Chablis; One of France's Finest White Wines and Chablis the Town.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 


Chablis Grand Cru.
Photograph courtesy of Dale Cruse.
www.flickr.com/photos/dalecruse/8706768713/

Chablis AOP is a dry, crisp, white wine produced from Chardonnay grapes around the town of Chablis in the department of Yonne, Burgundy that since 1-1-2016 is part of the super region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

The town of Chablis, despite its famous name and history, is still a small French town; albeit an exceptionally pretty one.  If you are driving to Chablis, remember it is a small town. You may quickly drive through the town and be back out among the grapevines before you realize you have exited the town. We did that!  We, of course, did turn around and drive back. In the town center, we found an inviting looking restaurant to sample the local cuisine, and, again, of course, to order a bottle of Chablis.

The entrance to Chablis
www.flickr.com/photos/jamesonfink/13187892615/
                                
Despite its size, Chablis and its immediate area have quite a number of hotels, B & Bs, restaurants, and, of course, wine shops. You may also choose to stay in the towns of Avallone or Auxerre; both are about 20 km (12 miles) from Chablis.  We stayed in an excellent hotel in Avallone. The hotel is built on the sight of a post house where Napoleon I had once watered his horse!  Auxerre has many more hotels, but none whose claim to fame competes with Napoleon and his horse.
   
Vineyards in Chablis

 
In books on pairing wines, Chablis has always been one of the wines recommended to accompany oysters.  (The other favored choices are Muscadet, which comes from the area close to the city of Nantes in the Pay du Loire, and, of course,  Champagne).  Chablis and oysters are an interesting coincidence. The vineyards around Chablis are all set above an ancient limestone landmass with many fossilized oysters. Those old oysters must have spread the word, and so the wheel of life goes on.

Choosing a Chablis

French Chablis is very different from most of the New World versions I have tried. However, I am not an educated wine maven, and with hundreds of producers and four appellations when we arrived in Chablis, I needed help.  Luckily, in the restaurant we had chosen, there was a friendly and knowledgeable sommelier, and I had an up-to-date book in French wines. We discussed our interest in Chablis along with our budget. The sommelier suggested a reasonably priced wine that turned out to be fabulous. This was a Chablis from one of the lower Chablis appellations, but good sommeliers know a great deal more than just the names, the price, and appellations.  More about Chablis appellations and the information they contribute later. While we were enjoying our lunch and our wine we overheard the couple on the table next to us discussing their dissatisfaction with a much more expensive Chablis.  They had chosen a top of the line Chablis from the wine-list, it had been their own choice.  As with other wines, so with Chablis, the price does not guarantee any more than how much you will pay. More about the different Chablis Crus and grades toward the end of this post.
     
Chablis on French menus:
  
Cassolette d'Escargots au Chablis – A dish of snails served with a Chablis based sauce.
   
Bottle and glass of Chablis
www.flickr.com/photos/x1brett/46088122924/

Filet de Raie au ChablisSkate, the fish, sautéed with Chablis. In the UK, skate is mostly seen when deep-fried in batter and sold in fish and chip shops. However, in France, skate will be served in the finest restaurants. In French kitchens skate be may be baked, poached or sautéed, but never deep-fried. Dishes with skate will be served hot with a butter or wine sauce, as skate tends to jell when cold.

Paupiettes au Saumon Sauce Chablis – Rolled filets of salmon cooked in a Chablis based sauce.
 
Poire au Vin de Chablis - Pears cooked in Chablis. 
   
Chablis vineyards
www.flickr.com/photos/lreivilo/2741453629/
  
Sauté de Queues d'Écrevisses, Brunoise de Petits Légumes au Chablis  - Crayfish tails sautéed with Chablis and served with finely cut young vegetables.  Brunoise is one of the important sizes in the French world of chopped fruits and vegetables, it denotes a cut about 2 mm (0.08”) thick.

Chablis has a number of unique local dishes that may also be on your menu. They include Jambon Chablis, ham cooked in Chablis, and a locally made Andouillette AAAAA sausage.
    
N.B.: When a sommelier or a wine-list only offer wines that are above your budget, then that is the time to choose a house wine. Most French restaurants, outside of some of the more exclusive,  have house wines that have been chosen with their regular diners in mind.  House wines will be approved by the sommelier and in smaller restaurants by the owner and the chef; the wine will be priced to keep the regulars returning.

French Chablis is made from very close to 100% French Chardonnay grape with a taste that is quite different from most New World Chardonnays that I have tried. Maybe it is the barrels, maybe its science, maybe it is the terroir. (Worry not, I will not get into terroir here).  Whatever the reason, French Chablis is different from other French wines made with Chardonnay grapes.
 
The town of Chablis and some twelve villages linked to her have festivals and fetes almost every month of the year. These celebrations are not only about the Chablis wines, though a sizeable number are.  The festivities include concerts, artist’s festivals and more.
   
The Sereign River flows through  Chablis
   
Finding the dates of Chablis linked festivals and fetes.
      
