THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605090052
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM RAPER, WINE COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
WHEN THE Hampton Roads chapter of Alliance Francaise asked Norfolk restaurateur Joe Hoggard to be host for its spring luncheon in early May, he readily accepted.
The luncheon would be built around foods and wines of southern France.
Hoggard, a well-known Francophile, travels in France about six weeks of every year, picking up culinary inspiration, sampling wines and ``searching for ever more perfect sites for picnics.''
The event, held Sunday at Hoggard's Cafe Rosso on 21st Street in Norfolk, attracted a full house: All 120 seats were reserved well before the luncheon, which did not disappoint.
Here's a look at the menu, and the chosen wines:
First course - A salad of roasted tomato wedges, lightly sauteed asparagus and mozzarella, with olive oil and basil. Wine - Chateau Calabre 1994 Montravel Sauvignon. This sauvignon blanc is from the small appellation of Montravel in the district of Bergerac, abutting the western boundary of the Bordeaux region. It is a citrusy treat, fresh and crisp, and a much better $9 bottle of wine than many of the sauvignon-based Bordeaux whites of comparable price. As were all of the wines served at the luncheon, it is imported by Robert Kacher Selections of Washington, D.C. Kacher, a friend of Hoggard, donated some wines to the event.
Second course - A soup of mussels in the shell in a broth of chicken stock, olive oil, lemon juice, white wine, and diced vegetables (onion, celery, green pepper, tomato). Wine - Another glass of the Calabre Montravel.
Entree - Wood-oven baked swordfish covered by a sauce of calamari rings, diced tomatoes, capers, garlic, Provencal herbs, olive oil and white wine. Wines - Lalande 1995 Chardonnay Vin de Pays des Cotes de Gascogne. This tastes of tart apples and has no thick butter or vanilla flavors to weigh it down. The Gascogne district is to the east of Toulouse. This chardonnay usually costs less than $10, and is an example of the better vins de pays (country wines) of France. The red served was the Clos Petite Bellane 1993 Valreas Cotes-du-Rhone. Valreas is one of the villages in the southern Rhone allowed to put its name on its Cotes-du-Rhone-Villages wines. This wine is full of cherry fruit and spice, with a bit of tar on the finish. The tomatoes in the sauce helped to mate the dish with the wine. Bellane also produces an excellent dry rose made mostly from the grenache grape. Look for these wines in retail shops, priced at $10 to $12.
Dessert - Tart filled with fresh fruit and custard sauce.
The luncheon over, Hoggard sat the bar and enjoyed a glass of wine himself. ``Everything went well,'' he said, ``but I made a mistake. It would have been perfect if we had had a small glass of Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise (a sweet, fortified wine from the southern Rhone) with the dessert.''
Some people are never satisfied. INEXPENSIVE FINDS
The vins de pays of France are a humble category of wines deserving of more attention from Americans. This is especially true of the vins de pays of southern France. Widely available, they usually are inexpensive and well made, if not complex.
Labels will have the producer's name, and often the name of the grape variety - cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, and so on - used to make the wine. The words ``vin de pays'' will be in smaller type, followed by a geographical name or some other designation of the area from which the wine comes. For example, a Vin de Pays d'Oc is from the Languedoc, which extends along the Mediterranean roughly from Avignon to Carcassonne.
Vins de pays to try would include:
Georges Duboeuf 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon Vin de Pays d'Oc ($6.50).
Barton & Guestier 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon Vin de Pays d'Oc ($6.50).
Fortant de France 1994 Chardonnay Vin de Pays d'Oc ($7.50).
Reserve St. Martin 1993 Syrah Vin de Pays d'Oc ($8).
Reserve St. Martin 1993 Mourvedre Vin de Pays d'Oc ($8).
Domaine de Gournier 1993 Chardonnay Vin de Pays des Cevennes-Uzege ($9), from a small area near Nimes.
As a rule, the younger these wines are, the better. So buy the latest vintage possible. by CNB