings. Last year’s 3 course meal started with an Avocado and Grapefruit salad, continued with Rack of Lamb Persillade and Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce paired with Veuve Clicquot  NV Champagne (which was my favourite food and wine pairing of 2012!) Neither my husband nor I can remember much after the bottle of Veuve and unfortunately, I wasn’t smart enough to blog about it then.
This year, we decided to continue with the French theme as it is also a way for us to pay homage to our trip to France in March 2011. My mother gave me a great food and wine book a few months ago, Wine & Food: A New Look at Flavour by Joshua Wesson. The book discusses all types of wines from light-bodied whites to full-bodied reds, sparkling and sweet wines; each section talks about the varietal flavour profiles and suggests ideal food pairings. The book also contains approximately 50 food recipes with 4 different wine pairing suggestions per recipe. The back of the book contains themed 4 course meals using recipes from the book, with wine pairings for each course. One of these was themed “Bistro-Style Supper" and features wines from around France for the pairings. I decided to run with this. The menu 2nd Annual “Holyantle” themed Anniversary Meal was:

Savoury Cheesecake
PEI Mussels in Wine & Herb Sauce
Grilled Lamb Chops with Blueberry & Portabello Mushroom Coulis
Maple Squash Puree
Roasted Buttered Beets
Tarte Tatin

I know, PEI is not in France. But I wanted to incorporate one highlight of our 5th year of wedded bliss, and our trip to PEI for my sister’s wedding was one such highlight. It therefore became the 2nd course.

In order to not overload ourselves with food right off the bat, I made the savoury cheesecake for dinner the night before, which includes ingredients such as blue cheese, cream cheese, roasted garlic, roasted red peppers and a parmesan crust. I paired it with Ruinart’s NV Rose Champagne. We also used the leftover champagne the following night to pair with the mussels. Unfortunately, the heavy fattiness of the cheesecake overwhelmed the delicate fruit flavours of the champagne, and I thought the higher acidity level of the champagne would cut through the fat component in the cheesecake. So we ate the cheesecake and then drank half of the Ruinart afterwards. We ate the leftover cheesecake for brunch the day of the big meal. When we paired the champagne with the mussels, the delicate flavours of both the food and wine married well and ended up becoming a nice, light course to start our dinner.

I paired the grilled lamb chops, beets and squash puree with M. Chapoutier’s 2010 Crozes-Hermitage. Full-bodied with chewy but well-integrated tannins, this red features notes of plums, animal hide and smoke.
My husband used some of the wine in the coulis. Adding the wine you plan to drink into your cooking enhances your food and wine pairing. In this case, the C-H paired well with all of the main items-the smokiness of the wine enhanced the barbecued lamb and added a flavour dimension to the sweetness of both the coulis and the beets.

The last course was Tarte Tatin, which is made by caramelizing apples in an ovenproof skillet and baked upside-down with the pastry on top. I paired it with Chateau Guiraud’s 2010 “Le Petit Guiraud”, a young, sweet wine from Sauternes with a complex flavour profile that includes honey, orange blossom, butterscotch and candied orange peel.
This pairing was easily the highlight of the meal, along with the tarte. When pairing wines with dessert, you must ensure the wine is sweeter than the food or the dessert will overpower the wine. This wine was my favourite pairing of the night: the wine was sweeter than the dish, and complimented without overpowering the dessert. Both have an excellent flavour concentration to complement eachother with subtle differences that contrast eachother, allowing both to stand out on their own! This is a must-try pairing!


To summarize, here is what I learned in pairing wines with these dishes:

-If you want a highly acidic wine to cut through the fat components in food, make sure you match the weight of the wine to the weight of the food. In the champagne/cheesecake pairing, the cheesecake was too heavy for the delicate champagne. The oysters and the lighter sauce were more delicately weighted, and that is why they worked better with the champagne.
-If you have a flavour compound in the wine (like the smoke in the Crozes-Hermitage) and a similar flavour exists in the food (the barbecued lamb), the two should complement eachother well, keeping in mind to match the weight of the wine with the weight of the food.
-Use the wine you are serving in your cooking-this helps guarantee a flavour match
-When pairing wine with dessert, make sure the wine is sweeter than the food!
-Have fun with it! Wine and food were made to go together, so try different things out and see what your palate prefers!

