Back to school is over, the end-of-year celebrations are fast approaching! Perhaps you have already started to imagine your New Year's Eve menus, composing around the required figures and the great classics, while having desires for novelty and fresh ideas. Combining tradition and originality seems to be the perfect recipe, and for this spirits can be of great help to you!
If food and wine pairings are an art deeply rooted in gastronomy, those with spirits are still little explored. However, their aromatic power and controlled strength make the flavors explode in the mouth and reveal all the better the qualities of the beautiful products they accompany.
As much as a good bottle of wine, a nice bottle of rum , whisky, Armagnac or even shochu, is of the most beautiful effect at the table. These pairings will certainly surprise you and will spark beautiful exchanges with your guests, whether they are lovers of "strong alcohols" or not.
We chose to try the experience with exceptional products, such as caviar or foie gras, by putting affordable spirits in front of them. The goal is to have fun while discovering, and products that seem expensive, such as caviar, ultimately remain accessible for a table of 8 or 10 people, in the context of small tasting bites.
Spirit pairings with an Osciètre Caviar
Vodka is a natural match, an alliance of Russian terroir, however you have to choose your bottle carefully because its potentially alcoholic side can completely ruin the taste of the caviar.
The roundness of Russian Mamont vodka accompanies the fat of the caviar, and supports its powerful flavors thanks to fine spicy notes.
There Loubine, a French vodka made from Noirmoutier potatoes and wheat, offers a very pleasant smoothness, similar to that of caviar.
Japanese spirits like shochu work wonders at the table, such as this Shichida Ginjo Sakekasu , made from sake lees. We served it “mizuwari” (diluted with fresh water, just a dash in this case to keep a little power). This pairing gives off a beautiful delicacy, with a very pleasant floral contribution.
We can imagine expanding to other shochus (rather light rice shochu, or sweet potato for a more fruity and “punchy” combination).
Blanche d'Armagnac is also an excellent match that brings out the marine side of the caviar and acts as an aroma enhancer, in a reciprocal way between the food and the spirit.
Along the same lines as white, we can also think of other unaged wine distillates, such as pisco or grappa.
In the world of sugar cane brandy, agricultural rums are often cited, and in particular the Trois Rivières Cuvée de l'Océan which resonates perfectly with the saline notes of the caviar. Its well-contained power is important, because when testing with more powerful references, we realized that the alcohol had a tendency to upset the sturgeon eggs a little too much.
Madeira Rum O Reizinho Blanc 45% offers a buttery, gently vegetal accord, with umami like fish flesh. Don't hesitate to freeze it a little before serving. Other pure cane juice rums distilled in a still, and not too powerful, also work well (Issan, Chamarel Heart of Heating…).
On the whisky side, the peat of a Kilchoman Machir Bay is powerful, but a well diluted "mizuwari" service (6 parts whisky to 4 parts water) works really well! One can of course imagine expanding to other reasonably peaty whiskies.
Spirit pairing with a Smoked Salmon Heart
To accompany the roundness of a very fatty salmon and its smoky side, we thought of a molasses rum aged in a bourbon barrel. In this category, the rums from the Foursquare distillery often stand out, but be careful, you have to climb a little in the degrees or the agreement will be a little sickening. For this, the bottlings of Guillaume de Roany with the Rums of the South are perfect. The toasted nutty side of the rum marries with the smokiness, and the vanilla indulgence of the American oak blends with the flesh of the salmon.
A cask strength from Belize or Latin America can also be a very good alternative.
A lightly peated whisky like the Wolfburn Morven Lightly Peated , or a smoky one like the Jura 12 year old, work well with toast and a good semi-salted butter. The whisky category is full of interesting pairings, with iodized expressions like the Old Pulteney 2010 Flotilla for example. Finally, the Port Askaig 8 year old , which brings together these three major aromatic trends, is reserved for the more initiated.
With a Calvados , the apple breaks the fat and works by contrast thanks to its acidity. It is an original and surprising combination, for taste adventurers!
Tasting the Depaz blanc 55 with smoked salmon was a very nice surprise. The rum highlights the smokiness, and its slightly bitter lemony side creates a very nice synergy. The slightly wild side of a Braud & Quennesson 59.2% also works wonderfully, and we can imagine expanding to other white agricultural rums like why not the Esprit Bio from Neisson , or the Constellation from the Guadeloupean house Longueteau.
Once again, the shochu trail is very interesting, as with the Kuroki Honten Yamasaru . This barley shochu develops notes of cereals and toasted bread that are almost buckwheat-like, and which go perfectly with the smokiness of the salmon.
Spirit pairings with duck foie gras
Our favorite in the category is the Grosperrin MMC Cuvée 2 , a must fortified with cognac that works really well. A prune and rancio side emerges, we think of a chutney that goes very naturally with foie gras, it is round and fresh at the same time, perfect!
We can imagine expanding to other mutated musts, such as Ratafia from La Mauny or Floc du Pirate from Toucan.
Armagnac is a natural and regional pairing. It is better to choose a less powerful Armagnac, or a very aged eau-de-vie, in order to avoid the experience being too intense. For this, the GNAC of the Encantada or the Domaine Le Sablé from 1976 (still at Encantada) do their job very well.
Rye whiskey and its spicy character is a relatively unexpected, but very pleasant pairing. Thus, Woodford Reserve Rye offers a gourmet, vanilla alliance, full of generous cereals. It is a dry spirit, therefore very interesting because it does not fall into a trap that is too fat or round.
The molasses rums of Latin tradition form an obvious pairing with foie gras. Their vanilla and caramelized roundness with sweet spices advantageously replaces the sweet wine. They offer an additional power that melts the foie gras in the mouth while prolonging the pleasure and creating a synergy that evokes gingerbread. Unmissable!
There is plenty to choose from, but we enjoyed the Pasador de Oro Gran Reserva or the Botran 15, for example.
Spirit pairings with a Pata negra de belota ham
A good, fatty ham with powerful flavors is an ideal playground for a spirit with character! This is the case of the Redbreast 12 year old , this Irish whiskey that makes a great pairing. The ham brings a welcome smokiness, and it works particularly well on the finish, where the fat of the ham is imbued with vanilla oak. In the Irish family, we can also think of the Writer's Tears Red Head and its finish in a sherry cask, for an Andalusian touch.
Peated whiskies also provide a great pairing between meat, fat and peat smoke. Port Charlotte 10 Year Old and Lagavulin 8 Year Old are examples that combine peat and indulgence, and Compass Box’s Peat Monster takes ham to another dimension!
On the rum side, let's look for the rich and punchy expressions, like Pusser's Gunpowder. The character of the rum is up to par, and its concentrated caramel side literally fuses with the fat of the ham on the finish. Other rums are capable of tackling the task, like a good old Caroni, other Navy Rums and Demerara Rums. The Two Woods 5+5 is sweeter, but its sherry aromas pair naturally with ham.
Shochu is once again invited into the selection, proof that this spirit has many assets. Let's talk about Asahi Kokuto Shochu . Made from cane sugar, its explosive aromas sometimes look towards charcuterie. To learn more about this Japanese spirit, go to the shochu category page 😉
Personally, I love to suggest rum and cheese pairings. For example, an 18-month-old parmesan with the cuvée de l'océan at 3 Rivières. The search for an agreement can be done on complementarity, similarity, etc. It's a real pleasure to explore and share our taste experiences.
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