Game and a few wines

Although the hunting season is off, I was still privileged to indulge myself into a nice home made game dish this week. The menu: wild rabbit. It is very interesting to see the process to prepare the meat before cooking whenever you have the chance. Me: I just did it myself. So after following all the steps to prepare the meat, leaving it in some special juice made with many spices: nutmeg, thyme, salt, pepper, garlic, onion, celery, carrots, lemon, red wine, olive oil and a little bit of vinegar overnight, the final result was really tender and tasty. Usually it is good to serve the meat with a sidedish made of components that are found in that particular animal’s eating habits. Therefore carrots were a good choice and made for an excellent sidedish. Here is the final result: carrots and green beans sauted in butter, mushrooms, wild rabbit stuffed with pig fat and garlic covered with dark cherry spread.

As cooking the rabbit took almost three and a half hours, we had two white wines meanwhile.

2007 Michel Redde La Moynerie Pouilly-Fume

The wine has a deep clear gold color. The nose shows lemon, apple on the background with strong mineral flavors and yellow flowers. In the mouth the wine is round, with bright acidity, medium body with beautiful minerality, chalk, wet stone and a layer of honey. The finish is deliciuos, medium with a persistent minerality. A Very good+ to Excellent wine that is easy to drink, the bright acidity makes it a perfect choice for summer.

2006 Les Vaux Sereins Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume

There are several vineyards in Chablis that qualify to be labeled as 1er Cru and there are two that I love: Vaillons and Fourchaume. The wine has a clear deep yellow lemon color, very similar to the first wine. The nose is clean, very mineral, with green apple, lemon, butter and wet stone aromas. In the mouth the wine is very focused, with high minerality, chalk, wet stones, lemon, a beautiful acidity and very good balance. I like Chablis wines because they are clean and laser focused. The finish is medium and mineral. Very good+ to Excellent

2007 Firriato Harmonium Nero d’Avola

We served this red wine together with the rabbit dish. The wine has an opaque ruby red color. The nose shows ripe, almost jammy mashed red fruits: red currant, cherry,  strawberry and wine lees. In the mouth you can feel an unpleasant heat from the alcohol, it is slightly unbalanced, with ripe red fruits, coffee, firm tannins and a medium body. The wine has a 15% alc level and, unfortunately, it is not integrated well and balanced. The wine has a medium finish with more red fruits in the aftertaste. Good

It is important to note here that one of the guests tasted a similar bottle in the past and didn’t feel the heat previously. It would be interesting to taste again a new bottle to see if the heat sensation persists and this was just an isolated case.

Thanks for reading!