Since a few people have asked what wine I’ve been drinking in France …<\/p>\n
When I go out to a brasserie, I usually just have whatever house ros\u00e9 or rouge they have, depending on what I’m eating. Generally I don’t bother asking what it is, I just cheerfully accept it.<\/p>\n
When I was staying with family in Moulis-en-M\u00e9doc, we ate dinner one night at Quittignan Brillette<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n We started with Chateau Jouvente Blanc<\/a>\u00a0(less than 7\u20ac), then moved to a red for the plat: Chateau Biston Brillette<\/a>\u00a0(around 13\u20ac, 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\u20ac 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).<\/p>\n 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<\/a> cookbook). With dinner, we had a lovely bottle of Chateau Gruaud Larose<\/a>, followed by Sauternes from Chateau Roumieu<\/a>\u00a0(apologies in advance, it’s a Flash-based website, but not too terribly egregious).<\/p>\n