If you've read this far into the post, I will reward you with the recipe for Tarte Tatin! Enjoy!

Tarte Tatin: As found in Wine & Food: A New Look at Flavour

3 oz/90g unsalted butter
6 oz/180g sugar
Pinch of salt
3 lb golden delicious apples: peeled, cored and quartered
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 375F. Melt butter in a 10 inch ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add sugar and cook until the sugar turns light amber in colour, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add salt. Arrange apple wedges on their cut sides in the pan in a tight concentric circle, then fill the centre with the remaining wedges.

2) Return the pan to high heat and cook until the sugar and juices become deep amber in colour, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and with tongs, turn apple wedges to their other cut side. Return pan to high heat and cook for another 5 minutes or until this side of the cut apple wedges turns amber.

3) While the apples are cooking, roll out the puff pastry on parchment paper into a circle 11 inches in diameter, or an inch larger than the diameter of the skillet you are using. Using a 10 inch plate as your guide, trim the pastry into a 10 inch circle. Keep pastry cool in the refrigerator until ready to use.

4) When the apples are ready, remove the pan from the heat. Carefully flip the puff pastry onto the apples and lift off the paper. Gently tuck the pastry down around the edges of the apples. Cut 4 1 inch slits in the centre of the pastry to allow steam to release during baking.

5) Bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is puffed and golden brown. Remove the tart from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Gently place a large platter on top of the skillet and invert or flip over the pan while holding the platter strong. Lift off the pan; the tarte should release easily from the skillet. Serve warm with icing sugar or whipped cream as garnish.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Le G: The Other Wine of Guiraud

Chateau Guiraud is best known for it's Premier Grand Cru Classe sweet wines and it's gorgeous tree-lined entrance to the property, as pictured below:
(Photo courtesy of Matthew Mantle, taken March 2011 at Chateau Guiraud)
The grapes that Chateau Guiraud uses to make their intoxicatingly aromatic sweet wines are affected by Botrytis, also known as "Noble Rot". In viticulture, Botrytis is a fungal disease that attaches itself to grapes and removes the water in the pulp, leaving behind the sugars. It is caused in Sauternes naturally by foggy, damp mornings in the vineyard that give way to hot summer afternoons, but not all of the grapes end up afflicted with Noble Rot. So what happens to the healthy, ripe grapes that aren't able to be used for their prestigious sweet wine? The healthy grapes are used to make a Bordeaux Blanc Sec (or dry wine) that Chateau Guiraud calls Le G de Guiraud.

White wines made in Bordeaux are constantly overshadowed by their highly esteemed and popular red counterparts-and this trend will continue as long as Bordeaux is a worldwide staple in the red wine market, making some of the most highly sought-after wines in the world. However, producers are working to increase the quality of their white wines by reducing the amount of sulfur they use (used as an antioxidant and an antiseptic), using stainless steel vats and better temperature control for fermentation, and avoiding malolactic fermentation. These wines are more refreshing and fruit-forward with their flavors, and have a bit of aging potential. If you drink white wines, do not underestimate the quality of a Bordeaux Blanc Sec, especially Le G de Guiraud.



Le G de Guiraud is composed of 70% Sauvignon Blanc grapes, complemented by 30% Semillon grapes. The healthy, ripe grapes are hand-harvested at the peak of their ripeness, sometimes requiring a second passing through the vineyard to maximize yields. Once the grapes reach the winery, they are pressed and then fermented for 2 weeks in new oak barrels previously used for the sweet wines. Aging takes place in barriques for 6-9 months afterwards and the juice is left on the lees, which are regularly stirred for added body and flavor. The end result is a great value white wine full of flavor, costing about $35 CDN/bottle.

I had been storing two bottles of the 2008 vintage in our wine cellar and figured now would be a good time to drink one to see how developed the flavors had become. I found the 2008 G de Guiraud to be a fully developed, well-balanced white with grass and stone on the nose and palate, with just a hint of damp oak and gooseberry. The wine has a refreshing acidity that lasts well into the long finish. Subtle complexity with a great concentration of flavor. Best to drink now or within a year, but newer vintages could hold for 5 years.

Even though Bordeaux whites will never have the same reputation or  as their reds and sweet wines, they're still a great value with great flavor. If you like full-bodied whites, why not get one on your next visit to your local wine or liquor store? I promise you won't be disappointed. Cheers!







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