Bubbles

The title is not referring to Michael Jackson's monkey but to a night in the pleasant company of our good friends, tasting Spanish bubbles, Cava, and subsequent visits to winebars.
We were presented to six different cavas with accompanying tapas by the sommelier Sergi Castro from the Spanish Cava Institute.

First Anna de Codorniu Brut and with this a tapa of creamed spinach with pine nuts and raisin. 

The Cordorniu is 70% chardonnay, 15% Parellada, 15% Macabeo/Xarel.lo, aged for 12 months on lees. Very light, with fine bubbles. An ok match but think it better as an unaccompanied aperitif.

Second Colomer 1907 Brut Reserva made with Macabeo, Xarel.lo, Parallada (local grapes) served with breaded prawn and romesco sauce. K found that it went better with the sauce alone, without the prawn

Then two rosés; Juvé & Camps Brut Rosé - 100% pinot noir and Segura Viudas Lavit Rosado – 80% Trepat, 10% Monastrell, 10% Garnacha, served with a glaced salmon with grapes. The salmon was a bit too fishy and the sweet grapes didn't help. Without the grapes particularly the Segura Viudas was good.

The fifth cava was Cava Imperial Brut Gran Reserva de Gramona. This cava is made from 50% Xarel.lo, 40% Macabeo, 10% Chardonnay and finished with a dash of rum from old barrels. It was accompanied with a toast with roasted ham and paprika and garlic chips which it stood up to very well. A scent of peach stones/almonds both in the nose and mouth. This was the best glass of the night.

Last we had en extra seco de Vallformosa with a rice pudding laced with green tea and a center of jellyed peach. This too was a very good match.

The tasting had started quite early and here we were, still a bit hungry and certainly a bit bubbly.
First we went to the Tire Bouchon – a very nice wine bar in "pisserenden" but the kitchen was overbooked and we had to make do with a glass of Saint Damien 2009 Gigondas for T and a Ladoix 2009 for K. The Gigondas still had too hard tannins to be really enjoyable, but both were good glasses.

On we went to R, another good wine bar, and had two plates; one with cold cuts and one with cheese. To drink a very nice and beautifully aged Corton-Charlemagne 1999, Domaine Rapet Pere & Fils. Just what the doctor ordered.

The bartender complained that he was not charging enough, when we paid the bill, but that was certainly subject to a different opinion from our side. On one hand he was right - when compared to prices you pay in Denmark for wine when dining out, but when you compare to southern countries that we have just visited, it is not.

Take-away, Part 2 – Homemade take-away

It's getting a bit late and the kids need to get dinner. This situation has called for Thai take-away on other occasions and so we seem destined. However, K is running a bit late and T decides to shop for Thai food - we must be able to make it just as quickly as they are at the local Thai restaurant... or so we think.
We start by roasting a piece of roast beef and in the meantime we prepare vegetables:

Half a stalk of lemongrass
5 sprigs of spring onions
A small handful of ginger cut into small stalks
A red chili - half of it de-seeded
When the roast is ready, cut thin slices and then again cut them in half so the pieces become more easily edible. In the meantime heat up a wok with a little sesame oil. When hot add the vegetables and fry for a little while then add soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, a bit of honey and lime juice. In the end add some green salad (this is inspired by the Thai salads) and some pieces of lemon for decoration and to add more lime juice for those who want that. Serve with rice and sprinkle with chopped coriander.

We discussed some time what to drink. T favors white and suggests a Sauvignon Blanc, while K thinks red is OK, for instance a fruity and fairly chilled red. In the end, T gets his will and we select an Amayna Sauvignon Blanc 2009 from Chile. This works out quite nicely with the food and we rate it as 8/10 with it. The food itself is also nice, but we cannot get more than 7,5/10 Today. Next time, we will not de-seed any of the cilli, will add some roasted sesame seeds, and also a small red onion cut into small pieces and added raw after the dish has been taken off the heat.

Not just for fond – Coq au vin

In our latest Beaune post K claimed that we could make a better coq au vin and today we put our claim to the test (or the rooster where the mouth is)... However it has been a while so after shopping we consulted the internet (in this case, as quite often, the brothers Price) for the basics and found that while getting all the extras – mushrooms, pearl onions, bacon – we had run out of the base; carrots, celery etc. So back to the store T went.

