And off we go with the first food wine pairing… The holiday season is drawing near, so which better way than to kick it off with a classic. Foie gras with apples and sweet wine. I just give it a little twist here… I replaced the foie gras by “faux gras”, a vegetarian alternative for the fat liver of a stuffed goose. I’m not really a vegetarian. Rather flexitarian, or whatever you want to call it. I like vegetables, and nowadays cooks get better and better at making yummie dishes without meat or fish. So my principle is : if I can eat a vegetarian dish that will give me just as much pleasure as a non-vegetarian dish, why not… And that is certainly the case here!

The faux gras tastes really nice, it has this fatty consistence which is so typical for foie gras. It is also the reason why the classic choice of wine to go with this is sweet wine. Very often you will find sauternes as a suggestion with foie gras. I like sauternes, but it can be quite heavy to start off a diner. So I paired the faux gras with a Jurançon doux. For two reasons : Jurançon has a much higher acidity than sauternes. That is why you will still experience this wine as refreshing, rather than sweet. The second reason is because I put the faux gras on roasted raisin bread together with small pieces of green apple (granny smith). The apple was fried in butter for a few minutes with a spoon of sugar. The acidity of the apple gives a great contrast with the faux gras. And it’s exactly that contrast that is echoed in this wine, which displays pine apple, apricot, honey and candied lemon. The wine starts off with a touch of sweet fruit, which is immediately followed by a crisp acidity that many wine amateurs know from riesling. The South-West of France, however, also has such wines that  have a beautiful sweet and sour balance. And often at a very reasonable price.

I’m happy to start off with this food wine pairing, because this is a beautiful example of where one and one is three.

I chose “Le Fruit 2015” from Domaine du Cinquau, a discovery at the wine fair in Lille, France, a couple of weeks ago. I paid 9€ for this bottle. This domaine has quite a few gems, both sweet and dry. I will tell you a bit more about the other wines in a different post. I actually discovered a few good domaines from Jurançon at that wine fair, and I will cover those in a separate topic. Bon appétit!