Tuesday, September 21, 2010

#115 - Thomas Keller-ish Chicken And Burgundian Cheese With An '06 Jurançon Sec



Last night's quick meal was another attempt to find the limits of Thomas Keller chicken with white wine.

We gave it a go with red two weeks ago and it only reaffirmed our love for white with the bird.

To plagiarize myself:

"TK chicken got us on the white Burgundy train with a delicious Viré Clessé.

And we loved it with an Auxey Duresses white Burgundy last month. While not particularly good with two Pinot Blancs, it was fine Fourth of July stuff with a Grüner Veltliner and a Hungarian white while being not too shabby with a bargain Sancerre."

This one fell in the middle with an '06 Clos Uroulat Jurançon Sec. Sort of a half-ass selection in many ways. It's been sitting in the fridge for weeks and had to be drunk.

Food: TK chicken with Delice de Bourgogne, baguette and mâche

Quick roasted bird with a tasty salt level and a switch-up with white pepper added. We're craaaazy. Juicy enough with the good skin. It's Thomas Keller chicken. There are times it feels just a wee bit rote. Then we eat it and love every minute of it.

Delice de Bourgogne cheese eaten the day it came in, which is different than in the past. Wasn't as magically delicious but still quality cheese. This one needs some..."house aging," we'll call it. More firm and simple instead of that slowly activated funkiness that we love so much.

Baguette with the cheese and mustard and torrontés jelly on the side, which weren't really touched. The cheese was good enough.

Mâche salad to round out the plate.

Quickly thrown together but didn't taste like it. The kind of meal that made me, at the mid-point, relish in the delicious familiarity of it all.

Wine: 2006 Charles Hours Clos Uroulat Cuvée Marie Jurançon Sec ($23 - WDC)

It's been sherry-ized! Two things. We didn't decant, which was recommended with this wine (a 2 1/2 hour decant last time) and the bottle sat in the kitchen fridge for weeks.

I don't see a decant helping the sherry quality now present but the sherry-ness may have come from the deep freeze it got since it was put in the fridge.

Who knows? One more bottle to treat better and find out.

Given all that, still not bad and kinda welcome. The sherry notes served only as a faint framework to be acknowledged more than ruining the enjoyment of anything. Subtle pineapple and orange blossom notes were still present with some dried flowers. This one already had that vicious mouthfeel and smoky notes to transition naturally to a sherry-like wine so...

Didn't hate it. Even kinda liked it for all its age and flaws most likely imposed upon it to a degree.

Pairing: 86 Not too shabby

Best with the chicken. The salt on the chicken killed the front end of the wine but as it transitioned from the front to the mid to the finish, a great progression happened with an oil and smoke middle and a surprising, yet subtle orange blossom and honeyed lemon finish. The chicken skin seemed to allow the wine to find a bit of its former self.

Disjointed and odd with the cheese. Tasted like someone took liquid smoke to a pile of crushed rocks. Nothing to recommend.

Fine enough with the greens.

Overall, it was the surprise that the wine did anything with the food after tasting the sherry-like quality right away that made it entirely acceptable and even welcome.

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