Match of the week

Fresh walnut tart and Jurançon

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on October 12 2009 at 08:36

With two spectacularly high profile meals last week (see my last two posts) it was hard to choose a match this week. Should it be the Crozes-Hermitage and Herdwick mutton, kidney and oyster pie I had at Hix, or the perfect pairing of Sebastian Bobinet’s 2006 Saumur Champigny 'Amateus Bobi' and pig’s trotter at Pierre Koffman’s pop-up restaurant at Selfridges? (There - I’ve told you anyway!)

In the end I’ve gone for my friend's dessert at Koffman - a fresh walnut tart and a Jurançon, Clos Uroulat 2007 from Charles Hours simply because it fulfilled the main ambition of food and wine matching, that the whole should be better than the sum of the parts.

Walnuts, you might think, are nothing to write home about but fresh walnuts are another matter as chef Skye Gyngell pointed out in her column in the Independent on Sunday this weekend. The tart was delicately nutty and crumbly, not bitter as walnuts often are but not oversweet like a pecan pie, despite the accompanying scoop of chestnut honey ice cream. It was a perfect foil for the lush, sweet Jurançon (not to be confused with the dry version, Jurançon Sec), accentuating its apricot fruit and making it open up like a peacock's tail. If you’ve got a booking at the restaurant before it closes on October 31st look out for it. Especially as it's only £5 a glass!

Image © Africa Studio - Fotolia.com

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