Baron d'Arignac Cabernet Sauvignon (2019 Vintage)
Price - £23.95 (Retails for around £9)
Country of origin - France
Score - 7/10
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From the start this bottle of wine was different to most
others I've tried; when eating out, normally I refrain from drinking wine,
instead opting for something like cider or a soft drink. However, this occasion felt far too fancy for a Thatchers Gold or a diet coke. Yesterday evening was the
Exeter University Archaeology and Forensic Society’s summer ball, an opportunity
for students to meet up, have a nice meal, and go clubbing after our exam
season had finished. Now whilst this was a lovely evening, I did have one issue
with the summer ball, that being the day it was held. The Archaeology department
is currently running the domestic archaeology fieldschool, a required section
of our degree program, which involves four weeks of work on an archaeological excavation.
Now, I don’t want to complain about the third-year students who organised the
ball, but they did know when the fieldschool was running, the details were
included in the weekly department email and the society committee was told the
dates by members. So, what they did was book the restaurant for 6pm, despite
knowing that the fieldschool does not finish until 5:30pm and is held 6 miles
away, along narrow country roads. Its needless to say that we were late.
As previously stated, I wouldn’t normally buy wine at a
restaurant, but on this occasion I decided to be fancy. The bottle of Baron d’Arignac
Cabernet Sauvignon was selected purely because my friend, a Frenchman who I was
sharing the bottle with, insisted that we drink French wine. I had never had a
Cabernet Sauvignon before, but this was a good introduction. The wine was
extremely packed with flavour, with strong fruit and spice notes. After a long
day of outdoor work, it was an excellent accompaniment to the meal. Despite the bottle recommending a pairing of "meat", it paired well with my main course, a wonderful “Hanging
Halloumi Kebab”. What surprised me more though was how it complemented my
desert, a lemon tart with raspberry sorbet: the rich fruitiness of the wine
acting with the tangy lemon and the sharp raspberry to create an amazing triangle
of flavours to alternate through.
Now it is time for me to be a bit of a wine nerd; I’ll
explain why the wine paired well with the food I ate. The Cabernet Sauvignon grape
is one of the most commonly grown varieties of grape in the world, being grown
in every major wine-growing country in a variety of climates. The grapes have a
very high tannin content; tannins being the compounds in wine that create the drying
sensation in the mouth and leave a somewhat bitter aftertaste. Now unbeknownst
to my French friend, the food that I had ordered would fit excellently with types
of food recommended to pair with the wine he had insisted we buy. Fatty or
protein rich foods, such as my Halloumi kebab, work well to neutralise the high
tannin content of the wine that create the subtle bitter aftertaste, allowing the
fruitier tasting notes to be more present in the mouth. Furthermore, methods of
cooking such as charring and grilling can also create foods that neutralise
tannins due the strong flavour they bring to a meal. The mixed peppers and red onion that accompanied the halloumi on my
kebab were cooked until they had some char, further allowing this tannin neutralisation
to occur in my mouth. I did notice the change in flavour profile the wine had
after I started eating my main course, it became richer and fruitier, and whist
I was not drinking the wine particularly quickly beforehand, I did have to slow
my intake to prevent it from becoming “too much”. When it came to my desert, it
was admittedly not the typical Cabernet Sauvignon pairing, that tends to be
bitter chocolate dishes as the bitter flavour helps mask the bitter tannins. However,
dark fruits and strong berry flavours, such as the raspberry sorbet, complement
the blackcurrant and black cherry notes from the wine, adding another layer to
a desert already rich in flavour.