Hi all
thanks for all the suggestions. Thanks to Ian for the care package (yes, we got a bottle of 6 putts Diznoko 1995, very nice, thank you again sir. Here's how the evening went.
PART I - the Banon + wine tasting
At 6 a select sub-committee sat down to test banon cheese with wine. Banon, despite an ancient tradition, has only just obtained the appellation in France. This will stopp people from trying to imitate it as far north as the Loire, and restore its Provencal pride. Still, there are banons from the dairy, and there are those from Joel Corbon, who knows all his goats on a first name basis.
An unwrapped tome a l'ancienne, 10 days old and very creamy inside, was matched to a Ch de Roquefort Les Genets 2000, a Cotes de Provence from jsut above Cassis that blows most Provence whites away, with a subtle vermentino aroma and a slightly oxidized finish.
Followed that with a banon that, after the 10 days as a tome, was wrapped in chestnut leaves for 10 days (we call this 10+10); creamy, tasty, nutty, not overpowering, even the non-goat-cheese-lovers love it, and it goes well with a Domaine de Bongran Cuvee Tradition 1999 Macon Villages Quintaine, one of the best deals on Burgundy white on the market, 20 Euro for spicy chard with great depth and incredible length, definitely ripe if not overripe grapes, a hint of botrytis in the nose, and plenty of power to stand up to a powerful cheese.
We move on to the 10+20 Banon, veeery strong, attacks the mouth with deep creamy tannic sensation and a smell to make all the cats in the neighbourhood howl. We pair it up with one of the few wines that can imagine standing up to this, a Domaine de la Rectorie "Fleur de Pierre" Vin de Table (hence no vintage marking allowed). An extraterrestrial wine, white veering to rose, probably matured without ouillage giving it a rancio taste, very nice, keeps the banon in check by rounding off its harsh edges, and survives beautifully.
The last cheese is missing in action. It was supposed to be a 10days +
6 months, but we will only get it for the public version of this tasting next week in Italy. So we just keep going with the previous cheese and try to imagine a looooong maturing, something giving off hints of ammonia even. We pair this to a Domaine Cazes 1993 Rivesaltes Ambre', a deep orange delicious grenache blanc with plenty of sugar and some oxidation. We figured only the residual sugar will let you survive such a cheese, and there is still plenty of acidity to keep things from tilting.
PART II - the meal
We started off with little munchy things and a mini-horizontal of Champagne, 2 bottles of vintage 1986, one from Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs absolutely superb, quite evolved, deep golden, honey, fine fine bubbles,a wine to appreciate by itself. Followed up with a recently disgorged 1986 Comete by Raymond Boulard (Francis, if you are reading this, as you surely are, when is the next Comete?), very smooth, much fresher than the Ruinart (we should have reversed the order), still has a lot of ageing potential IMHO, cannot believe it is over 15 years old, floral.
Amuse-gueules prepared by Cathy and tied up with chives, things like rolled grilled aubergine with creamy cheese, and a multilayered provencal omelet (tapenade, peppers, zucchini, herbs). The wine is served by hiding the label, but you can tell from the shape it is Alsace, and it is white. I ask what the grape variety is, most think of Pinot gris or blanc, it is actually a blanc de noirs, a Pinot Noir
1995 "L'insolite" white by Pierre Frick, biodynamic, deep round aromatic and a good match.
Cathy's ushroom soup with girolles follow. We finish the Domaine de Bongran that seems to have gained much by resting two more hours, and is showing wonderfully.
Main dish, guinea hen done with maury wine and dried porcini served with Domaine de Trevallon 1996, a wine that last year was in a kind of hole, and this year is exploding with cassis flavours and lovely mouth feel, I am so glad, I thought I had bought 12 duds, man is this good wine, when is the rest of Provence going to wake up and follow this lead? Great acidity, chocolate, tobacco, maybe it helps that my cave got a bit warm this past summer...
Cheese: again? Leftover banon, an old salers, a pont l'eveque, a gorgonzola. With leftover wines of course.
Dessert !
We settled on sachertorte and an apple rhubard tatin-crumble.
The sachertorte recipe I followed was the one Mark sent me, it worked out well in the end. I sliced the cake in two, filled it with apricot preserve passed through a strainer, then coated the whole thing with the same. The icing is not easy, the first attempt went badly and I had to remove the mess carefully, the apricot coating helped prevent the mess from sticking. I remelted everything, and went at it more boldly, it worked beautiful, remaining shiny and not too hard to cut.
The apple rhubarb preparation was made like tarte tatin, but replacing the pastry with a crumble mixture. It also worked very well, we managed to get the caramel a rich dark colour, and the season's rennet apples worked out really well.
Ian's tokaji went very well with both, the apple reacts well to tokaji, the rennets do oxidize a bit and they seem to get a hint of the tokaji's finish. The chocolate also goes well, and the simultaneous apricot taste obviously recalls the wine's flavours.
1+1=3, QED.
We also tried Maury with the sachertorte, it was a Preceptorie de Centernach cuvee "Aurelie Pereira de Abreu" Mise Tardive 2001, a very delicate Maury with all the freshness of a "mute' sur grains" that was a bit overwhelmed by the simultaneous chocolate apricot onslaught. We drank it alone after dinner and it was a pleasure, no strong alcohol sensation, a very fragrant nose.
Cheers all, and thanks for the advice.
Mike