The other day we held a Wine and Food Pairing Lunch for Vincent, the Gayda winemaker, and his team. They were 12 in total and an eclectic mix of French, Italian, American and Mexican nationalities. This group had been gathered from around the globe to work the 2009 vintage, processing the grapes, controlling the fermentation and ensuring that Vincents’s high standards were maintained. Now that all the grapes, bar a little botrytis Chenin, have been picked many of this group will return home.

We started the tasting with a comparassion between Antech Blanquette and Cremant 2007, the Blanquette being much fruiter but less elegant and shorter on the finish. Both were sampled with a green and black olive tapanade, some olives and ail confit. We all agreed that the green olive tapanade worked best with the Chardonnay dominated Cremant and the black tapanade with the weighter Blanquette. We then moved onto a crisp and citric Picpoul de Pinet from the Caves de Pomerol 2008, fresh and delightful. A simple wine that is to be enjoyed on a hot summers day or with a plate of oysters. Next up was weighty 100% Maccabeo from the joint venture between Roussillon superstar Gerard Gauby and English winemerchants RichardsWalfords, Le Soula 2008. No oak is used in this wine and it packed a puch with plenty of ripe fruit and clean fresh flavours. This was followed by another Gerard’s wine, Bertrand this time, his white Cigalus 2005. Predominately Chardonnay with 15% Sauvignon Blanc and 5% Viognier, fermented and aged in oak barrel. This is a wine to rival any serious Chardonnay around the world, rich, elegant, ripe fruit flavours with layers of butter and nuts. We tried this with a hummus dip, made with a good amount of lemon and cumin, and a mature comte. Both worked very well indeed, the earthy flavours of the hummus and the buttery,nutty character of the cheese, far better than a red wine.

Now we moved onto the reds. Starting with the Mouscaillo Pinot Noir 2007 from the Limoux hills, a wine rich in berry fruits, light in oak character with plenty of crisp acidity. An usual wine from this area, but PN is a grape that we will see more and more of in the Limoux area as winemakers realise the potential they have with this difficult grape. This we tried with some smoked duck and a cepes and chicken liver pate. The acidity softened and the fruit flavours came  to the fore, just what was needed. A St Chinian followed by the Mas de Champart winery, a small producer of high quality wines (try their white, it is stunning!). The mineral and garrigue character of the wine lent itself to pairing with a dish of Puy lentils with a herb dressing and Toulouse sausages. As although the wine was not shy on fruit, the drying minerality and herbal character were the key components. Our last red was the Mas de Soleilla Terre du Vent, Cabernet Franc based with some Merlot. This wine is a VDP as the AOC La Clape does not permit these varieties to be used. No matter as the wine is super, rich, black fruits, witha perfumed nose, liquorice, spice, freshly ground black pepper and silky, ripe tannins. A real mouth full which lingers with you. This we tried with a magret de canard that was roasted with a little soy, honey and a cherry jus. Excellent, the fat of a duck is sweet and so requires a wine that has some sweetness, be that a little residual sugar or (in this case) ripe fruit character.

We finished our lunch with the Domaine Cazes Tuille 1990, made from 100% Grenache Noir this is a wine that is fortified in the same style as Port but then aged un ullage until bottled. They calaculate that they loose 7% in volume each year and do not top up. This gives the wine its tawny/brown hue and rich, nutty, spice, fruit cake character. Not a way to make your fortune but what a superb wine! Domaine Cazes is Europes largest biodynamic vineyard with 220ha, although they only received their biodynamic status in 1997 which means this wine isn’t bio! No matter it was delicious, on its own, with a salty Roquefort and a honeyed nut and and date tart.