By Elspeth Brown
When I first moved to Asheville, I cooked at Horizons restaurant, in The Grove Park Inn. It was a beautiful, fine dining restaurant, with epic views, delicious food and hand-selected wines. Horizons is also where I learned a lot about wine and food pairings. While most of the wines I tasted while working there were amazing, the one wine that really stuck with me was Bourgogne Passetoutgrains. I never knew it existed before then and it was so easy to drink. It was fun, fresh and still had so much complexity to go with so many foods that I made it the house wine for my holiday dinners!
Bourgogne Passetoutgrains is an AOC, or Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée, in the Burgundy region of France, in the central eastern area. Passetoutgrains means “all grapes pass,” and it is made by co-fermenting Gamay and Pinot Noir grapes. While most red wines produced in the Burgundy region are Pinot Noir, Passetoutgrains must be a blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir grapes, with a couple of other approved grapes. By law, there must be a minimum of 30 percent Pinot Noir, and a minimum of 15 percent Gamay in the blend. Most of the wines are young and fresh and need to be drunk within a couple of years.
The Gamay grape provides big, bright fruit flavors such as raspberry and cherry, while the Pinot Noir grapes aid in smoothing out the tannins to make the wine more luscious. This is one of the best holiday wines. It is light enough to pair with turkey, roasted chicken, salmon and escargot. The wine has delicate tannins to go with a variety of vegetables, while at the same time it is earthy enough to pair with a pork roast, or a charcuterie board.
Not a huge amount of Bourgogne Passetoutgrains comes into the American marketplace. I have only seen a couple of producers being distributed in the Asheville area since working at Horizons so many years ago. While the price of wines from Burgundy keeps going up, Bourgogne Passetoutgrains has stayed reasonable for French wine. It is almost like a well-kept secret among wine lovers. Passetoutgrains is still one of those niche wines, so if you find it in a wine store, grab as much as they have on the shelf. It is a labor of love that tastes absolutely delicious. I read once that winemaker Pascal Mugneret said, “To produce good Passetoutgrains, you have to love it. To try is proof that you respect yourself and your father’s and grandfather’s memories.” I cannot agree more. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!
Elspeth Brown is the owner of Maggie B’s Wine & Specialty Store, 10 C South Main Street in Weaverville. For information, visit MaggieBsWine.com or call 828.645.1111.
