Poulet Vallée d’Auge: a low fuss Normand braised chicken, tailor made for cold winter nights and white Burgundy. Basically pan roasted and braised chicken with apples, cider, and calvados, with mushrooms, plenty of butter, and creme fraiche. I loosely followed the recipe from Bon Appetit, but I can’t be bothered with ‘sprigs of thyme’ these days.
2014 Simon Bize - Les Perrières, made from Chardonnay planted in the 60s, on a cool northwest facing hillside, northwest of Savigny. Fermentation in barrel lasts upwards of 6 weeks, then it's further aged 6-12 months on fine lees. There’s an unapologetic old-school demeanor to this wine. Not so much salty and flinty as it is densely packed, possessing both apple pastry (basted with Calvados as in the patisseries of Normandy) and fresh Golden Delicious apple fruit. The barrel regimen here extracted all the complex, resinous, and mineral qualities of fresh varnished wood without the cloying vanillin opulence of less talented producers. All well integrated and finishing with tension after years of bottle age.
This Chardonnay is especially poised to marry the cream, maillard, and apple flavors of this chicken, all while leaving the palate refreshed.
- Saman Hosseini