Recommendations · Wine and food

Duck breast with Nautilus Pinot Noir

Duck breast with crispy skin, cooked pink, with a cherry sauce and a splash of balsamic. Pinot noir from New Zealand brings the same dark cherry fruit that is in the pan.

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Bottle of Nautilus Pinot Noir, wine

From the shelf

The bottle

Nautilus Pinot Noir comes from New Zealand and is made from Pinot Noir. The wine is 13.5% vol. and the bottle holds 75 centilitres. The colour is dark ruby red. The nose is complex, with floral notes of violet and rose petal alongside sweet dark fruit of cherry and plum. On the palate earthy notes and a touch of roasted spices, concentrated and elegant, with fine tannin and a long finish.

Nautilus Pinot Noir

The combination

Why this works together

Duck breast sits between poultry and red meat: the meat is dark and full of flavour, but there is a thick layer of fat under the skin. A heavy tannic wine would overpower the meat, a white wine cannot get rid of the fat. Pinot noir sits exactly in between, with fine tannin that is enough for the duck fat and acidity that clears the fat layer. The cherry sauce makes the link literally: the same dark cherry you smell in the glass is on the plate, and the balsamic makes sure the whole is neither sweet nor heavy.

At the table

The dish

  • Before 4 people
  • Ready in 40 minutes
  • Type main course

What you need

  • 4 duck breast fillets
  • 400 grams pitted cherries
  • 200 milliliters red wine
  • 150 millilitres chicken stock
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 shallot
  • 20 grams butter
  • 2 sprigs of thyme
  • 600 grams of haricots verts (green beans)
  • 800 grams of baby potatoes
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper

How to make it

  1. Take the fillets out of the fridge half an hour before use. Score the fat in a diamond pattern, just down to the meat, and sprinkle them all over with salt and pepper.
  2. Boil the baby potatoes until tender in twenty minutes and blanch the green beans for four minutes. Keep both warm.
  3. Place the fillets fat side down in a cold frying pan and only then put it on medium heat. That way the fat renders slowly instead of searing shut.
  4. Fry them for eight to ten minutes on the fat side and pour off the melted fat twice in between. Keep that fat; frying baby potatoes in it is little effort and a big difference.
  5. Turn the fillets over and fry them for another three minutes on the meat side. Place them under foil and let them rest for eight minutes.
  6. Chop the shallot and sweat it until soft in the drained pan. Deglaze with the red wine and let it reduce to a third.
  7. Add the stock, the cherries, the honey and the thyme and let the sauce boil for five minutes until it starts to thicken. Stir in the balsamic and the butter.
  8. Cut the fillets diagonally into slices and serve them with the sauce, the green beans and the baby potatoes.

In the glass

Serving

Pour the wine at 15 to 16 degrees in a bulb-shaped red wine glass. Pinot noir quickly turns broad at room temperature; half an hour in the fridge before the meal helps. Decanting is not needed, half an hour open is enough.

Everything about Nautilus Pinot NoirBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje

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