2018 2月 - aVin -アヴァン-長野&南仏ビオワインの販売、卸、輸入

Edgar Degas exhibition in Paris at the Musée d’Orsay until February 25th: a rare occasion to enjoy his striking paintings on women and alcohol.2018/2/15

Beyond his famous ballerinas’ paintings, this exhibition is the occasion to discover several of his paintings revealing the toughness of life at the time.

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For the 100th anniversary of Edgar Degas death( born Hilaire Germain Edgar de Gas), French painter, sculptor, printmaker and photographer, the Orsay Museum pays him a tribute until February 25th with an exceptionnal exhibition combining sketches, charcoal, pastels & red chalks drawings.
The work is presented along with Paul Valéry text “Degas, Danse, Dessin” who was a closed friend of the artist.
The friendship between Degas and Valéry lasting more than twenty years resulted in an essay published by Editions Vollard in 1937, Degas Danse Dessin. Both intimate and universal, it conveys a poetic, fragmentary image of the painter’s personality and his art, and a kind of meditation on the creative process.

If Degas is well known by a large public for his pictorial representations of young ballerinas, confined interiors or his bronze sculptures, others types of work gained mondial recognition and notoriety.
Among them, those depicting women and alcohol, which have earned the esteem of many historians.

The vast majority of women living in the 19th century in Paris were from very poor backgrounds and were finding comfort in cafés, popular dancing halls of the capital.
There, they could drink without fear of judgement, absinthe and wine. A free attitude magnified by Degas in his compositions.

-L'Absinthe-,_par_Edgar_Degas_(1876)

Privileged witness of a fast changing world encompassing strong inegalities and contrasts.
This banker’s son saw Champagne bubbling and endlessly flowing in the National Opera backstage, uper class salons or horse competitions but also captured the despair of an era, and the use of the “green fairy” (refering to absinthe, a liquor made of anise, mint, flowers & leaves extracts) as an anti-depressant and drug for working-class women ( the so-called “grisettes”) loners, milliners and dressmakers.

http://www.musee-orsay.fr/
9h30 to 18h from Tuesday to Sunday
9h30 to 21h45 on Thursday
Closed every Mondays

(source La Revue du Vin de France February 2018)
http://shop.avin.jp/

Today’s pairing2018/2/15

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Today’s pairing, Wild boar piglet stew with prunes and a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Daumen wines 2014~

When it comes to pair a stew dish with wine, tannin should be carefully considered!
Autumn and winter are ideal seasons for cooking game and stewed meat.
During these periods, cooler and more humid, stew, casserole, “estouffade” are very much appreciated.
Rich in antioxidants, iron and sudar, prunes are often used in these kind of recipes.
Prunes from Agen are protected with an IGP(stated geographical origin) since 2002. Others areas also produce prunes but the same appellation cannot be used.
The use of prunes in the kitchen go beyond French borders. In the Maghreb, it is commonly used in lamb tagine( slow-cooking stew). In France it owes its fame to the popular “far breton” or 2far aux pruneaux”, a batter pudding containing prunes.

In stew recipes prunes bring a certain sweetness and smoothness that should be seriously considered when chosing the wine, tannins being rarely happy when they meet sugar. It doesn’t mean red wines shouldn’t be taken in consideration for pairing with stews. However it gives indications on the tannins and balance of the wine you should look for.

For example a wild boar piglet stew with prunes could totally be associated with a full body, heady red wine. It will greatly matches with this powerful dish.

However, it’s necessary to choose a wine with red grenache for main base, alone or blend with cinsault. With this type of cuvée you will have strength of a southern wine and roundness, while tannin sap is avoided. It’ll be more difficult with more tannic grape varieties as mourvedre or cabernet-sauvignon.

For this dish a Châteauneuf-du-Pape with a majority of grenache from a solar year will very nicely to optimize the strength of this stewed dish.
With a young vintage to have a fresh and juicy fruit bringing freshness to the dish!

(source: Olivier Poussier’s article in RVF-December 2017. Olivier Poussier is the world best sommelier).