Restaurant Septime (*Michelin)
For some time now, the idea of promoting something Portuguese during our travels hovered in my head, we get to know amazing places, wonderful restaurants and excellent hotels, why not take a bit of Portugal to them?
As it should be, wine was the heritage chosen, and what a heritage! With our visits to restaurants and the scarce Portuguese presence in international wine lists, the wine made the most sense for us to publicize.
Restaurant Allard (Alain Ducasse)
And so begins our “Wine on Tour”, during our last visit to Paris and with the support of Symington and its Graham’s (to whom I thank in advance for all the support in our initiatives), we were accompanied by a special Port wine, Graham’s Tawny 20 years.
A wine we consider to be very versatile, and which because of the dried fruit notes, orange peel and well balanced sweetness could easily become an excellent company for the most traditional desserts of the French cuisine.
Restaurant Le Chiberta (*Michelin)
Thus, armed with “Portugal in a bottle”, we went to some excellent Parisian restaurants, challenging sommeliers to harmonize their desserts with the Graham’s 20 years, and serving it fresh (an idea that many people don’t yet have about Port wine).
The result could not have been more interesting, 1st: everyone who tried it in our company surrendered to the quality of the wine (even though France is a big Port wine market, usually it sticks with the lower ranges), 2nd: from desserts like the Meringue Lemon Tart, cheeses and the Île Flotant at Allard of Alain Ducasse, the Opera Cake of Guy Savoy or the cheeses at Septime, everything worked in perfection with this delicate and versatile Tawny.
The wine was also offered to some people, like all the team from Allard (see more), Chef Betrand Grébaut from Septime (see more), and the master Jean-Paul Montellier, who received us so well in the room of Le Chiberta (see more).
We hope they have put it to good use, and that Port Wine will start being part of their harmonization.
To finish the travel of Graham’s Tawny 20 years we decided to celebrate by ourselves, surrounded with a series of sweets of the amazing Pierre Hermé, in a fantastic hotel room, where everything worked to perfection and in the next day our gaiety was kept.
An excellent experience that will for sure repeat itself during our next trips.
Graham’s Tawny 20 years with the support of Symington Family