Burgundy and Bunnies

They were tasting a young, white Burgundy at the market today and it was very attractive and well priced at $16. Two bottles came home with me. The wine was a 2006 Domaine Hubert Chavy Bourgogne 'Les Saussots.' The nose was about apricots sprinkled with lemon juice with some mild butter action. There was also an hint of another aroma I couldn't recognize, nor could a couple of others at the tasting counter, but we all agreed that something else was going on with the wine. The taste was green grapes, lemon, lime, butter and what turned out to be the aroma that we were picking up on - cloves. It wasn't strong and it wasn't at all offensive, it just added a dimension to the wine. Medium weight, wonderful acidity and a hint of oak on the finish made for a nice wine at this price.

The weather today was oppressive with temperatures in the low 90 degree range and humidity working its way up the scale to match. August is finally in Ohio in full force so grilling was out of the question.

I stopped at the local farmer's market and bought some just dug carrots that looked very good. I passed by another booth and they were selling the first rabbits of the season. That's one of the promises that Autumn and better weather is on its way. I brought a young rabbit home to go with the Burgundy.

I cut the rabbit into serving pieces. With the scraps I made a small pot of rabbit stock. The rabbit pieces were salted and peppers and sprinkled with fresh rosemary and placed in butter and olive oil in a hot glass dish and roasted for about 20 minutes. They were turned and sprinkled with chopped garlic and shallots and roasted for another five minutes. Finally I added some white wine and rabbit stock and roasted the rabbit for another five minutes or so.

While the rabbit was roasting I blanched some of the carrots in water with chunks of fresh ginger and made some herbed rice.

When the rabbit came out of the oven I removed it from the dish and swirled some butter into the remains. The carrots were quickly sauteed in butter with a grating of fresh ginger. The results are pictured below.

The rabbit and the Burgundy were wonderful together. The acidity in the wine cut the butter in sauce and the nuance of cloves matched well with the rosemary on the rabbit and the ginger in the carrots.

There are some leftover scraps that will find their way into Scott's and Ellie's dog food tomorrow morning, and they even had a small taste of it as a treat after diner. Wagging tails showed approval. I agreed - the food and wine made a great pairing.