The wines:
Weingut Wieninger Gruner Veltliner Nussberg 2006
A reasonably ripe nose of honeydew melon but with some greener (green mango) elements and minerality. The palate is a bit leafy, quite light, very fresh (actually the acid is maybe a tad too high) and a touch hot in the finish. Lacking balance and a bit disappointing.
Tollot-Beaut Savigny-Lès-Beaune Les Lavières 1999
A smooth, rounded nose of dark cherry, forest floor, some earthiness, and quite toasty oak. The palate wasn’t quite “all-together” for us, though I found it hard to pin-point why (maybe because the acidity seemed a tad sharp, maybe not). An attractive nose for me but the palate isn’t quite up to the same standard. It’s still pretty nice though – I definitely enjoyed it.
Domaine des Aubuisières Vouvray Moelleux Le Plan de Jean 2002
Candied fruit nose of dried apricot, dry grass, and maybe some pear drops and canned pineapple. This really has beautiful balance – sweet but nowhere near cloying, nor with high acidity – it’s integrated and graceful. Good typicity and very nice.
The food and food-wine combos:
Seared scallop, banana vinaigrette, vanilla-candied ginger
An experiment partially inspired by Talbot and Kamozawa of Ideas In Food. The banana flavour was too strong (another fruit would work better – I’ve tried lychee before, for e.g., with greater success) but otherwise it worked. The GruV was a possible match but didn’t work. The Vouvray was OK with it, but not great either. A sparkler would probably be better.
Seared scallop, banana vinaigrette, vanilla-candied ginger
Wood smoked pigeon, celeriac puree, root veg, elderberry sauce, hawthorn berry sauce
To an extent I associate wood smoke with autumn, and so I decided to lightly smoke the pigeon prior to cooking it. The resulting flavour was very nice, though it did take away slightly from the gaminess and I feel that it may have made for a poorer combination with the Burgundy. The celeriac and elderberry clashed a little which also took away from the wine experience I think, so maybe a different berry next time. Otherwise this was a very enjoyable combo. Individual components worked well with the Burgundy, particularly the bird – a classic match with good reason I guess.
Wood smoked pigeon, celeriac puree, root veg, elderberry sauce, hawthorn berry sauce
Roquefort, poached pear, walnut gel, spiced toasted walnuts, sweet-wine-poaching reduction
The Vouvray worked with this, as hoped. It was interesting to notice that the nut/pear/reduction components worked better with the wine than the Roquefort. Maybe a Botrytised Semillon would work better with all components, but no matter because for me this dish and wine still provided really nice combos all round.
Roquefort, poached pear, walnut gel, spiced toasted walnuts, sweet-wine-poaching reduction
Acorn crème brûlée, butternut squash icecream
(After picking and roasting acorns from a recent forage I saw an Everitt-Matthias recipe for acorn panna cotta with butternut squash icecream. I took the acorn-squash concept itself but went my own way recipe-wise.)
I don’t tend to feel wine generally works with desserts, but this dessert offered an opportunity to try savoury-associated flavours in a dessert context (such a combo is too weird for some, but others love it – I personally didn’t like the dish so much). I also didn’t make the components too sweet which I think helps. The Vouvray did indeed go OK with this – not perfect, but certainly better than it would with a whole array of other desserts IMO. I’m wondering if maybe savoury-flavour orientated desserts could open up new/improved sweet wine matching possibilities.
Acorn crème brûlée, butternut squash icecream