Food and wine
What wine with blanquette de veau?
A cream sauce calls for a round white, not a red.
Veal simmered in a white, creamy sauce with mushrooms and small onions. Gentle, comforting, with no browning at all: one of the few French stews that stays pale.
Why this pairing works
No red in the cooking, nothing browned: nothing calls for tannin. The cream wants a white with enough breadth to stand up to it, but with acidity, or the whole thing turns cloying.
Look for on the list
Mâcon-Villages
24–42 €Chardonnay from southern Burgundy, round and supple: the safest pairing, and affordable.
Vouvray sec
24–45 €Loire chenin: sharper, it wakes the sauce up instead of melting into it.
Côtes du Jura
28–50 €Jura chardonnay has a hazelnut note that works wonders with veal and mushrooms.
What to avoid : Tannic reds, which turn bitter in cream. And heavily oaked whites, which add fat to fat.
The ranges are restaurant prices for a full bottle. By the glass, reckon on roughly a quarter. At a wine shop, divide by two or three.
What to say
« Un blanc pour la blanquette, qu'est-ce que vous auriez ? »
pronounced : uhn blahn poor la blahn-KET, kess-kuh voo zo-ree-AY
A white for the blanquette: what would you have?
Yes, but on this list?
Knowing which style of wine you want still does not tell you which one to take from the thirty lines in front of you. Photograph the list: Cépage compares what is actually available, at your budget, and decides.
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