Easter à la Bordelaise

This Easter, I especially feel like celebrating. The flowers are blooming, the weather is beautiful, and the world is opening up again. Springtime is not just a season but a state of mind right now. We’re getting vaccinated, kids are going back to school (!!!!), and we are beginning to be able to gather again. I don’t think I’m the only one who feels a little lighter and brighter lately. This weekend has felt more like a celebration of our hearts opening up, little by little, after so long at home, than of one specific holiday.

I have a dear friend Julie who hails from Bordeaux and is an excellent cook. She loves the challenge of matching her food to whatever wine I pick out for our dinners together. So, when I told her I’d picked up the 2017 Haut Charmes from Sauternes and the 2010 Lestage from Listrac-Médoc on the Left Bank, she said we’d have to have a traditional Bordeaux dinner like she did with her family growing up. She tout suite dispatched an order to D’Artagnan, her favorite purveyor of meats and other French products. Foie gras and duck were on the menu, and we timed the event for Easter weekend. 

As classic a pairing as ever there could be: Sauternes and foie gras!

When I arrived at her house, I asked her if it was too warm to drink Bordeaux rouge (it wasn’t—it was maybe 75 degrees), and she assured me it wouldn’t be a problem because we’d start with the Sauternes and foie gras. This was a surprise! I’d always considered both to be after-dinner delicacies, but she assured me that in Bordeaux, they start the meal with this combo, as it’d be much too rich after a big meal. And she was right: the honeyed, tropical notes of the Sauternes were a beautiful match for the buttery foie gras on fresh, rustic bread from Seed bakery, and the perfect beginning course. The Haut Charmes is made from young vines of an esteemed (but undisclosed) Sauternes winery, so it had some weight to it but was very young and vivacious (and BTW, we have it for a crazy good deal!). This combo really set the stage for the main event.

I have to thank our co-owner/Bordeaux buff Clyde Beffa for introducing me to this bottle. This bottle of Lestage, from the excellent 2010 vintage, is such a good deal for a Bordeaux with 11 years of age on it, and it’s in a sweet spot with tons of freshness, but melted tannins and spicy fruit.

And the main event was, indeed, worth the wind up. Julie made a perfectly seared, peppery duck breast over a bed of wild mushrooms and thyme-scented green beans with shallots. Alongside the Bordeaux, the whole thing was a symphony. We did not decant the Lestage, but should have, as it took a bit of time to open up. Once it did, there were layers of sweet tobacco and spiced red cherries and chocolate melding with the peppery and gamey notes of the perfectly seasoned duck. As the bottle opened, it gave more and more pleasure.

We continued the meal with a semi-hard cheese called Carmody from Bellwether Farms in Sonoma and the rest of the bread from Seed. And then, because all this wasn’t enough, we finished with carrot cake macarons from Altadena Cookie Co.

The food, the drink, the company… there was so much in the evening that made me happy, and it was a lovely beginning to a family weekend of egg-hunting, zoo-going, and Champagne-sipping. I hope that you, too—whether you celebrated this weekend or not—are feeling the lightness of the season. I hope that you, too, have something delicious on plate and in glass, with good people to share it with.

Cheers to Spring!

- Kate Soto