The big match

When the French eat, they always have wine, so when a leading Burgundy producer wanted to present its wares to buyers, two top chefs prepared a special dinner to accompany them. Janet Harmer reports.

When Château de Meursault, one of Burgundy's leading wine producers, wanted to present its wines to some of France's leading buyers, including many restaurateurs, it did so on a platform that matched its top wines to some of the country's finest food.

Two of France's most enduring and most respected three-Michelin-starred chefs, Emile Jung and Jacques Lameloise, came together to prepare a six-course dinner for 130 guests in the Ancienne Cuverie - or Old Vat Room - of the 17th-century château.

For both chefs, a knowledge of wine is of great importance. Jung, who at 60 has owned Au Crocodile in Strasbourg for 30 years, firmly believes that food and wine go hand-in-hand. "It is not common to drink wine by itself in France, but when we have food we always have wine," he says. Along with his wife Monique, Jung swiftly turned the restaurant into the best-known and most lauded in the Alsace region of France. Michelin stars followed - one in 1972, two in 1975 and three in 1989. Now, the 70-seat restaurant employs 40 staff, including 18 chefs.

Similarly, Lameloise ensures he has an understanding of the wines that come from the vineyards surrounding his restaurant, which is housed in a former 16th-century coaching inn in the little town of Chagny in Burgundy. Bought by his grandfather Pierre (who trained under Escoffier at the Savoy in London), the Hotel du Commerce, as it was then known, was renamed Lameloise by his father, Jean, in 1960.

Luxury bedrooms

Today the business has 15 luxury bedrooms, an 80-seat restaurant and employs 20 chefs. Lameloise has no intention of opening more restaurants as other three-Michelin-star chefs in France have done. "The ones who have expanded operate solely in the restaurant arena," says Lameloise. "With the hotel and restaurant together I'm as busy as I could be. My prime job is to cook. I don't just want to be about the bottom line."

Now aged 54, Lameloise became the youngest chef in France to achieve three Michelin stars when the guide book awarded him its top honour in 1979, when he was 32.

Once the chefs had decided who was cooking which course, they composed their dishes and sent details to château manager and winemaker Jean-Claude Mitanchey, who selected the best wines to accompany each course. Being responsible for 60 hectares of some of the most valuable vineyards in the Côte de Beaune, covering the communes of Aloxe-Corton, Savigny-les-Beaune, Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet - each with its own unique soil and microclimate - the choice of wines available to him was vast. However, he had to consider which wines were at their peak and ascertain that the dishes would match the grape varieties used to make great Burgundy wines - Pinot Noir for the red and Chardonnay for the white.

On the whole, Mitanchey was pleased with the results. The first course of lightly scrambled eggs combined with lobster and topped with a chantilly of potatoes, created by Lameloise, worked well with the Château de Meursault Premier Cru 1998. And both the 1990 and 1992 vintages of Château de Meursault successfully partnered Jung's second course, a terrine of veal and duck foie gras layered with carrots and a jelly of Meursault, with a garnish of tomato concasse, baby broad beans and fennel cooked in saffron.

Less successful was the pairing of Lameloise's third course of a whole slowly roasted tomato, with its centre scooped out and filled with a combination of frogs' legs and freshwater crayfish. The thin slice of oven-dried tomato on top and the parsley emulsion both provided intense flavours which clashed with the wines, 1992 and 1994 vintages from Puligny Montrachet Premier Cru Champ Canet. "I chose wines which would match the frogs' legs and crayfish as I thought they would be the most dominant part of the dish, but this wasn't so," says Mitanchey. "The tomato was too acidic. A younger, more acidic wine would have been better, maybe a Château de Mersault Premier Cru 1998."

Happier with choice

Mitanchey was a lot happier with his choice of wine for the rest of the menu, including the Beaune-Grèves 1995 and Pommard Clos des Epenots 1993 served with the main course of pressed duck, which Jung explained was a dish requiring experience and exactness. After roasting the duck rare, he removed all the breast and leg meat, placing the bones in a duck press. The bones were then cooked with some local red wine, reduced and passed. Blood pressed from the bones was added, along with some foie gras, to create a sauce of extreme intensity. Accompanying the dish was a rosti of artichokes and cèpes and a celery purée.

The cheese accompanying the Clos Du Château 1989 and the Clos de Vougeot 1998 (Château de Marsannay) included some perfectly ripe Roquefort and Brie de Meaux and two Burgundian cheeses, Epoisses and a goats' cheese.

To accompany the dessert, Lameloise's mousse-style gâteau of three different chocolates - dark, milk and white - accompanied by a caramelised orange jus and vanilla ice-cream, Mitanchey chose a Beaune-Grèves 1974 and was pleased with the result. "I knew chocolate was going to be very difficult, but I thought the Beaune-Grèves was superb," he said. "For a 27-year-old wine, it was excellent."

Dinner at the Château de Meursault, 24 September 2001

Meursault Du Château 1999

Soupière d'oeufs brouilles au homard chantilly de pommes de terre (Jacques Lameloise) Château de Meursault Premier Cru 1998

Quasi de veau et foie gras de canard en gelée de Meursault (Emile Jung)
Château de Meursault 1990
Château de Meursault 1992

Tomates mi-confites aux grenouilles et écrevisses à l'emulsion de persil (Jacques Lameloise)
Puligny Montrachet Premier Cru Champ Canet 1994
Puligny Montrachet Premier Cru Champ Canet 1992

Canard à la presse, croutille d'artichauts et cèpes mousseline de celery (Emile Jung)
Beaune-Grèves 1995 Magnum
Pommard Clos des Epenots 1993 Magnum

Plateau de fromages
Clos Du Château 1989 Magnum
Clos Du Vougeot 1998 (Château de Marsannay)

Gâteau chocolat aux trios saveurs, jus d'orange caramélisé, crème glacée aux gousses de vanille (Jacques Lameloise)
Beaune-Grèves 1974