This is how it went down (for 4 people):
1 big rooster from Bornholm
2 carrots
2 onions
2 stalks of celery
4 cloves of garlic
1 bottle + a big glass wine (preferably red burgundy but we were cheap and used left over chianti)
Some chicken stock from the freezer
Parsley, thyme, bay leaf, 4 cloves

Cut the rooster in 10 pieces (use the leftovers for stock ("fond")). Brown in olive oil and butter – s/p. Take up.
Fry the vegetables until soft but not brown.
Put the poultry back with the herbs, add wine and stock until covered. Put a lid on and let simmer for about an hour.

Meanwhile 15 pearl onions are cooked in butter, a bit of sugar, a little salt and water until the water had vaporized and the onions are light brown. Remove onions and add a generous glass of wine and reduce to half.

In a frying pan brown 200 gr bacon cut in thick pieces, until almost crisp. Remove and fry 250 gr mushrooms in the bacon grease.

By now the coq looks like this. Remove the meat, blend the sauce until smooth, put the poultry, onions, the reduced wine, bacon and mushrooms in, heat and serve...

... with bread! (and if necessary, rice or mashed potatoes but NOT tagliatelle), and a green salad.
The tagliatelle, in K's opinion, adds nothing to the dish. A big misunderstanding that apparently even the natives (read French) have adopted.

With this we had a bottle of Gevrey-Chambertin 2008 from Manuel Olivier. Properly decanted and served at around 16 degrees this was extremely nice 8,3/10 and together with the dish it was even 8,8/10. The dish itself was superb. Even though we scarcely dare contradict the brothers we agreed to keep the vegetables and blend them in the sauce rather than thicken it with flour.. We ended up liking it very much indeed and with a rating of 9/10 we declare ourselves stand-out winners.

Careful – hot potato behind your back

Today M gets to choose and he doesn't need to consider for long. Homemade burgers with fries and guacamole.

We have made better fries before but suspect that it is the potato sort. Or perhaps too hot oil on the first cooking. In any event we have to cook them for a bit too long to get them cooked all the way through and the effect is that they are just a bit too dark on the outside. Maybe we will pre-boil them in water for a couple of minutes first next time.
In either case: cut the potato in the size you prefer. Heat up oil in sauté pan until sizzling around a match. Add potatoes – and let cook for about 5 min or until lightly tanned. Remember that they go in a second time. Don't add all the potatoes at once – but fry them in smaller portions. Remove and cool and give them a second bath before serving.

The potato bath (1st time).
T's kitchen is quite small and not at all suited for the ambitions we have. Tight coordination is required which leads to the following question from K: "Can I go behind your back with a hot potato?"

Guacamole for sensitive taste buds: Since the kids are to eat it, it has to be the simple version: just a bit of lemon, salt and pepper and spoonful of sour cream.

The Burger.... (for not so sensitive taste buds). Everyone gets to compose their own and the burger for grown-ups is put on a bun made with durum and whole-grain wheat, lots of lettuce and cucumber, guacamole, a slice of Primadonna cheese, red onions and then garlic, chili and some red jalapeños. And ketchup of course.

Some time ago T fell upon an article on Snooth describing which wines would go with McDonalds food. T filed it under utterly irrelevant, but now he looks at it again based on their recommendation we select a Catena Malbec from 2008. K is not excited about this, but agrees with reference to her adventurousness. In the end she concedes that it is actually quite good and we end up rating the meal as 8/10, the wine as 7/10, but in combination 8/10

A.O.C. Copenhagen

It is fully deserved that AOC got a Michelin star in 2010. AOC is one of the best restaurants in CPH and Christian Aarø's ability to select wine to go with the food made by Ronnie Emborg is exquisite. This makes it an choice to order the Wine menu of which there are two varieties. They are much alike and contain many wines that are in, both, but the wine menu 2 is just a bit more exclusive and thus more expensive. On this occasion we visited the restaurant in the company of 3 generations with each their preferences and taste buds and it seemed that all were impressed and satisfied.
We started with a glass of champagne and ...

Starter one: charcoaled bread with roe of lumpfish and a cheesed cream.
The bread was served on top of actual charcoal and in the dim light we were happy to choose right.

Starter two: foam with cauliflower and danish oyster served in egg shell. Light as clouds with the taste of the sea

The bread: fried brioche with butter

And on to the menu:
Grey mullet, salted and rolled mushroom powder. Raw mushrooms, mussel cream and double cream with oak oil.
Looked like pieces of wood but was soft and moist. Seved with stems of watercress and the leaves of indian cress. Juicy and crisp.

