2005 White Burgundy, Grey Sole & Julia Child

Busy week at work and there was little to no cooking time, and the alcohol mainly took the form of Scottish whisky. That changed tonight.

We saw a matinee of the movie Julie and Julia and decided to do a Julia Child meal. We went with Julia's first meal after arriving in France for the first time, sole Meuniere with a white wine. While Julia and her husband Paul opted for a Sancerre, I opted for the last of my entry level white burgundies, in this case a 2005 Verget Macon-Vergisson La Roche.

The market was running a sale on fresh grey sole (witch or left hand flounder) and we brought a large one home, scaled and cleaned, but still whole.
Out came the super sized skillet to handle the chore.

We coated the fish with a dusting of flour and then quickly sauteed it on both sides in a mixture of grape seed oil and butter. It then went onto a sheet pan and into a moderately hot oven for five minutes. While the fish was in the oven we sauteed some mushrooms in the skillet, added some white wine and lemon juice and reduced the liquid by a little more than half. We finished the sauce with butter and at the last minute added a dash of lemon zest, chopped tarragon, chopped chives and some parsley. There was some fresh pasta that was plated next to the fish and we lopped off the head and removed the skin, plated the fish and sauced the plate with the contents from the skillet. The result is pictured below.

It was briny and bright and the lemon added some highlights and the mushrooms gave it some depth.

The wine was at or just past its peak. The color was moving to gold from yellow and green, but there was still fruit, acid and oak in almost perfect balance and the wine basically did an exotic tango with the fish when tasted together. They made a very passionate couple. This was the last bottle of this particular wine, and while it may have just been past its peak it was the perfect foil on this evening.

As for the movie, the highest compliment I can pay is to say that after three or four minutes Meryl Streep ceased to an actress and became Julia Child. It was two hours of pure fun.