Dinner With Fargues

Last night, upon my rushed return from the masochistic tasting in China, I had a dinner appointment with one of my favourite wines and three of my good friends in the wine business here in Hong Kong and China. My dates for the evening? Nicolas Zozoula and David Chan of Hong Kong’s One Red Dot Fine Wines, and Philippe De Lur Saluces of Chateau De Fargues and currently based in Shanghai.

In need of a decent tipple after my China excursion, I was anticipating a great and casual meal amongst friends and I was as excited about having some great food as I was about having dinner with just Chateau de Fargues wines. Food in China can be great, but when you are working on tasting one hundred plus wines; food becomes secondary and I was happy to back in Hong Kong and heading to Central for dinner.

It’s not often you get the chance to have dinner when the wines are only sweet golden wines so the four of us sat down (after a nice bottle of Henri Giraud Champagne and some foie gras terrine) to dinner at Red Tavern in Central where we had the entire place to ourselves.

The wines we were drinking were the exquisite wines from Chateau de Fargues, owned and managed by the Lur Saluces family and a chateau that has been around for hundreds of years. We went for two different vintages, an old and a young, to see the differences in how they went with food, and also because we wanted to see how the younger wines were drinking. We had more than one bottle of each so supply was not an issue!

We were fortunate to have the recently released 2009 vintage which was fantastic; but still young with a hell of a long life ahead of it, alongside the 1997 vintage, one that is drinking superbly well at the moment and has all the subtle complexities one would expect from such an esteemed wine.

Starting off the dinner and with both wines poured and sitting majestically in front of me, almost daring me not to raise the glass and sample the elixir inside, we had a delightful shrimp and smoked salmon salad with blue cheese and a light dressing. I did not know but blue cheese in a salad makes a great pairing to Sauternes – as does red vinegar when incorporated into a salad according to Philippe. The 2009 was the better pairing here as it’s a little lighter and the acidity works better with the ingredients involved. That’s not to say the 97 did not work, it was sublime and would go very well with blue cheese I reckon but the 09 was the better pairing.

Next we had pan-seared foie gras with egg noodles (the noodles were almost Asian in style and made a nice twist to the dish). The 1997 was the best pairing here as it went very well with the foie gras and the savoury nature of the noodles also matched nicely. When pairing food to Sauternes, Philippe tells me, you need to be thinking about opposites – that is; in general, do not pair sweet foods with sweet wines as you get more enjoyment from the pairings when the food and wine are in contrast to each other.

The soup course was absolutely lovely! We had a truffle cream soup that had just the most intense truffle flavour, loaded with black truffle and, according to Philippe, a great way to cleanse the palate when doing a wine tasting or pairing, I though the soup, a dish I traditionally shun as it seems impossible to pair with wine, went well with the 1997 but as the wine had opened up a little, I found the soup overpowered by the wine but left a stunning array of flavours on the finish. The 2009 was more subtle and, overall, a better pairing with the flavours staying on the palate for a seriously long time.

Sneaking out for a breath of fresh air between courses it was most humerous to bump into the team from Acker, Merrall and Condit, fresh from dinner and having experienced another great Hong Kong auction (the first of the year and one I sadly missed due to my China trip). We had a chat all together about some of the great sales of the auction but soon enough it was time for our main course!

We had three main courses (yes, I know I will eventually need to join a gym) and they were French Spring Chicken with Herbs, Pork Ribs with a Honey Garlic Sauce and Sea Bass Fillet with a Lemon Butter Sauce. The 2009 went exceptionally well with the white meat of the chicken, the sweetness of the wine pairing well with the tender and less ‘meaty’ part of the chicken as well as the herbs and the butter. The brown meat of the chicken, being more intensely flavoured worked well with the 1997 so overall it was a very nice pairing.

I found out an interesting thing whilst going through the first course and that is that Sauternes and broccoli do not pair together and leave a really rather unpleasant taste in the mouth – something seconded by Philippe and the boys. The pork though was a lovely dish and the neutral flavours of the pork worked well with both wines. What was interesting though was the wines ability to wash away the strong flavours of the garlic and overall, it was a pretty good pairing.

Sea Bass in itself is a rather meaty fish and the 2009 was a delightful pairing with this dish. The 1997 I found somewhat overpowered the flavours of the fish initially but when it came to the finish, really highlighted the ‘fishy’ qualities of the dish which was something I did not really like as I would have preferred a more ‘wine based’ finish.

There was a dessert but by that time we had consumed most of the wine and it seemed secondary to the importance of chatting about life whilst quaffing what was left of the delightful wines. Personally, I am not a dessert fan and even less so when paired with a sweet wine – note the line about pairing Sauternes with contrasting flavours. What was noticeable though was how the 1997 evolved in the glass over the time it took us to have dinner with the nutty nuances really showing through after about 2 hours – which made for a great way to end the meal.

I’d like to try this experiment again with more vintages from Fargues and see whether it’s possible to do five or six dishes with five or six vintages of the wine. From the looks of the way last night’s dinner went I’d say that’s entirely possible. I guess only time will tell if we can get the next dinner organized but for now, I am content that my rush back to Hong Kong was well worth all the stress it entailed as, dinner with Nico, David and Philippe was great fun and it’s always good to have an evening where Sauternes is the star.