Match of the week

Roast duck and Bull's Blood

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on December 13 2010 at 15:07

My match of the week this week was a toss-up between roast duck and Egri Bikavér (aka Bull's Blood) and Chateau Musar and game pie but I've plumped for the former, which I tasted at Soho's legendary Gay Hussar, as the more unusual pairing.

Not having tasted Hungarian wine for a while I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit I hadn't realised Egri Bikavér was Bull’s Blood. Egri Korona Borhas is the producer (I hope I've got that right, at least).

According to Wikipedia which has a surprisingly comprehensive entry on the wine it is generally based on Kekfrankos these days though that wasn’t clear from the producer’s website. It's a well-structured oak-aged red not dissimilar to a traditional minor Bordeaux in style. The duck tasted as if it had been confit'd (and possibly deep-fried) and was served with red cabbage, potatoes and apples.

Of course roast duck goes with practically any medium-bodied red - you could equally well pair it with Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rioja or an Italian red like Barbera or Barolo but this was a sound terroir-based match which worked very well.

You can read more about Egri Bikavr on this Bull’s Blood website - it even has its own Facebook page!

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