2009 Pouilly-Fumé, Les Duchesses, Domaine Laporte

Next came Summer celery and celery roots, with pure of hazelnuts, green hazelnuts and apple. The soft, bitter celery root with the sour-sweet apple, the richness of the pure and the crispness of pieces of green hazelnuts all went beautiful together.

2009 Meursault, 1. Cru Gouittes d`Or, Domaine Pierre Yves Colin-Morey

The Meursault was so good that we forgot to take a picture!

3rd dish was Cod, poached in butter. Served with summer cabbage and "irritated" egg whites flavoured with tarragon.
Perfectly treated cod. A salty marshmellow and a rich tarragon sauce.

This went down particularly well with the 3rd generation - M - asking T why he could not make dishes like this and of course T could only respond that if he could he wouldn't be working in the IT industry. But nevertheless, a challenge has been issued!

2008 Grüner Veltliner, Berg, Reserve DAC

Weingut Markus Huber, Traisental, Austria

Confit of veal sweetbreads and corn fed chicken
In sauce with lemon verbena, lingonberries and chiffon of fried jerusalem artichokes.
Yet again M voiced his pleasure and with good reason. The combination was delicious and also the sequence in the menu was perfect, i.e. the lighter fish-based dishes and then a more salty and rich dish before the beef.

2006 Pinot Noir Rho, Ampelos Vineyards, Santa Barbara, USA

Piece of beef covered in beetroot, served with parsley and smoked marrow sauce.
We asked for bread to soak up the rest of the sauce, which was delightfully concentrated. 1st generation was sure that it was wine based, but it wasn't...

2007 Fratelli Ravello, Barolo Vigna Giachini. Yet again served perfectly. Decanted and served at the right at (we think) 16 degrees ensured that this relatively young Barolo was superb.

Cheese, Danish cheese 'gnalling' shredded, served with syrup and fried pumpernickel (rugbrød). We came here last year also and had a cheese dish of the Danish Vesterhavsost with truffle oil and toasted pumpernickel and amontilado Sherry and it was so good that we had to order a second helping! This was also good, but not quite up there.

1975 Colheita Port, Burmester, Douro, Portugal

Chamomile tea pudding covered in whole milk gel and granité of sorrel juice


2006 Ürziger Würzgarten, Riesling Auslese
Weingut Jos. Christoffel jr. Mosel, Germany

Black currant in a frozen dome with elderflower and lemon juice.

1997 Château Y’quem, 1. Cru Superieur, 

Sauternes, Bordeaux, France

Coffee with petit four
Marshmallows and chocolate in a rubberlike state














Overall this was an excellent night and our choice to come back here for this years board meeting was proven successful. There are many good restaurants in Copenhagen and this is one of the best in our view. 9,5/10

The long road home

No further comments ...

Beaune - Encore fois

For the third time in a year we arrive at Beaune in Burgundy and as again we are treated with a sunny day. As usual we arrive a little late in the afternoon and have to try different places in order to get lunch.

We end up at the Grand Café Lyon and predictably we order Meursault et Escargot. This may not be the recommended combination, but we like the sound of it and since will surely be the last summer day for us for some time we have enjoy the feeling of sitting outside at a cafe table, drinking white wine. The snails (escargots) are disappointing and have a earthy taste. Maybe they were not tortured long enough on a salt tray or maybe they have gone bad. The latter may not be the case as we suffer no long term effects. The Meursault is ok.

We also have Le Plat du Jour, which today is Coq au Vin with Tagliatelle. This is ok, but K believes we can do better ourselves one day in the not too far future (so look out for that). Another problem is the Tagliatelle, which she don't think is the proper compagnon for this dish, just like it isn't for Beouf Bourgignon, despite the fact that the rest of Beaune thinks so. Well, almost. But more on that later.

Overall we have become spoilt and for lunch this is quite nice. Overall we rate the lunch as a 6,5/10 and the wine as 7,5/10.

