Tasting at La Table, 2012: Wines with Dinner
Our tastings over, our palates fully familiarised with just about every new cuvée from Vincent Ogereau, Claude Papin and Yves Guégniard, it was time for us to take a break. But not a long break, I should stress, as the tastings had run through late afternoon and into early evening. In fact, no sooner had we locked up our laptops and notebooks in our car were we being ushered back inside to the restaurant proper. No more surreptitious back-room tasting for us; we had earned a seat (one each, actually) at a table, and three Anjou vignerons, three vignerons’ spouses and three hard-working (honest!) tasters sat down to dinner. Tasting is an invaluable process, one that educates the palate and mind, informing me and hopefully you too. But this is what wine is really about. Not silly scores and points and prices, but bottles on the table at dinner, matched up with a variety of dishes, and opened in the presence of good company.
First up was another encounter with Préambule from Yves Guégniard, a delicious and good value sparkling rosé which I would gladly buy to drink…..if I could track down any stockists that is. This came alongside an innovative amuse bouche of Coquille St Jacques with tiny pearls of grapefruit and lemon zest, sesame seeds and mibuna leaves. The combination of grapefruit and scallops sounds challenging, but it worked better than I had expected. And the Préambule seemed to cope well with the dish as a whole, its generous fruit and fresh acidity acting as a very nice cushion for the citrus-tinged seafood.
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