Drink: Rules of the game

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  Bruce Anderson

  Drink: Rules of the game

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Alexander Larman

What happened to the Rishi Sunak I knew at school?

The grouse season is a mighty bridge which spans autumn on its way from summer to winter. The pleasure of eating grouse, especially when preceded by oysters, helps to reconcile mankind to the passage of the seasons. The grouse is a sublime example of the beneficence of nature. Could it really have emerged from mere cosmic happenstance? Rarely has the case for intelligent design been made so powerfully, and so succulently.

Yet there are complexities. ­Isaiah Berlin reminded us that the great goods cannot always live together. This is especially true of grouse. It has two distinct flavours. There is the sweetness of a fresh young grouse. There is also the delicious gamey kick of a well-hung bird. The best way to combine the two is a 12 to 14 day hang. After that, the legs will fill your mouth with gaminess as you gnaw them, while there will be plenty of sweetness in the bloody breast meat. With careful treatment, the great goods can join in harmony on the palate.

Grouse has a further advantage, at least to those who believe in tolerating vegetarians. As all vegetarians are enthusiastic recyclers, there should not be a problem. A grouse is composed of recycled heather berries. There is a similarity with grass-fed beef, another triumph of recycling. If an Aberdeen Angus is a mooing vegetable, a grouse is simply a shootable vegetable. Once the vegetarians see reason, we can address a second philosophical question. What should one drink with grouse? Ought it to be claret or Burgundy? Thus far this year, in pursuit of philosophy, I have tried both, including bottles from two superb producers.

Anthony Barton of Léoville-Barton is an Anglophile, a delightful companion and a formidable winemaker. On his watch, Léoville-Barton has become a super-second, ready to rival the first growths on their celestial eminences. I treated a grouse to a bottle of his second wine, the 2001 Reserve de Léoville-Barton. They enjoyed one another. The 2001 is now at its peak, but there was still plenty of structure and fruit. It will last for a few more grouse seasons.
Then to Burgundy and the wines of Tollot-Beaut. In recent years, Natalie Tollot’s wines have won golden opinions, and prices to match. No wonder: their quality is outstanding. Although Chorey-les-Beaune is not a ­highly regarded appellation, it ought to be when she makes it. Her 2005 has remarkable depth and length, to the extent that it tasted like a Burgundy from the era when some vignerons were happy to give the Pinot Noir a little assistance if the fruit levels were not up to snuff. Her wine is authentic, and I do not think that anyone has produced a better Chorey. Even so, the laurels go to a wine from which greatness should be expected: her Beaune-Grèves Premier Cru 2002. Burgundy of the highest quality, it was a wine to justify superlatives, and exhaust them.

So, back to philosophy; which is better with grouse, claret or Burgundy? I have the definitive answer: both.