You may check the dates and places of wine and food celebrations throughout France when still in your home country through the local French Government Tourist Office. For Chablis tourism the town’s visitor information website is www.chablis.net.  If you are already in Chablis, the tourism information office is on the town’s main street:  1 Rue du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny.
      
Ask the Chablis tourist information office for a map of the town and a map of their Chablis  Route des Vins, their Chablis wine road.  Then request information on the town’s and surrounding communities’ celebrations and farmers’ markets.  With all that information, you have the perfect way to explore the area, including stopping off for wine tastings and joining in the celebrations that coincide with your visit.  The Chablis Route des Vins also passes quite a number of restaurants; choose one to enjoy lunch or dinner.
     
The most important wine fete in Chablis itself is the Fête des Vins de Chablis, the fete of Chablis wines. This fete it is held on the fourth Saturday and Sunday in October.  Additionally, the entire department of Yonne, which includes Chablis, celebrates its many different wines on the first Saturday in May. The town of Chablis, of course, will be doing its part.
            
Seeing the town of Chablis

Inside Chablis, you do not need a car. Just park and walk around the town.  Walk along streets that were laid down in the late middle ages with some of the original houses remaining.  Visit its two churches, one of which dates back to the twelfth century the other to the 18th. Both churches were rebuilt in the 19th century. There is also a 12th-century synagogue that was rebuilt some ten years ago.
      
There is a farmers’ market in Chablis every Sunday morning.  Given a bright summer’s day, you may want to pass on a traditional restaurant lunch and buy a chilled bottle of Chablis, a baguette and some of Burgundy’s magnificent cheeses. Find a road that takes you to the banks of the River Sereign that runs through the town and find a place for a picnic; enjoy.

Hiking in Chablis,
   
If you enjoy hiking, then consider joining one of the hikes that are organized by the Chablis hikers association, the Association des Sentiers Chablisiens  The association organizes  hikes  in the country around Chablis  twice a week for one and a half to two hours. Their French language website is:

Google and Bing translate translate the French very clearly.

Chablis appellations.

Four Chablis appellations set the boundaries of the different Chablis wines. The Chablis Appellations were created to differentiate the quality of the Chablis wines produced in each area.  Like the rest of France’s appellations and crus, they were set in 1935. They have been part of French law in 1946. However, since 1946, not one single Chablis wine, produced by any Chablis vintner, has had its quality grading changed! None are officially better or worse?
 
There are four Chablis appellations:
  
Appellation Chablis Grand Cru Contrôlée -   Considered the very, very best of all the Chablis wines.
    
Appellation Chablis Premier Cru Contrôlée - Nearly the very best.
   
Aging bottles of Chablis
     
Appellation Chablis Contrôlée -  A snippet below the nearly the very best.
  
Appellation Petit Chablis Contrôlée Chablis -  A little below the one below the nearly the very best.
        
Petit Chablis
www.flickr.com/photos/dalecruse/9201791579/
    
I have listed these appellations, tongue in cheek, as I certainly do not know why a single producer's wine has not been recognized for having improved or worsened in over 70 years!  However, the wine mavens know and the caves, the wine stores know, and their prices reflect the value. I also know that if you see a Chablis Grand Cru at a low price, leave it!  There is no good top of the line Chablis wines at a discount price.
    
Other great white wines from Burgundy are also made with 100% Chardonnay grapes. These other wines have their own names and appellations. Despite having the same grape in the bottle, these other wines also have, by the different soils, local micro-climates, magic, science or terroir have different tastes.  These additional 100% Chardonnay wines include famous names like Pouilly-Fuissé AOP, Chassagne-Montrachet, AOP, Corton-Charlemagne AOP, Meursault AOP, Montrachet AOP, and many others.

For more on all the wines from Burgundy see the website:


-----------------------

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010,  2011, 2012, 2015, 2019.

---------------------------

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Sauce Hollandaise. The Mother of All Sauces.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 


    
Sauce Hollandaise and asparagus.
www.flickr.com/photos/donutgirl/6879640672/

Sauce Hollandaise
A mother sauce is a sauce that is used as a base for the creation of other sauces.
Those new sauces are her children.

Sauce Hollandaise is a sauce like no other, its origins go back at least four-hundred years, but it is still the sauce of choice for tens of dishes in Western cuisine. A mother sauce means that the sauce’s recipe will be used to create other sauces, those sauces then become her children. Mother sauces with Sauce Hollandaise include were first clearly defined by the Chef Antonin Carême in the early 1800s.

Sauce Hollandaise will be served either alongside or as part of many dishes that include vegetables, fish and egg dishes both hot and cold The recipe for Sauce Hollandaise is simple, it calls for egg yolks, melted butter, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

(BTW Sauce Hollandaise has nothing to do with Holland. In the early stages of French Haute Cuisine countries in the 1800s were being named any real connection was rarely required and that includes Sauce Español, nothing to do with Spain and Sauce Allemande, nothing to do with Germany).
  
Smoked salmon with rocket and Sauce Hollandaise


Sauce Hollandaise on French Menus:

Les Belles Asperges Blanches Juste Cuites Parfumées au Citron et Accompagnées de la Classique Sauce Hollandaise – Beautiful white asparagus, just lightly cooked, scented with lemon, and served with the classic Hollandaise sauce. (Asparagus, should be like the best pasta, al dente: in French perfectly cooked is à point).
  
