The ultimate foie gras wine

It was a complete coincidence, I promise. Three Australian sommeliers on the Caterer tasting panel the day London came to a standstill for the England rugby team's victory parade. "As if losing wasn't enough of a humiliation," joked Shumi's Sydney-born Deborah Kemp, arriving late due to the parade-inflicted traffic congestion. Fifteen's Matt Skinner, incidentally, is also an Aussie, while Nahm's Troy Sutton also hails from Sydney.

Antipodean sommeliers and chefs, not to mention waiting staff, have been flooding the capital in recent years and gaining in profile. Hurrah, I say. The Aussies break down barriers like no other folk, which is key when it comes to selling wine - particularly fancy wine with fancy food.

So which wines would these three come up with for foie gras, the focus of this month's tasting? Would they play it safe with traditional match Sauternes, or would the Aussies come over all patriotic and choose something from their own country? We asked our panellists to select a wine from their respective lists to go with the prized liver.

We also asked five top on-trade suppliers to come up with their suggestions, allowing them two wines each. And we asked foie gras Mecca, Club Gascon in London's Clerkenwell, to come up with the goods - foie gras cooked five different ways.

Actually, six courses of foie gras were on offer, but we wimped out after the fifth, burping, as it was, well into the night - reminding ourselves that the Gascons in the foie gras heartland have a gratifyingly low rate of heart disease. In fact, Club Gascon offers foie gras cooked no less than 12 different ways, and diners (mostly men, apparently) rock up regularly for six courses of liver.

For those who don't know the place, Club Gascon serves smaller portions, with diners choosing an average of about six dishes each. There's also a tasting menu, for £55, including wines chosen to accompany each dish. Foie gras always appears on this menu - for example, apple-marbled duck foie gras with vintage balsamic is currently paired with a 2001 Jurançon from Domaine Lahargue.

The wines are chosen by the restaurant's owner, Vincent Labeyrie, who imports the fresh foie gras twice a week from a small producer in Pau, even supplying some British restaurants with it (namely Pied à Terre, Lindsay House and the Capital). If you're interested, contact Comptoir Gascon (020 7608 0851), the restaurant's seriously chic deli that stocks south-western French produce.

So what was on the menu for our tasting? We started with a carpaccio of goose foie gras and spicy vinegar-marinated cherries, followed by PX sherry-marinated and steamed duck foie gras. Next came smoked goose foie gras - or, to be more precise, vine shoot-smoked foie gras cooked in a terrine. Pan-fried duck foie gras followed, served with a fresh grape dressing on a hazelnut biscuit, and a teaspoon filled with ground, roasted hazelnuts. Finally, the cocotte of duck foie gras, cooked in a casserole and dramatically flamb‚d at the table with Armagnac.

The wines

Ultimate Foie Gras Wine

1996 Zind-Humbrecht Rotenberg Vendange Tardive Tokay Pinot Gris, Farr Vintners, 020 7821 2000, £26.50 (75cl)

Runners-up

1999 Château Haut Bernasse Montbazillac, OW Loeb, 020 7234 0385, £7.42 (50cl)

1999 Château Bouscasse, Brumaire, Pacherenc du Vic Bilh, Alain Brumont

Les Caves de Pyrene, 01483 538820, £9.25 (50cl)

Other wines tasted

1995 Barrejats Sauternes, France

Justerini & Brooks, 020 7484 6407, £22.98 (50cl)

1996 Piesporter Domherr Auslese Kesselstatt, Germany

OW Loeb, £10 (75cl)

2000 Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg, Cuv‚e Ste Catherine, Domaine Weinbach, France

Justerini & Brooks, £24.26 (75cl)

2003 Clare Valley Cordon Cut Riesling, Mount Horrocks, Australia

Liberty Wines, £9.17 (37.5cl)

1997 Vin Santo di Capezzana Riserva, Italy

Liberty Wines, £14.62 (37.5cl)

2002 Silver Label Icewine, Inniskillin, Canada

Hallgarten Wines, 01582 722538, £36.77 (37.5cl)

2001 Pellegrino Passito di Pantelleria, Italy

Hallgarten Wines, £5.67 (37.5cl)

1999 Domaine de l'Ancienne Cure, Cuv‚e Abbaye, France

Les Caves de Pyrene, £10.95 (50cl)

