Last week I did a wine dinner of Domaine du Pegau Chateauneuf at EVO restaurant in Portland, Maine. I was dubious when I saw that they were matching halibut with the 2014 vintage of Pegau Cuvee Reservee (red, not white). What I got was one of the best wine and food pairings ever.
The halibut was served with olive jus, which pulled the fish and the wine together into a seamless whole. I don’t often specifically write up wine and food pairings, but this was simply extraordinary.
Dan Kravitz
Dan,
Love mature CNdP with roasted fish when it has olives, fennel etc. One of the most memorable pairings ever was the '89 Beaucastel with a whole roasted striped bass with fennel, olives, tomatoes served at a now defunct restaurant in New Orleans (Girard’s). As '89 is our anniversary, we had them prepare this for us every year until we ran out of Beaucastel. Unfortunately they closed shortly after. I still do this pairing every once n a while.
The 2014 probably isn’t mature, but likely has those lovely provencal nuances that go so well.
I’ve also experienced this surprising synergy between a meaty but mild white fish like halibut, with the right sauce or accompaniment, and a red wine I would not have thought to choose. It’s so much fun to have expectations trumped in this way. Thanks for sharing.
Can we just quietly tip our hat in the general direction of Halibut? I mean, is there a better white fish?
When cooked well it’s awesome. But it’s soooo easy to overcook.
He loved Halibut !!
You are a brave man. Awesome to hear of your nice experience, especially since I would have asssumed you have had Pegau with everything (including even the s word) lol.
Dover sole? Turbot?
But very much love halibut, even though I like those two the best.
When cooked properly, there is no better fish IMO. It will also stand up to a plentitude of different seasonings and sauces which makes it so broad in terms of fantastic wine pairings.
Dan, any chance you can get and post the sauce recipe?
Glad to see so much interest in this.
Adam: Haddock.
Bdklein: Who is that please?
Robert_M_yers: What is the s word? Steak? Squid?
Terry Harris: I can only ask, here’s hoping, it was incredibly good.
Thanks again to everybody.
Dan Kravitz
Inspired pairing!
Great picture and interesting pairing.
Halibut is a good fish to serve people who are ‘quite certain they don’t like fish’.
Our ill mannered godson is sometimes offered it, but we tell him its chicken.
I’ve got to try this. Always looking for an excuse to serve red with fish.
Halibut is awesome, and worthy of the conversation. I’d put the following up for consideration, too: sea bass; Patagonian toothfish; grouper; snapper.
At Melisse in LA, they paired a young St. Joseph with turbot. It blew my mind.
Hello Terry,
I asked, and they answered, just not very quickly.
Here’s the recipe, as requested:
Olive butter:
1 pound of room temperature Butter
4 Tablespoons of Black olive paste. Miccuci’s in Portland sells some nice products.
3 Each white Anchovies
3 cloves of garlic minced and lightly sauteed in butter
zest of two lemons
1 teaspoon salt
For the finished Sauce, reduce half a bottle of the Pegau white wine [I don’t cook with Pegau, but any good Mediterranean white will do…DK] and a pint of fish stock (fumet) with shallots and thyme in the reduction. Once it was reduced by two thirds, I mounted the reduction with the compound butter, dropping in a tablespoon at a time. Make sure to cool your compound butter before making the emulsion. Season the sauce with salt and lemon juice.
Thank you, Dan!!!