Lobster and pancetta over English muffin
topped with eggs and Sauce Hollandaise.
www.flickr.com/photos/edsel_/7357879598/
    
Hollandaise sauce is my favorite sauce to accompany warm, fresh, white, or green asparagus. For more about asparagus in France see the post: Asperges en La Cuisine Française – Asparagus in French cuisine.
 
Tronçon de Turbot Label Rouge Poché Sauce Hollandaise ou Grillé Sauce Béarnaise.  A wide cut of farm-raised, Label Rouge turbot, the fish, served either poached with a Sauce Hollandaise or grilled and served with a Sauce Béarnaise.


The Label Rouge, the red label of quality.

The Label Rouge, the red label, is a trusted, respected, and well controlled French government label of quality; the label may be awarded to all natural and manufactured food products with the exception of wine which has its labeling regulation. The red label turbot offered above comes from a French sea-farm; fish-farms that wish to apply for the label rouge are continuously checked for their farming methods. Those controls include the fish’s sanitary conditions; the food fed to the fish, and very importantly, the density of the fish in their cages. Of equal importance are the controls that prevent these fish from having any antibiotics and or hormones in their food or environment.
   
Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and spinach
www.flickr.com/photos/ultrakml/8192609350/

Filets de Porc Grillée aux Champignons avec Legumes, Sauce Hollandaise et Croquettes – Grilled fillets of pork and button mushrooms served with vegetables and accompanied by Sauce Hollandaise and croquet potatoes.

Smoked Haddock with Sauce Hollandaise.
www.flickr.com/photos/goforchris/26072923290/
        
Dos de Merlu à l' Unilatéral, Sauce Hollandaise – A thick cut of hake, the fish, cooked à l'unilatéral, on the skin side only, and served with Sauce Hollandaise.    

 N. B. Cooking fish à l'unilatéral is considered the best way to cook thick filets of fish. Cooking slowly and only through the skin side of the fish allows the fish to cook through evenly;  this method eliminates much of the tastes of the cooking oil as would cooking the fish on the open side of the filet.

Sauce Bearnaise, the child of Hollandaise.

Among the many sauces developed from Sauce Hollandaise it is Sauce Béarnaise that really stands out.  This child of Sauce Hollandaise has itself become a mother sauce with many many grandchildren.
   
Steak Frites with  Sauce Bearnaise.
www.flickr.com/photos/flem007_uk/3625173675/

Unlike Sauce Hollandaise where its creator is disputed Sauce Béarnaise is accepted as the creation of the chef and restaurateur Jean Louis Françoise Collinet.  Collinet created Sauce Béarnaise as a child of Sauce Hollandaise; Sauce Béarnaise is Sauce Hollandaise with the lemon replaced by white wine vinegar, shallots, chervil and tarragon. Collinet is also remembered, by some, as the chef who, in 1837,  created soufflé potatoes. The story of soufflé potatoes will be left for another day,
     
Sauce Foyot, also called Sauce Valois.

A sauce whose whose creator I cannot find took Sauce Béarnaise and created Sauce Foyot, also called Sauce ValoisSauce Foyot  is Sauce Béarnaise with the addition of the glazed cooking juices of  roasted meat.

Sauce Choron.
  
The chef Alexandre Étienne Choron (1837 - 1924), took Sauce Béarnaise and created Sauce Choron. Sauce Choron is Sauce Béarnaise with added tomatoes.
     
European sea bass cooked “en croute”, in a pastry cover,
and served with Sauce Choron
www.flickr.com/photos/115081708@N03/31782191597/
    
Sauce Palois.
  
Then, yet another chef whose name I cannot find took Sauce Béarnaise and created Sauce Palois.  Sauce Palois is Sauce Béarnaise with the tarragon replaced with mint; that makes Sauce Palois a very popular sauce to serve with lamb.

And the question remains, who created Sauce Hollandaise?
The answer may lie in the book noted below:
   
Le Vrai Cuisinier François, 
The Real French Chef.
by
François Pierre de La Varenne (1618 - 1678)
The creator of Sauce Hollandaise is disputed but a recipe for a very similar sauce using vinegar, rather than lemon juice, does appear in this 17th century French cookbook: Le Vrai Cuisinier François.
     
The front page of the original edition
Photograph courtesy of the  Biblotech National de France.

Go on-line to the Biblotech National de France, http://gallica.bnf.fr and there in Le Vrai Cuisinier François,  by François Pierre de La Varenne, published in 1654
on pages 254 and 255 you may read, as I did, the recipe for Asperges à la Sauce Blanche, asparagus with a white sauce.  





You may download the whole book in PDF  without payment, by keeping to a few simple rules. 

-----------------------

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2012, 2016, 2019.

---------------------------

Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases
on
French menus?

Just add the word, words, or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" (best when including the inverted commas), and search with Google or Bing,  Behind the French Menu’s links, include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 450 articles that include over 4,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations.

----------------------------

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