La chasse est arrive!

Ahhh, the many joys of autumn in the Swiss country side! The changing colors of the leaves, the harvest festivities, the crisp fresh air in the sunny morning... but, more importantly, the vendange (grape picking) and the game season! The vendange deserves a separate post, but let's explore the game experience...

Every year, around the end of September all village restaurants/inns  in the area (aka auberges) put up big billboards outside their doors  with the title of this blog entry. It is a call for all the locals and the passers-by to come in and enjoying the rich tastes of the season, game dishes being the main protagonist.

Here we have wild boar medallions, tenderly cooked, surrounded by all the goodness of the "terroir": mushrooms, onions, beetroot, grapes, slow-wine-cooked pear, berries, spetzli, chestnuts, Brussels sprouts et all. Hmm, all you need for a Thursday lunch.

Well ... almost all. Let's add a glass of local Pinot Noir from Chateau de Duillier, just across the road from the auberge.


Nothing spectacular about it. Just a good red wine, a bit light for the meal. The waiter agrees. He confidently says they have better wines to match the food, for example, a Gamaret from the same neighbour.  We don't want to spoil a full bottle, so we stick with our pinot noir.

The food is spectacular though, and the mix of textures and flavors reminds me that the tongue is one of our most complex sensing organ. The boar would require indeed a better fit. It's almost like seeking for the right tango partner, one that can unfold a story - long, rich, with many turns and bends. That Prado Rey that Joao talked about earlier would do the job much better.

This Rasteau (Cote du Rhone Villages) which I tried a few weeks ago in a wine bar downtown Geneva could be a good choice too, even better (in this circumstances only) than his Spanish cousin.