On Feb 6, 5:24�am, Tom > wrote:
> My wife and I had dinner yesterday evening and we could not make
> either of two wines work with the dish above.
>
> Here's the story:
>
> We first had three small vegetarian dishes: saut�ed spinach (olive
> oil, browned/discarded garlic cloves and chili pepper), kidney beans
> in a sofritto of onion, carrot and celery (olive oil, white wine and
> fresh bay leaves) and some leftover couscous with vegetables. These
> all worked perfectly well with the very inexpensive (but not bad)
> Primitivo described below.
>
> Then we wanted to move onto the Terrine (details below). We both
> noticed an unpleasant aftertaste on drinking the Primitivo with the
> Terrine. I thought it might be the tannins in the Primitivo, and,
> using the Sauternes-goes-well-with-foie-gras analogy, I popped open
> the Equinoxe white described below. (This was the first time we had
> tried the wine. It was very pleasant, giving a mouthful of subtle
> pear.) While not nearly as pronounced as with the red, the Equinoxe
> also gave an unpleasant aftertaste.
>
> What's going on here? Is the egg in the Terrine the difficult match?
> Was the aftertaste caused by the same food component in each case? Or
> did one component cause the red problem and another cause the white
> problem? Were acid levels too low in these wines for this food match?
> That would seem unlikely. Would an acid-sweet wine (e.g., Sauternes)
> be the only possible match?
>
> While this was not my favorite terrine, it certainly was not
> "off" (well within expiry, taste was fine).
>
> I look forward to any discussion here to really learn something about
> matching this difficult food.
>
> TB
> London
>
> *****the wines*****
>
> The red: Primitivo di Puglia San Marzano 2007
>
> The white: Equinoxe, Domaine de l'Arjolle, 2005 (blend of sauvignon
> blanc, viognier and muscat. Full flavored with just a touch of oak.
> Languedoc and Roussillon. Dry. Alcohol Level 13.5%, 6.75 GBP)
>
> *****the terrine*****
>
> Terrine au Bleu d'Auvergne: pork meat, poultry liver, Bleu d'Auvergne
> (i.e., bleu cheese), eggs, milk, pepper, ascorbic acid, sodium nitrite
> (commercial product (i.e., not freshly made) in a glass jar, room
> temperature storage/consumption)

Thanks for the notes,. As to the match, I'd agree that's a tough one.
The blue cheese is probably more to blame that eggs. I mostly go with
sweeter wines with blue cheese, usually clashes with reds, But on
other hand sweet wines aren't my first thought for terrine. I guess
I'd try to steer for middle ground, with a Spatlese Riesling or demi-
sec Loire Chenin blanc, from vintages with good acidity. Don't know it
would be magic, but doubt it would clash,