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A Riff on Clapassade + Château Saint Roch Chimeres 2016 #Winophiles


For June's French Winophiles event, Lynn of Savor the Harvest is hosting and she's asked the group to look at the wines of Maury. Read her invitation here.

If you reading this early enough, feel free to jump in on our Twitter chat. We'll be live on Saturday, June 19th at 8am Pacific time. Just follow the hashtag #Winophiles and be sure to add that to anything you tweet so we can see it. Here's what the writers are sharing...


To Maury


When Lynn announced the topic, I was curious if I would be able to find a bottle of wine from Maury. Maury is both a town - in Northern Roussillon, in the Southern France - and an appellation. It lies inland from the Mediterranean by less than 40 miles and is bordered by the Corbières mountains and the foothills of the Pyrénées.

And I thought I had found a wine to fit the topic: Château Saint Roch Chimeres 2016. But, when I read the label a bit more carefully, it clearly stated "next to the village of Maury." Ooops.

In the Glass

The Château Saint Roch Chimeres 2016 is a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan. The vines are planted on black schist and schistous clay soils near Maury, so it carries that Côtes du Roussillon Villages appellation name.  


Made up of 40% Black Grenache, 30% Syrah, and 30% Carignan, this wine was aged half in demi-muids, 600-liter capacity oak barrels, and half in concrete tanks.

This wine poured an inky purple. On the nose, there were floral aromas with notes of red fruits and a hint of dark chocolate. On the palate, this wine is earthy with a tinge of herbs and blackberry. This bold wine played well with earthy flavors of Clapassade, at least my version of the dish!

Clapassade

Clapassade is a traditional dish from the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It's hearty and has many variations. Mine is a riff on the traditional which uses all of the same ingredients: slowly simmered lamb, honey, olives, and star anise. Since I was making this at the end of a work day, I used ground lamb and sheep's sausages instead of lamb shanks or lamb steaks.

Ingredients serves 6

  • 1 organic red onion, peeled and diced
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 pound ground lamb
  • 1 pound sheep's sausages
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 1/2 cup tomato sauce
  • 2 cups stock (I used a homemade chicken stock)
  • 1 Tablespoon honey (I used a local raw wildflower honey)
  • 1 cup green olives, pitted
  • 3 to 4 star anise
  • freshly ground salt, to taste
  • freshly ground pepper, to taste
  • Also needed: mashed potatoes for serving

Procedure

In a large soup pot, heat a splash of olive oil. Add the ground lamb. Break up the meat with a wooden spoon and cook until no pink remains. Stir in the onions and turn to coat.

Nestle the sausages into the pot and pour in the white wine, tomato sauce, honey, and stock. Stir in the olives and the star anise. Bring the liquid to a boil, then cover, and reduce heat to a simmer. Braise for 30 minutes. Uncover and raise the heat to medium. Cook until the sauce reduces by half. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot over mashed potatoes.

That's a wrap for our Maury #Winophiles event. We'll be back next month with a dive into the wines of Alsace. Stay tuned.

Comments

  1. That stew sounds divine and I love that you made a meal local to the wine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It really was a fun and tasty dish! I will have to make it again when I find an actual Maury wine.

      Delete
  2. This sounds delicious Cam! I bought the same wine and didn’t realize until it arrived that it was a close miss of the Maury Sec region proper.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cam I think your wine totally classifies as "Maury" even if it is not in the Maury or Maury Sec AOCs. Outside the village of Maury is still the Maury region. I had a white wine by the same producer that was under the Cotes du Roussillon AOC. I assumed it was because the wine was white. The other wine went under the IGP Cotes du Catalanes, but the grapes were grown and the wine produced in Maury. There are so many wines to explore here and I think many of the winemakers are coloring outside the lines. That's okay with me!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Robin. I definitely need to do a lot more research as to the AOCs. But it was a delicious wine nonetheless.

      Delete
  4. Robin is 100% correct! There's the village and the wider appellation of Maury. It really boils down to how the producer chooses to classify her/his wine. The difficult part is confirming the winery location is within the appellation zone. You'll see in my post, I have one that went from IGP Cotes Catalanes to Cotes du Roussillon Village and his 2019 vintage is now Maury Sec- same wine. I didn't realize how difficult it would be for people to find Maury AOC and Maury Sec in the US. I'm glad you found this and joined us. On the pairing, I like your Clapassade riff- keep it simple. To me, the dish conjures up moroccan-ish cuisine. Another Camilla recipe I've tucked away!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for hosting. This was such a fun topic despite the wine being such a challenge to find.

      Delete
  5. The dish and wine both sound delicious and perfect together. Next to Maury is good enough!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree! Thanks for reading and commenting, Linda.

      Delete
  6. Given Maury's remote-ness, I think you can take full credit for your wine!

    ReplyDelete

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