Friday, July 19, 2019

Wine & Food of LeTour 2019: Stage 13: Pau


Where are we? Pau: Le Tour speaks for many of us when it says: Almost every year, the Tour de France stops in Pau, and in the process, takes its quarters in Palais Beaumont, where the pressroom and the “permanence” are usually set. Yet few of the journalists flocking in the superb Belle Époque building really know about its history. In 1878, the town of Pau purchased the Beaumont Park and then mayor Henri Falsans decided to build a Winter Palace, conceived by architect Emile Betrand. Inaugurated in 1899, the palace included a palm-tree glasshouse with a sophisticated metal frame, an indoor promenade, four restaurants and cafés, a theatre, several private lounges and a casino. In 1928, the palace was in decay and was transformed into a municipal casino, designed by Georges Wybo, who also monitored the construction of the casinos of Deauville and Cannes: the glasshouse was demolished.
In 2000, thanks to mayor André Labarrère, the palace was totally restored by architect François Lombard. It retained its outside aspect but was turned into a Congress Hall and renamed Palais Beaumont. The casino was preserved in the Eastern wing of the building and exotics trees were planted to recall the days of the palm-tree orchard of the 1900s. The congress hall has now become a major venue for conferences, meetings, salons and shows. It is ideally placed in the heart of a green park with an exceptional view on the Pyrenees, only a few yards away from the town centre. It has a capacity of 500 to 800 persons in the 8,500 sq. metres of its luminous halls and rooms.

 Specialties: garbure (soup), poule au pot (hen in the pot), foie gras, magret and other dishes derived from duck and goose, honey, coucougnettes du Vert Galant (almond chocolate sweets), Verdier chocolates, Francis Miot jam, le « Russe » (The Russian, almond cake with praline), ossau-iraty (cheese), wines (Jurançon, Madiran, Pacherenc).

  

The stage: Time to time trial. Oh Tony Martin, as I see you passed by Chad Haga, I miss your glory TT years. Apparently he has been told to take it easy, as he is not domestique duty for the rest of the race.


 

 Our early leader was Asgreen and he would hold that for a long time. Looking like he was going to catch him, Wout Van Aert had a horrible looking crash, clipping the banner. He would be taken away by ambulance. Right behind him, deGendt who would do it, 19 seconds ahead of Asgreen. 

  

News from LeTour that: Team Jumbo-Visma informed that "unfortunately, Wout van Aert has to abandon the race after his crash. He is conscious and has a flesh wound at his right upper leg."
Also crashing, but not on camera: Schachmann. He would finish, clearly in pain.
Along the road:

  

On they went, with the lead riders hitting the course. DeGendt was maintaining his lead, but several riders were very close. On course:


This could be very close. In with a provisional best: Geraint Thomas at 35:14.
And, wow, he did it. Winning the stage and keeping his yellow jersey! 

 Stage:


 GC:
The wine: Domaine Elian Da Ros,Chante Coucou 2010
Terroirs says: The Côtes du Marmandais is one of south west France's lesser known appellation immediately east of Bordeaux. Back in the 70’s Elian da Ros’ father was a farmer who grew tomatoes, cereals and tobacco and who also had a small vineyard. The grapes were then sent to the local coop. At a very early age Elian dreamt of being a vigneron and producing his own wine. It is then at the tender age of 14 that he went on to study viticulture and oenology at the local school.
From 1992 to 1997 Élian learned his profession at the emblematic domaine Zind-Humbrecht, in Alsace. "Léonard Humbrecht was my master and remains it", he declares. As he came back to his father's vineyard in 1997 in the village of Cocumont, Élian set out to work in a different manner and applied the skills he learned. He first of all built a cellar in order to make his own wine. 1998 saw his first vintage. The estate now covers 22 hectares on slope of gravely soil and calcareous clay. The vineyard is run in a biodynamic manner since 2002 and Da Ros explains that all the small details matter in the vineyard as well as in the cellar. The benefits of his low-yield non-interventionist approach are evident in his elegant, uncommon, tough beautiful organic wines. In the cellar the respect of the grapes is paramount. Elian believes in attending them in a gentle manner so that the resulting wines express the terroir where they come from along with the uniqueness and characteristics of each vintage. His wines are full of energy with a magical elegance. No one before Élian da Ros has ever made outstanding Marmandais wines: it hasn't existed. Now it does.


The food: Le Russe cake, from Celine's Cuisine
• For the almond– meringue cookie
• 5 tbsp Almond meal• 5 tbsp Powder sugar• 2 tbsp flour
• 5 white eggs• 2 tbsp sugar• 1 pinch salt• For the halzebut cream• 1 C heavy Cream
• ½ cup sugar• 10 tsp soft butter• 1 C raw Halzenut• ½ cup sugar• Topping• Powder sugarPreheat the oven at 285 FIn a large and deep bowl, mix the almond meal, powdered sugar, and flour. Set aside.Beat the white eggs with salt then add the sugar and beat until they are very firm. Little by little with a spatula mix the almond/sugar/flour into the white eggs beaten. Be gentle trying no to break the white eggs.Cover the cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread on it a thin layer of the mixture. Bake for 15 minutes. The cookie must be soft. Set aside to cool.In a food processor powder the Hazelnuts. In a saucepan add the Hazelnuts then the sugar and cook it until you have a soft paste. Do not overcook. Set aside to cool completely.In mixer beat the cold heavy Cream with sugar.Mix gently the soft butter with the hazelnut/sugar cooked mixture then add the heavy cream.Mix well everything.Cut the Almond-Meringue Cookie in 2 equal squares. Crush the extra ( you will use later as topping) In the serving plate place the first square, then spread the butter/cream/ hazelnut mixture, top it with the second square, then again spread the cream.Top the cake with crushed almond-meringue cookie then cover with a lot of powered sugar.Put in the fridge for 24 hours ( if you can resist). Take it off from the fridge 5- 10 minutes before eating.
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