2000 I Capitelli, Anselmi, Italy

Enotria Winecellars, 020 8961 4411, £8.42 (37.5cl)

1994 Tokay Pinot Gris, Rolly Gassman, France

Philglas & Swiggot, 020 7924 4494, £18.99 (75cl)

2001 Malbec, Lunlunta, Catena, Argentina

Bibendum, 020 7449 4100, £9.38 (75cl)

All prices quoted are per bottle excluding VAT

The panel

Matt Skinner, head sommelier and wine buyer of Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant; Troy Sutton, head sommelier and wine buyer at Nahm in Belgravia; Deborah Kemp, head sommelier and wine buyer of the newly-opened Shumi restaurant; Ian Milhofer, restaurant manager, sommelier and wine buyer of the Ebury restaurant and bar; Jason McAuliffe, head sommelier and wine buyer of Chez Bruce in Wandsworth; Vincent Labeyrie, owner and wine buyer, Club Gascon, Cellar Gascon and Comptoir Gascon; and Fiona Sims, drinks editor, Caterer & Hotelkeeper.

The verdict

Looking at the line-up, France, predictably, did well with six out of the 14 wines submitted - three of which were from traditional foie gras dating pool, the south-west of France (with good reason, as it turned out). The rest were a multitude of varieties and styles from Germany, Italy, Canada, Argentina and, yes, Australia, though this choice wasn't actually down to one of our Oz sommeliers but from forward-thinking wine supplier Liberty.

We tasted the wines blind first to assess their foie gras-friendliness and all-round deliciousness, and all the wines submitted were deemed good quality. But would they stand up against Club Gascon's multifarious ways with foie gras? Or would they overwhelm the dishes? We were looking for a good all-rounder, something that would tackle foie gras in all its guises - seared, casseroled, flamb‚d, raw, steamed and smoked. We were looking for the ultimate foie gras wine.

And as is the way with these tastings, some cut it, others didn't. Most of the panel - pre-foie gras fest - had singled out the 1995 Sauternes from Barrejats as being a good all-rounder, and the good news is that they weren't far off the mark, though the eventual winner took them slightly by surprise. Even Sutton, who brought the winner, changed his mind after tasting the wines blind, predicting that the Aussie Riesling would win the day.

But first, what were the panellists' initial thoughts on pairing wine with foie gras? "If you choose a sweet wine, it must have enough acidity," advised Labeyrie.

"You need freshness, too," added Milhofer, who was surprised by the number of "real stickies" submitted.

"It's about a combination of weight and acidity," offered Skinner, agreeing with Sutton and putting his money - post blind tasting - on the Aussie contender, Mount Horrocks Cordon Cut 2003 Riesling. "I bet that will surprise," he forecast.

"Even though the Sauternes from Barrejats wasn't my favourite wine there, I think it will dance all the way through," Sutton rightly predicted.

The late-harvest Alsace Tokay Pinot Gris from Zind-Humbrecht did more than dance all the way through; it sang, too, and was declared the winner. "Its acidity is the key here," agreed McAuliffe.

I should point out here that if you are now considering listing a late-harvest Tokay Pinot Gris for your foie gras dishes, quality, levels of acidity and sweetness vary wildly. Zind-Humbrecht is just about as good as it gets - and you pay for it, at £26.50 (excluding VAT) a bottle.

When it came down to it, the Mount Horrocks Cordon Cut Riesling overwhelmed the majority of dishes. So did the vin santo and the passito di Pantelleria. Nice try, though. While the Piesporter, though all agreed it was a good wine, just lost it mostly.

The Malbec never stood a chance. "It was worth a try," shrugged Kemp. "I have chosen young, fruity reds to partner foie gras," offered Labeyrie, in her defence. And the Canadian ice wine? "Sublime," agreed all, "but we'd rather have it on its own."

Notable by its absence was dry oloroso. Our panellists kicked themselves for not bringing this much-underrated sherry style which, all reckoned, could have been a perfect match for each course (Lustau makes a good one, for future reference). The nutty, caramelised flavours and cleansing alcohol would have lifted each mouthful, reckoned the panel. But, hey ho, that's the way these tastings go. "Next time," promised everyone.

What was the point to all of this? "We've learnt that you can't just pick any sweet wine to go with foie gras, so it's important to offer an extensive list of sweet wines in a restaurant - not just the stickies," summed up Skinner.