I’ve had several desserts paired with Sauternes, but I’m hoping to find some non-sweet pairings. Unfortunately I don’t eat lobster (or any fish/seafood), fois gras, or blue cheese so the most common recommendations I see won’t work for me.
Some specific pairings I’m interested in:
Some soft cheeses like Robiola work extremely well.
I read somewhere that le Comte Lur Saluces likes roast chicken with Ch. d’Yquem.
We’re giving that a whirl this weekend.
Smoke a bowl and try a glass of Sauternes with Crunchy Cheetos.
You’ll be in heaven.
HAHAHA! Great one!
Haha! I definitely wasn’t expecting that pairing
Poutine
I’ve been to at least a few sauternes-only dinners, and so I’ve had a lot of atypical sauternes pairings. This is a tricky question because more than any other type of wine, there are so many styles of sauternes (sweeter/heavier to lighter/minerally) that depends not only on producer but also vintage and age of development.
Salty works. Potato chips are great with sauternes if lightly salted. I particularly love seafood with sauternes. An oyster pairing with a younger off-vintage minerally sauternes like 2006 or 2008 Coutet is superb. Roast chicken is fabulous with something slightly more opulent. Duck is a fabulous pairing with something slightly richer still (97 Yquem?). Cheeses go very well with older sauternes, often >30-40 years old once the sweetness has moderated substantially. Be careful since the cheeses can sometimes coat your palate and eliminate the sauternes flavor. For this reason I often like lightly salted nuts with older sauternes (or sauternes by itself). I avoid pairing sauternes with dessert altogether, although occasionally do creme brulee.
I have yet to find a really great pairing with spicy food. I think it overwhelms the sauternes, especially given the higher end alcohol (compared to things like rieslings).
Here’s an example of the best thought-out sauternes dinner that I’ve been to, though I’ve done many since:
https://www.cellartracker.com/event.asp?iEvent=17561
Of course, the classic match is foie gras.
Alexandre de Lur Saluces does indeed promote roast chicken, and it works well.
He also advises fish in a white sauce.
Scallops, lobster, and similar shellfish fit the bill just fine.
Veal sweetbreads are marvelous with Sauternes, as are vol au vents.
Any puff pastry dish is delicious with sweet white Bordeaux.
Copied from the Italians, melon (ripe, little melons - not the clunky flavorless kind) with Parma ham, jambon de Bayonne, serrano, or thin slices of any dry cured ham go exquisitely with Sauternes.
I’ve had good luck with stuffed mushrooms too.
Best regards,
Alex R.
Oh, and as you probably know already, blue cheeses (Stilton, Roquefot, Gorgonzola, etc.) and Sauternes is a marriage made in heaven !
AR
Grapefruit supremes satueed in butter as a dessert works well.
At the Chateau for lunch they served us a mild spicy lobster starter with 1988 and a guinea hen with vanilla sauce with a 1950 - both excellent pairings.
There is a gentleman that posts here occasionally that turned me onto grilled fruits: Pineapple, mango, bananna, citrus.
I hosted and cooked for a Sauternes dinner, and the following dishes paired quite well…
Butternut squash risotto
Olive oil poached halibut atop broccoli rabe pesto (I put a tablespoon of honey in the pesto)
Rabbit tagine, which had apricots and cherries in it, served over couscous
You mentioned no foie, but if you like chicken livers, they are a good substitute. You can make a pate from them.
Anything deep fried.
Brad - those all sound delicious with Sauternes…
Sauternes is an incredibly complex wine, so in order to match properly you have to have some idea of what primary flavors the Sauternes you’re going to open has and then you can match accordingly. Look at the flavors usually on a basic level with Sauternes compared to the suggestions listed above:
So basically it comes down to how much you want to complement and contrast. Note that some food items like cheese and melon and posciutto will do both at the same time. (The meat and fish as well depending on how you seasoned them.)
To answer your question with my own suggestions:
Salty: Charcuterie with both pate and dried cured meats. Olives. Seriously. Try a mixture of olives. Yes they are more briny than salty but if you have a more floral and minerally Sauternes like a Lafaurie, for example, this will go surprisingly well. If your Sauternes is really sweet and/or fruity, though, you might want to back away from this one. French fries seasoned with sea salt and nothing else. Another one that surprises people.
Spicy: Honestly have not tried this pairing and would not venture to for the exact reasons given above by Ashish. If you really want to try this pairing, it might be better for you to open a very spicy snack like hot wasabi peas at the same time you open a Sauternes, try some with a bit of the wine, and then put the snack away and continue drinking the Sauternes (or vice versa). The only thing I would even risk is horseradish cheddar and that’s hedging my bets because cheese complements Sauternes.
Cheese: No blue? No problem. Go with well-aged PARMESAN! There’s your salty and creamy right there.
Sweet: If you meant protein, then rabbit, duck, chicken and turkey, and veal. If you meant dessert, custard and cooked fruit based desserts that are not overly sweet. Apple tarte tatin is pretty much a perfect match. A lightly sweetened vanilla panna cotta is perfect and I find it an even better match than the much overdone creme bruleé pairing.
Good luck in your pairings and do let us know what you ended up going with.
Tran
Thanks for all the replies.
Most of what I have is Rieussec (1988, 1989, 2001, 2009, 2010, 2011), but I also have some 2005 Suduiraut and Guiraud. I’m most likely going to be opening the one of the bottles of 88 Rieussec very soon so I really wanted to nail the pairing. I appreciate all the suggestions they sound great
Hot air popped pop-corn with Pumpkin seed oil & salt…
I was really curious about pairing with a casual spicy dish so I ordered some hot wings and opened a half bottle of an average quality producer. I definitely agree with your statement about it overwhelming the Sauternes. Maybe the wings were too spicy, but the intensity of the flavors before eating compared to during the meal was drastically different.
The wings were awesome, and the Sauternes is good on it’s own, but I won’t be attempting that pairing again.