Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Wine & Food of le Tour 2021, Stage 17: Muret to Saint Lary Soulal Col du Portet

Where are we? Spending more time in the Pyrenees.

Muret: A suburb of Toulouse. Le Tour has a park for us to visit: Clément Ader Park
Created on the initiative of Vincent Auriol, then mayor of Muret in 1925, the park is a tribute to Clément Ader, Muret-born pioneer of aviation and inventor of the first flying machine, the Eole. It is a testimony to aviation, whether national or international, as evidenced by the commemorative steles that adorn the park. It has been listed as a Historical Monument since 1999.
The Envolée d'Icare statue dominates the Clément Ader park. In this park there are also other sculpted works: The stele of peace, Crossing the Atlantic and Crossing the Mediterranean... These aerosteles were built in honour of Louis Blériot, who crossed the English Channel, Roland Garros who flew over the Mediterranean, Nungesser, Coli and Lindbergh who attempted, with or without success, to cross the Atlantic Ocean

Saint Lary Soulal Col du Portet: Le Tour has a suggestion I would not be able to resist: House of the bear The House of the bear invites you to discover the history of the most fascinating symbol of Pyrenean wildlife and heritage. An animated exhibition (audio spots) and a game of footprint discovery are offered to families. You start by learning to recognise the footprints of the different animals of the Pyrenees. Then we move on to practical work in order to create footprint casts. The highlight of the visit is the Bingo bear in its den.

Le Tour specialties: 
Muret: Le Tour lists none
Saint Lary Soulal Col du Portet: Black Bigorre pork, spit cake, garbure, etc

Christian Prudhomme says: The Tour resumes from the bottom of the Pyrenees to face them differently with this stage that has two faces, with a big chain ring on over 100 kilometres before taking on three major obstacles in a row: Peyresourde, Val Louron-Azet and to finish off, the 16-km climb at an average gradient close to 9% of the unforgiving Col du Portet. Big efforts required for what promises to be quite a show.

The stage: Up and away for Bastille Day.
The break of the day:
With one hundred kilometers to go, their gap was around eight minutes.
At the sprint point, contested well after the break had gone through, 9 points to Matthews, 8 to Cavendish, so no real change in the green jersey competition.
Attacking from the bunch were Poels, Quintana, Gesbert and Latour, in search of polka dot jersey points. They got a small gap, but could not hold it, though Latour stayed away. 
It was quite lovely. As they continues, both the peloton and the break grew smaller, with only Perez, Turgis and Godon remaining in the front group.
Meanwhile: On the road: On the col du Portet, the lead group continued to shrink. Remaining were: Tadej Pogacar, Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates), Sepp Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Richard Carapaz, Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers), Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation), Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Sergio Higuita, Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-Nippo), Ben O’Connor (Ag2r-Citröen), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Dylan Teuns, Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious). It would grow smaller as they continued to climb.
At ten kilometers to go, Perez had 1:40 to the yellow jersey group, with Godon in between.
Perez would be caught and passed after an attack by Pogacar upped the speed. He would bring a group, but then attacked again. Staying with him, Vingegaard and Carapaz. That might very well be our final podium in Paris.
Pogacar would keep attacking, but was not losing his companions. Eventually, after looking weak, an attack by Carapaz. Pogacar would stay with him. As they got closer, Vingegaard would catch them. Riding away for the stage win, Pogacar.
Stage:



GC:


The wine:  Domaine de Souch Jurancon Cuvee de Joe Dressner 2010
This was a joy.
This is what the team at Chambers Street Wines have to say: Run don't walk, this is just an extra-ordinary bottle of sweet wine, at a fantastic price. Joe Dressner, the famous and very-missed importer who helped introduce to America some of the most soulful European vignerons, imported Domaine de Souch for a number of years. As a tribute after he passed away in 2011, Madame Yvonne Hegoburu selected three superb barrels of her remarkable cuvée Marie-Kattalin (a 100% Petit Manseng grown on a plot called La Palombière, richer in red clay bringing more concentration to the berries) still in aging. These barrels, which were showing more depth and concentration, tasting almost like a Vendange Tardive (a rarely used special mention in Jurançon for the latest picks), were kept a little longer to age for a total of 18 months. Now 10 years old, the wine is barely showing any sign of evolution! It tastes so fresh, with an explosion of tropical fruit, ilang ilang, lily, dried apricot and yellow plum. The palate shows some herbal notes as well, especially dried lemon verbena, orange blossom and saffron. It will be very hard to guess the real sweetness of the wine as the balance with the quince-like acidity is thrilling. This is a real treat, you can still keep 20 years at least - the wine will probably take more and more white truffle note! A special one, to sip by itself or enjoy with a confit rhubarb and wild strawberry almond pie  or a kumquat and alfonso mango soufflé

The food: Ah, yes, our fine fried the spit cake returns. From my post last year: You can only see spit cake listed so many times before you need to find out more, The BBC tells me that: Made by pouring layers of batter on a rotating conical-shaped mould over an open fire, the cake on a spit, called le gâteau à la broche in French, is a typical Eastern European recipe. But according to legend, when Napoleon's soldiers were withdrawing from their invasion of Russia in 1812, they brought it back with them to France. There, the recipe had been transmitted orally, with no written record of the original version. Although the cake is considered rare, according to Slow Food, the tradition is alive and well in two French regions: Hautes-Pyrénées and Aveyron.

(serves 120 people)

Ingredients:120 eggs 3kg sugar 3kg flour 3kg butter 2 litres rum2  cups Ricard While the fire is being prepared, mix the egg yolks with half the sugar. Add the rum and Ricard, and then fold in the flour. Stir in the melted butter. Separately, beat the egg whites, adding the remaining sugar once soft peaks form. Continue beating until they look like ‘snow’, and then combine with the yolk-sugar mixture until a deep yellow dough is formed.Cover the big, conical-shaped wooden mould with baking paper and place it on a spit in front of the fire, turning it constantly. After about an hour, begin gently pouring the dough on it. Continue adding the dough and turning the spit for about five hours.
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