Thursday, September 10, 2020

Wine and Food of Le Tour 2020 Stage 12

From the race director:  The longest stage of the 2020 Tour will first take the riders on the roads of the Vienne and Haute-Vienne areas. But it’ll be in Corrèze that the most ambitious could give it a go on the final difficulty, the Suc au May that shows up on the course when the legs will be heavy. 

Chauvigny Specialties: joue de bœuf à la chauvinoise (beef), trout farm, sorrel soup, Turban squash soup, black pudding of Poitou, green garlic goat, broyé of Poitou, dame blanche of Poitou, Pouligny Saint-Pierre (cheese).
Sarran Correze specialties:  Fario trouts, Maugein accordions, knives of Corrèze, slates of Travassac, Le Tanneur leather, Sothys cosmetics, Salers liquour, Denoix distillery, straw wine “Le Miel des Muses”, chestnut, strawberries of Beaulieu, mushroom and truffles, walnuts, Limousin AOP apples, veal, beef…


The stage: After some back and forth, the break of the day: Nils Politt, Inanol Erviti, Luisle Sanchez, Max Walscheid, Kasper Asgreen, and Mathieu Burgaudeau with 115 kilometers to go, they had just under two minutes.
Le Tour has all sorts of longest stage trivia today: Today it’s the longest stage with 218km. It’s the only stage over 200km in the 107th Tour de France. It’s the first time ever (since 1903) that only one stage is more than 200km long. In the last ten editions of the Tour, there was an average between 5 and 6 stages longer than 200km and up to 8 in 2017 and 2019.
Never the longest stage of the Tour has been so short! The previous record was 222.5km from Embrun to Salon-de-Provence in 2017.
The longest stage of this year’s Tour is more than twice as short as the longest stage in the history of the Tour: 482km was the length of the Les Sables d’Olonne to Bayonne contested every year from 1919 to 1924. Past WW2, the longest stage was Clermont-Ferrand to Fontainebleau, 359km in 1967.
One hundred kilometers to go and the gap was hovering around two minutes.
Rather remarkable field art:
Le Tour's race center writer was in fine form: The breakaway is made of tall riders at the exception of Mathieu Burgaudeau who is going for the KOM points at each climb. The 21 year-old Frenchman who is the second youngest of this Tour de France after Maxime Chevalier is 1.68m high while Walscheid is 1.99m, Politt and Asgreen are 1.92m, Erviti is 1.89m and Sanchez is 1.86m. It makes an average of 1.88m while the average height of the 176 starters in Nice was 1.80m.

Ahead:
Sixty five kilometers to go and the gap was down to one minute. Fifty to go and it had dropped to about thirty seconds.
As the bunch sped up, word that Sam Bennett had been dropped. That would be incentive for Bora to keep pushing in hopes of getting points for Sagan in the green jersey competition. With 43 kilometers to go, his group was already two minutes back. Quickly, the peloton would start picking up riders from the break. 
Also, more field art.
Next to launch, Benoot and Andersen. They would be caught by Soler and he would crest the Croix du Pey. Behind him, several small chase groups and then the peloton, with the grupetto way behind. Soler would soon have company. With thirty six kilometers to go, it was Maximilian Schachmann, Kragh Andersen, Tiesj Benoot, Marc Hirschi, Pacher and Marc Soler in the lead with a 35 second gap.
There was a larger chasing group in between the and the peloton. 
Jumping from the front group, Hirschi.
It was time for the groups all over the road portion of the race.
Jumping from the peloton, Alaphilippe, as Sagan was struggling to maintain contact.
Twenty five kilometers to go and Hirschi was still solo up front. 
Taking off from his group, Alaphilippe. He would keep trying to get away.
Ten kilometers to go and Hirschi had forty seconds over the combined chasing group behind. It was looking like a very well deserved stage win for Hirschi.

The wine: Laurent Cazottes Wild Quince Liqueur
Time for the annual bottle of Cazottes. This year: quince!
From Wine & Spirits: Since 1998, Laurent Cazottes has been making what are possibly the most painstakingly crafted liquors you can buy. He begins by growing his fruit biodynamically on his estate in Villeneuve-sur-Vère, in the southeast of Bordeaux. Then the fruit is hand-harvested, peeled, cut and seeded. A portion of the prepared fruit is crushed, fermented and distilled to make an eau-de-vie, while the remaining fruit is steeped in grape eau-de-vie for at least six months. Then the two are blended together to make an incredibly rich, clear snapshot of orchard fruit. The Cédrat (citron or ethrog) is beautifully golden in color, fragrant with sweet and fl oral citrus peel, and redolent of both candied and fresh citrus. The Quince is amazing—tart, bright and pure. These are two liqueurs you’ll want to enjoy simply, on their own.

The food: The local tourist site suggests this rather appealing recipe:

Douillons aux Pommes du Limousin (Limousin Apples and Foie Gras in Puff Pastry)

Recipe (serves 4) by Charlou Reynal from the book "La Pomme du Limousin"
Ingredients: 4 Limousin apples - 250g duck or goose foie gras (semi-cooked) - 250g pure butter puff pastry - 1 whole egg beaten with 3cl of water – salt and ground white pepper.
Peel and deseed the apples. Make the base straight and stable, then cut a "top hat" of about a quarter of the height of the apple preserving the stalk. Hollow out some of the apple with a vegetable scoop. Season the inside of the apple with salt and pepper. Dice the foie gras into medium-sized pieces, place inside the apple, then place the "top hat" back on. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark7/8 or 425-450°F. On a lightly floured kitchen surface, roll out the puff pastry into four squares measuring 18cm (7in) square. Brush the pastry with egg, then place the apple in the centre of the pastry square. Pull up the pastry corners around the apple and press the corners firmly together with your fingers. Brush the pastry with egg and place in the oven for 25 minutes. Serve hot.

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1 comment:

  1. Dr. PablitoSeptember 10, 2020 at 9:55 AM

    That's quite a recipe. Don't think I'll be making that one soon.

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