WBW #21 Fabulous Favorites Festival: Domaine Magellan Ponant 2003

In which Eric and I join forces to produce a post on this month's Wine Blogging Wednesday theme: take a favourite bottle of wine and create a meal around it.

Alliances can be fantastic things. I'm thinking of WWI, WWII, WBW, and the list goes on. So on this occasion when Wine Blogging Wednesday joins Is My Blog Burning? for a great food and wine installment (thanks to WBW Lenn and Il Forno's Alberto, who are both hosting this joint effort), it seems suitable that my friend Eric and I pair up for an entry to today's event.

And so it began with a bottle of my favourite wine. At 6:30 pm, with bread and wine in hand, I descended upon Eric's kitchen, which was spacious and well-equipped -- as always -- but also stocked with the key components of our meal, courtesy of Eric.

I would do the cooking and plating here. Eric would assume clean-up duties. I would write the notes; he would send me the photos he took. We would both get to eat and drink. It was an advantageous alliance. But the real synergy started when I asked Eric if he could help with the prep.

I was chopping green onion for garnish when Eric suddenly started peeling the stalks on the home-grown Quebec asparagus he found, which are currently in season. The peeling idea came from an email I had sent him earlier in the day when we were discussing what we would do for dinner. I emailed it as a bit of a joke because for years we have been enjoying thick, meaty and delicious asparagus with all its skin fully intact. Nevertheless Eric was inspired to peel and he soon uncovered a chartreuse layer of the asparagus. It offset the dark green flecks of tarragon in the sauce I made. This was an interesting development. Our vegetable would now be a beautiful two-toned green. But I knew that this nice visual effect would just be a bonus...

KEY INGREDIENTS

Asparagus with tarragon is a wonderful combination any day. On this night, it was also a complement to the anisé tones of our wine, a typically spicy Syrah-based blend from the south of France. The idea was to have this Domaine Magellan Ponant 2003 Vin de pays des Côtes de Thongueecho the light licorice flavours of the dish.

Since Ponant is a vin de pays, it can, unlike its many of its Midi neighbours with an AOC designation, add some Cabernet to its Syrah. Personally I love the Cab-Syrah combo and could drink it all on its own. But for our dinner's sake, this kind of blend was signaling some serious red meat.

Lamb is ideal. (Says Eric: Quebec lamb is even more ideal -- and not just because it goes with the Quebec asparagus. Locally bred and grown produce is really important to Eric, who has been reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.) Rich and deeply flavoured, a grilled lamb steak cut from the gigot has an affinity with the darker notes of this Syrah-Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot blend: blackened fruits, cedar, earth.

PREPARATION METHOD

Grilled to achieve a wee bit of carbon, the steaks would complement the tobacco finish of the wine. But before the main dish is done, we add garlic, olive oil and savory -- naturals in a pairing that focuses on depth of flavour. For balance, rice makes an appearance at the table. Dotted with green peas, perfectly cooked brown rice emerged from Eric's smart rice-cooker, which is resembles a plastic pig. Oink oink. Dig in.

UN PETIT DESSERT

Eric also picked up dessert from our favourite little neighbourhood bakery in all of Montreal, Boulangerie Les Co'Pains d'Abord, and it was deep and rich too. Keep some vino in your glass for this Far Breton, an eggy but firmly textured treat, filled with oozing and deliciously overripened prunes. I wish we had remembered to take photos, but this little fruit flan was so good and matched so wonderfully our final drops of wine, no such thought went out.

And there you have it. I grilled, blanched and served. Eric planned, shopped, and bussed. By 7.45 pm, we were all done. Our alliance was as a perfect as a classic food and wine pairing, as symbiotic as the legendary convergence of WBW and IMBB.