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.
Moving on, the first course after our amuse bouche was perhaps one of the most striking examples of the benefits of careful and precise matching of wines with different foods that I have ever experienced. At the most basic level food and wine matching is very easy, but this dish demonstrated just how complex it can become, and clearly indicated what detailed knowledge of the wines and the dishes to be served is required for real success. The dish in question was not complex, with three principal components; pig’s trotter, grilled langoustine and a dark, rich, almost malty blini. As a dish taken in isolation it was delicious (despite a little prawny grit which seemed to be unique to my dish), but each individual component really sang when tasted alongside the three wines served alongside. The rich and sweetly flavoured pork seemed best alongside the Savennières La Croix Picot 2007 from Yves Guégniard, whereas the fresh and aromatic bite of the seafood was cut through beautifully by the 2010 Anjou Blanc Le Haut de la Garde from Claude Papin. On another level though was the rich and evolved, honey and gingerbread nuances of the 2002 Savennières from Vincent Ogereau, a wine which seemed almost destined to be drank alongside the delicious blini. All in all it was a gustatory experience that will linger in my mind for many years to come.