The afternoon is spent researching which wines we should purchase and also to find some more clothes for T who has not packed sufficiently. The research has two steps. First we read up on the latest vintage and the producers who have done well. In Burgundy this means getting a list of wines of €100+ which actually doesn't help a lot, but is enough to make us envious. Secondly we visit the various wine shops and in Beaune there are many. We try to find a wine that can serve as a benchmark (in Chateauneuf it was the Beaucastel). In Beaune it is more difficult because the variuos producers are sold by various shops. Often we end up at Denis Perret who also has the best location on the town square. Another wine shopping/research activity is to go to one of the supermarkets. In France we have often made good purchases in a supermarket and it also gives us some more prices for our benchmark. On this occasion we find a bottle of 1997 Chateau Lynch Bages and the price given underneath is €11. Clearly this must be a mistake and we discuss what to do. In the end we opt for taking one and if it indeed only costs €11 we will re-enter and get the rest. As it is we conme to the counter and when scanned it costs €57. We point out that it should cost 11 and a clerk follows T down to the shelf and takes out the price tag and so we get the bottle for €11, but as she has removed the tag we cannot get the remaining 5 bottles. Incidentally a local man behind us in queue nodded approvingly despite the fact that we were purchasing bordeaux in burgundy.

In the evening we go to Caves Madeleine. This is a return visit as we were here in March and enjoyed it hugely. It is a small place with a good basic kitchen. 

Wine-wise the concept is a little special as you can select your wine from the shelves to bring home or have it with your dinner at an additional cost of €6. On the face of it this seems like a good deal, but our general research suggests that there already has been added €5-10. Nevertheless as we are Danish we are used to huge markups on wine bought at restaurants (300-400%). Still, we like the concept and we spend some time selecting a 2007 Meursault from Albert Bichot and a 2006 Pommard also from Albert Bichot. Both are very good, but of course you can get better. In Burgundy the cap on your credit card quickly becomes the limiting factor and by now we fear that the magnetic strip has worn off.

The menu is small, but this is in our view by no means a bad thing. There are 3 entrees and 3 main courses to select and then we can choose between cheese or dessert.

K is the most adventurous by far and she choses the Terrine Campagne de la Maison for entree, while T selects a Cassoulet Escargot. K's terrine is good and rustic. The combination of a piece of toast, sonme terrine and on top a conichon is a deligthful mouthful. But alas, there is much too much. It is a big piece of terrine and we have to leave some. 

T's cassoulet is good and much more the size of an entree. The garlic sauce is just perfect with sufficient garlic and not too fat. And then there is a potato in there, which has not been overcooked! We rate the terrine as 8/10 and the same for the same for the cassoulet. The Meursault is good and this time we actually manage to save some for our cheese, but it was a close call.

For the main course K waver, but in the end she gives in to her adventurousness and orders the tongue in a broth with vegetables and served with Sauce Bearnaise. K is positively surprised and enjoys her meal. The bearnaise is very well made, but somewhat surprising to get a sauce served to a soup, but the acidity and richness of it suits the dish well. 

T who is not as adventurous choses the Beouf Bourgignon and this time it is even served with poatatoes and a small piece of toast. It is a nice solid dish and the sauce is very nicely powerfully concentrated.

Finally le fromage. Not much to say - just eat.



Overall we rate our meals to 8,5/10 each. K later analyses the meal and concludes that she might have been carried away by the positive surprise of liking tongue and perhaps this is a dish that would be nice as a smaller part of a menu with more courses.

It is good that this is our last day on this vacation. But our reckoning we should be so inebriated that we might have problems finding our way to the Hotel la Cloche 200m away, but we are not. The hotel, by the way, is quite nice and affordable. Good size rooms, clean, right on Place Madeleine and both the coffee and the croissants served for breakfast were good.

Chateauneuf-du-Pape

T's wine collection and knowledge of Chateauneuf du Pape is sadly lacking and this we now set out to address. We arrive at Hotel Le Sommellerie just outside the village. Because of the late hour we go to the hotel's restaurant, but this time with the help of the Michelin guide we feel assured that this may not be a bad choice and we are not disappointed.

Since our lunch in Collioure was rather overwhelming we settle for just one course. K has the truffled fillet de beouf and T has lamb in two different fashions - braised shoulder of lamb and lamb rack. The lamb rack is just slightly overdone, but the shoulder is very nice and overall with the salted eggplant base this was very delicious indeed.



K's dish had suggested white summer truffles. There were none, but still it were plenty of black truffles. It was very well prepared, but K could not help but feel disappointed. But the wine...

If K was to name her favorite wine, the Chateau Beaucastel might not reach the top spot . That is reserved for a very special wine that we hope soon to enter this blog. But it will op in the top 5, T gathers, so we order the 2001 Chateau Beaucastel. This is an exceptional wine that will mature for many years from now. Today it is a very complex wine with notes of fennel seeds, lilies and hints of cow shed and also some notes that were delightful, but that we can't really place. In the mouth were much of the same tastes as were suggested in its nose, but also significantly black pepper that we later learnt came from the combination of Grenache and Syrah. Remarkably the bouquet was the even more impressive than the taste.

