A few years ago I decided that I wanted to create a wine and food event to be held in my garden. I wanted the ease created by a potluck rather than having the host prepare everything. I wanted a theme dish or type of dish that could preferably be prepared mostly ahead of time, and I wanted something with enough variability and scope to allow people to experiment with ingredients and wine matching.
I ended up choosing the general theme of terrines, and made it clear to all that allied dishes like galantines, pâtés and ballotines were more than welcome within the theme. I have a hard core group of 12 people that prepare 6 terrines to make a meal, and it has worked out better than I’d ever have hoped.
This year, for the first time, some unseasonably inclement weather relegated us to the dining room rather than the garden, although that did save on travel time between kitchen and table. We started off with a seafood terrine made with an avocado and shrimp centre, a halibut based outer, wrapped with smoked salmon and garnished with cucumber, green wasabi caviar and a shrimp. I took a picture of the whole terrine as the owner wanted to document it in case it fell apart when he went to serve it!
2002 La Chablisienne Chablis Prem. Cru Cote de Lechat – clean stony nose, light and well balanced and it worked very well with the food. Picked up some additional complexity as it warmed a little.
Next up was a vegetable and foie gras terrine, offered with a dry white and a couple of half bottles of Barsac.
1998 Pascal Jolibert Pouilly Fumé La Grande Cuvée – good fruit and minerality in the nose, full in mid-palate and a nice long peach tinged finish.
1988 Ch. Doisy Daene Barsac – slightly the lightest colour of the two, with a botrytis nose nicely coupled with a floral note. Not too sweet, long and well defined - the better wine of the two.
1988 Ch. Coutet Barsac – bit darker with a sweeter nose and more weight in mid palate but lower acid made it a less bright wine than the Doisy and a tad clumsy.
A very pretty mushroom terrine was up next, incorporating several different mushrooms and garnished with Phyllo covered Boursin cheese. It had replaced (at the last minute) the avocado terrine that had defied three attempts to produce anything other than guacamole.
2004 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc – Roussanne 65%, Grenache Blanc 30% and Picpoul 5% (unusual that last one). Good white Rhone nose, full flavoured and mellow.
2001 Arcadian Pinot Noir Gary’s Vineyard – medium colour for a Californian PN, excellent nose, more Burgundian (although sweeter fruit than a Burg would have) than the Arcadian also brought by the next person. Sweet entry, good acidity and length and a sweet finish as well. I thought this wine went better with food than the next Arcadian.
The next dish was a rabbit with pistachios and olives.
2001 Arcadian Pinot Noir Sleepy Hollow Vineyard – a lighter colour and higher acid distinguished this wine as well as a less Burgundian more fruit driven nose. It was a little sweeter and less earthy than the Gary’s and didn’t work quite as well with food.
1999 Jacques Prieur Beaune Champs Pimont – the stand out among the Pinots with excellent Burgundian nose of cherry and a hint of blackberry, clean and silky with nice acidity at the end. Great food wine and an excellent value.
Next up was an eggplant and lamb terrine with a tomato based sauce:
2003 Jaboulet Chevalier de Sterimberg Hermitage Blanc – I must say that this wine was one of the real stand outs of the evening. Best I could find out was that they use Roussanne and Marsanne in approximately equal amounts. It had a lovely waxy nose of cashew and honey, a nice oily mouth feel, and despite reports of this vintage, entirely adequate levels of acidity. Best match!
1998 Dom. du Caillou Chateauneuf du Pape – I am surprised we don’t see more of Bruno Gaspards work – these wines can be delightful and I was myself delighted to later check my cellar list and see that I had a full case (somewhere!) unopened. (as well as a little of the Le Clos reserve wine). Excellent funky Rhone nose quite sweet in the mouth, but with tons of offsetting acidity. A big, dark, very good wine that there is no hurry to drink (or in my case, find).
My course was last – a terrine made of strips of ham and chicken breast rolled in herbs in a forcemeat of veal, chicken, ham, Armagnac and cream. The accompaniment was pickled grapes (I used Jalapeno as an ingredient and was trying to remember not to rub my eyes for the rest of the day!)
The background is different as I wanted to present my wines blind and I couldn’t quite trust the crew not to peek, so I took the picture in the kitchen.
2000 Montes Alpha Syrah – this wine always shows mint, yet it definitely doesn’t come across as Australian so it is a good ringer. It has some sweetness on entry but not much in the mouth and wasn’t really varietally correct in terms of nose and profile, unlike the following wine.
2003 Renard Syrah Truchard Vineyard – right away the white pepper in the nose was heading people to the old world, and cassis didn’t give this Napa wine away as New World. Fairly big wine, long finish and amazingly Rhonish for a Napa wine, and the best match with food.
We had now finished the main event and decided to have a bit of cheese and of course also needed wine to go with it, so we took one person’s back-up and I headed for the cellar for a second wine.
1995 Biondi Santi Schidione – an IGT with cab and merlot mixed in with the sangiovese gave a wine with decent fruit in the nose, and lots of clean acidity. Interesting but not paradigm altering.
1990 Lungarotti San Giorgio – tar and currant and some tomato in the nose, medium body, smooth ending with little tannin but clean acid. Time to drink.
A short discussion revealed that the attendees in no way felt that we have exhausted this theme and there will therefore be a T5 in 2008!
Next year we will be back in the garden!!
[img]http://www.rhodo.citymax.com/i/terrine/dining-area.jpg[/img]
