liffey’s blog food wine and fun

Yesterday a very good friend of mine walked in with a bottle red wine. it was this Franc Bigaroux Saint-Emillion grand cru 2005! That was a very nice surprise after a good loss of a game of tennis with him. And another very good friend bought last your 6 Saint-Emillion years in a row! (2002-2007), he used to be my neighbour but he moved to the countryside (somewhere near Tilburg) of all places. As good friends do, he shared a bottle from 2002 with me, with a nice dinner, enjoyed both of them.

And now another friend walked in with a beautiful Bordeaux! Wow!

 

Franc Bigaraux has his vineyard just beside Chateau Canon la Gaffeliere, a world famous chateaux with sky high prices!

The wine had a nose full of sweet roses and some cherry. Started with nice freshness like you'll find in the cherry's, then rolling on with some hints of leather and tabac, bit of tannines and then a long fade out!

This one needed a cheese. I had a tete de moine in the fridge, with this tool the Girolle where you can make perfect flowers, really thin cut, a wonderful nice cheese, smooth, bit slaty, slight bitter, and a perfect

 presentation. It is a cheese fromt Switserland, Jura.

The third thing that this evening needed was a good movie, we watched  http://momentum.control.substance001.com

A very intense movie about the life of Ian Curtis.

 

Perfect evening!

A dinner dish.

Swordfish is a really nice fish! It brings a little hint of nuts with it, which slightly makes you think about a Coquille! But 200 grams of it! Nice....

Preparing is easy, just fry it for a few minutes (think about how you fry your tuna!).
Add 125 gr of creme frâiche, 3 spoons of little capers and a handful of freshly chopped dragon. Let simmer for a minute and serve!
Side dishes can be several, broccoli, potatoes, puree, pasta or a nice risotto!

Wonderful!

This one needs some good wine.
You don't need to make this exercise.
I served this Colome. Have written about this wine before, still wonderfully strong.

Enjoy!

A little village in the Pyrenees (France) called Massat has a nice little square with some groceryshops, a butcher, boulangerie of course and a Cave! And it was this cave i went to. I was on my way to a big pass, and had t stop here. Took a little view in the village and entered the wine-shop. An old Frenchman came to me and asked so difficult questions. Every question in french is difficult so i answered in half French, half English and a lot of arm movements and smiles :-)

We came to a little conversation about, of course, WINE! We started with easy wines, some tasting of local ones and later on he advised me to buy some really nice wines, the one you have to cook with.
Well i wasn't into cooking this Saturday, but liked a nice wine. Opened this bottle, with some nice french cheeses (Brie rustique and a red goat-cheese.

The colour is deeply red, like overipe grapes, this is the first hint to the syrah. Smell: bramble, cassis and some pepper. Taste: smoothly, some tannines, salmiac, cassis and framboise. Long lasting taste that develops to more oak and bitter and fades away. 
The 12 months oak are well placed here!
A woderfull wine, that goes really well with those strong cheeses. Great. Pity i can't buy mre, although that is not true, a friend of mine ownes a house nearby, he might be so kind to buy a box :-)

I used to have a friend (neighbour) who would like this one as well, hopefully for him he will come over ones to taste the other bottle if i haven's emptied it already...

 

 

Having some probs with adding a picture of the bottle, seems a vox prob, heopefully solved soon! See my latest pic!

Here is wine i am pretty exited about, especially as you see the price.
The castelo de medina Sauvignon blanc 2008!
It won a gold medal at the MONDIAL concours de Bruxelles.

I wrote already about the white vedejo from this winemakery.
The sauvignon blanc has a deep straw/golden color. a nose filled with bitter sweet smells, like over ripe pineapples can have. The taste is deep, sweet/bitter not that much sour. Very fully. Stays long after last nip, really nice buy for your under 8 euro wine!

Composition:
100% Sauvignon Blanc.

Analysis:
Alcoholic content: 13% vol.
Total acidity (TH2): 5.2 gr/l.
Volatile acidity (Acetic acid): 0.19 gr/l.
Free sulphurous: 30 mgr/l.
Residual sugars: 2.8 gr/l.
PH: 3.20

Last summer i ended my holidays with a short hotelstop in Chablis. A perfect place for dinner hotel and wine!
We tasted some and found this one, still very young so we'll save the other 5 bottles for later. Still love this wine (and other Chablis). The combination of sour and yellow fruits are so nice. A big nose with flowers, lemon orange and some peach, nice!
This wine was okay with the underneayth coquille, but a bit to fresh i would say. This wine needed something else.
The Redbrass with white wine sause, fennel and lemon fresh coriander saus was perfect.
The creamy whinte wine saus helped the fresh side of the wine and the lemon fresh coriander dressing gave the sweetness a way for coming out.
In the end we had a good evening with nice dishes and a good wine!

Another autumn soup. The intersting about beetroot is that is is very strong and very sweet. This gives you the opportunity to add a lot of flavours and making a strong soup!

Fry some red unions and garlic.
add 4 cooked beetroot, cutted in big pieces.
add 700 ml of vegetable stock and let simmer for 15 minutes.
Add 50 ml of balsamic vinegar, and 200 ml of red wine.
some fresh thyme and blend everything.
before serving you can finish it off with creme frache, baked thin slices of almonds and some cressonnettes.