Next day we set out for some serious wine tourism. The rain somehow stayed behind us and though it is windy and a full 10 degrees cooler it is nevertheless splendid weather in Chateauneuf du Pape. The weather apps on our smartphones speaks of rain in Chateauneuf du Pape, but as K remarks this is the best rainy day we ever had. We get to taste a lot of the wines of Chateauneuf du Pape and also do some research of what we would like to bring home. Unfortunately after all our hard work we are unable to buy what we had decided upon. One producer has decided that obscurity is the best protection against the likes of us and a second has sold all their 2009 Chateauneuf du Pape. Nevertheless we agree hat we have had great day and of course we also get something to eat.

Lunch is eaten in the center of the village. T has a grilled entrecote that thanks to our visit to Margaux is now correctly ordered as a point.

K has Le Plat du jour, which T thinks was chicken which it is, but this as part of seafood stew. Crevette bisque laced with curry. And the mix quite delightful.
Nevertheless, T has ordered a 2009 Domaine Conositère. This is served chilled and despite its young age it is still very drinkable adding to an excellent lunch.

In the evening we again visit the hotel restaurant and this time we ordered the menu traditionel, which means we can choose between two dishes for both entrees, main course and dessert.

K has a flan of eggplant and T has eggplant with chevre chaud and eggplant (yes, we did get a lot of eggplant on this visit but this was very much to our liking). T's dish was great, whereas K's was a bit too cold and properly also a little uninteresting.

With this we shared a half-bottle of white Chateau Mont-Redon 2010. Apart from the label of the bottle which was very flashy and colorful this was an excellent choice and unfortunately for us the half-bottle is a little too small.

The main course was guinea fowl on a base of green olives and zucchini. The meat was very well cooked, tender and juicy. With this we had a bottle of 2001 Clos Mont-Olivet. Compared to the Beaucastel of the previous evening this was a much more mature wine, but not with the same complexity. Nevertheless it was extremely enjoyable.

For dessert T had a chocolate fondant with red berries and K had dome of strawberries (strawberry mousse) with a thin sheet of chocolate. T who has not eaten that much dessert in his life even if it doesn't show expressed that from now on he would only have chocolate fondant for dessert. K assured him that even though it was good she had tasted better, This we will have to examine in the not-too-distant-future. For now it is a goodbye to a couple of enjoyable days in Chateauneuf du Pape that had us forget that we are now heading homewards, save for one last stop...

Collioure

It is time to head north again and so we leave Spain and apparently the summer as well as we reach France. K has had a tip to visit the small coastal town of Collioure just a few kilometres into France. Apparently K is not the only one to have received this tip, as the town is crawling with tourists on this grey day. We drive up and down the main street unable to find a parking spot. We are about to abandon the visit when we spy a small parking lot and after waiting for a spot to become vacant we park and go down to the beautiful seaside promenade.

A small drizzle has begun and we seek shelter at a fish restaurant, the San Vicens, with a view of the harbor. This could have been yet another tourist trap and it probably also is one, but that does not prevent them from making excellent food. But first we select a bottle of local white wine and we are very surprised in a positive way. The Mas Cornet 2009 AOC Collioure is a blend of Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Marsanne and Vermentino. It gives it both a spicyness and complexity and the 13,5% alcohol also adds to the mix. And now the rain starts pouring.

We have ordered Zarazuela which is all kinds of delicious seafood basically in a lobster bisque. This is served with rice, but we actually prefer the bread to soak up the bisque and then eat the contents with just a little rice. In the Zarazuela were Langostine, Moules, St Jacques clams, Razorclams, Monkfish, squids, babysquids and enormous prawns. The dish was so big that it could have fed 4 and we don't count ourselves as ones who are not able to eat our fair share.
We had not expected to bring home wine from this region, but we now have to ask our kind waiter, Jean-Pierre, about where we might be able to purchase a case. Jean-Pierre who has been very charming (indiscriminately) tells us and even comes back wit at small note with introductions and his card attached so that we may have a little degustation.

We never find the wine shop Jean-Pierre directed us to and after having visited 5 shops who all tell us that the wine has been sold out we settle for moving on, but just as we do so we pass a grocery shop and there it is. We fill another eight bottles in the trunk and head up towards Chateauneuf-du-Pape very content.