For Inquiring Minds (France! Wine! Food!)

Since a few people have asked what wine I’ve been drinking in France …

When I go out to a brasserie, I usually just have whatever house rosé or rouge they have, depending on what I’m eating. Generally I don’t bother asking what it is, I just cheerfully accept it.

When I was staying with family in Moulis-en-Médoc, we ate dinner one night at Quittignan Brillette, the bed and breakfast where we were staying. Dinner itself was fabulous: the entree was duck four ways (slices of smoked duck breast, pate & brioche toasts, poached gizzards and livers), and the plat was an excellent duck confit.

We started with Chateau Jouvente Blanc (less than 7€), then moved to a red for the plat: Chateau Biston Brillette (around 13€, I believe). Both were quite delicious – not surprising, given that one of the proprietors of the B&B works as a wine negociant during the day, and seeks out sub-20€ wines for the house. There was a third wine, another red, but I don’t recall the name at the moment (perhaps because it was our third bottle, *after* a day touring several chateaux).

Last night I cooked dinner (pan seared duck breasts and butter-braised radishes, turnips and carrots – both heavily influenced by recipes from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc At Home cookbook). With dinner, we had a lovely bottle of Chateau Gruaud Larose, followed by Sauternes from Chateau Roumieu (apologies in advance, it’s a Flash-based website, but not too terribly egregious).

If you haven’t been able to tell from the above, I’m continuing to live well – and in order to ensure the trend continues, tonight we’re dining at Allard, a highly-reviewed Paris staple since the 1930s (though, interestingly, reviews on TripAdvisor and the like are exceptionally polarized!). And, yes, it’s two doors down from where we’re staying.