Recommendations

Pheasant and savoy cabbage with Ferreira LBV

On the plate is a pheasant fillet wrapped in smoked bacon that has spent a short time in a hot oven, next to savoy cabbage braised in cream. Set against that, the port is a late bottled vintage, whose tannin is caught by the bacon fat and the cream.

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From the shelf

The bottle

Ferreira is a port house from the Douro, founded in 1751. This bottle is a late bottled vintage: port from a single harvest that, according to the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto, ages four to six years in wood before it goes into bottle. Those years in large casks let the wine evolve slowly and with little oxygen, so that the fruit of the year is preserved but the tannin has already been rounded off somewhat. This bottle is 20.5 percent alcohol and holds 75 centilitres. For ruby-style port the institute recommends a serving temperature of 12 to 16 degrees.

Ferreira LBV

The combination

Why this works together

Pheasant is lean game with little fat of its own, which is why the fillet is wrapped in smoked bacon: the bacon melts in the oven and keeps the meat juicy. That fat is also what makes this combination work. Tannin binds to proline-rich salivary proteins and makes them clump together, so that the saliva no longer lubricates and the mouth feels dry; Zanchi and colleagues have described this. The bacon fat and the cream with the cabbage lay a coating over the tongue that takes away part of that tannin, so that the LBV comes in smoothly. On top of that, the bacon is smoky and salty, and the residual sugar of the port dampens that salt: in the mouth, sweetness is the strongest suppressor of the other tastes. And the slight bitterness of savoy cabbage is kept in check by the same residual sugar.

At the table

The dish

  • For 4 people
  • Ready in 35 minutes
  • Type main course

What you need

  • 4 pheasant fillets
  • 16 thin slices of smoked breakfast bacon
  • 1 savoy cabbage, in thin strips
  • 250 ml whipping cream
  • sea salt and ground black pepper
  • butter for frying

How to make it

  1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Sear the pheasant fillets on all sides in a hot pan and set them aside.
  2. Lay four slices of bacon side by side on the work surface, each overlapping the previous one slightly.
  3. Place a fillet on the bacon and wrap the bacon neatly around it. Do this with all four fillets.
  4. Season with salt and pepper and put the fillets in the preheated oven for 6 to 8 minutes, depending on their size.
  5. Take them out of the oven and let them rest for at least 5 minutes.
  6. In the meantime, braise the savoy cabbage in a little butter and stir in the whipping cream shortly before the cabbage is done. Season to taste and serve the cabbage with the fillets.

In the glass

Serving

Pour this late bottled vintage at 12 to 16 degrees. Use a tulip-shaped glass and fill it no more than a third. This bottle was fined at bottling, so decanting is not necessary; if you are pouring an unfiltered LBV, stand it upright for a few hours and decant it gently. An opened bottle of LBV keeps well for four to five days according to the institute. Stand it upright in a cool place with the cork in.

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