Recommendations

Wild boar stew and plums with Kopke LBV

On the plate is wild boar shoulder that has been braised for hours in red wine with dried prunes, bacon and carrot. The late bottled vintage sets dark fruit, residual sugar and tannin against that, and with twenty percent alcohol holds its own beside a heavy stew.

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From the shelf

The bottle

Kopke is the oldest port house of the Douro. The late bottled vintage comes from a single harvest year; according to the trade's portfolio it is a blend based on Touriga Nacional with the traditional red Douro grapes, from vineyards on schist and sandstone soils, and the wine goes into the bottle after four to six years in oak. The Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto describes this category as a ruby from a single year, chosen for its quality and bottled after four to six years in wood; most are ready to drink on purchase. Port comes about because fermentation of the must is halted with wine spirit, so that residual sugar remains and, according to the same institute, the wine generally ends up between 19 and 22 percent alcohol. We have not been able to verify a precise alcohol percentage for this bottling from a statement by the house.

Kopke LBV

The combination

Why this works together

A stew that has spent three hours in the oven is full of gelatine, protein and fat from the connective tissue of the shoulder, and that is exactly what the tannin of a young port needs. Zanchi and colleagues describe how tannin binds to proline-rich salivary proteins and thereby produces the dry, astringent feeling; with so much protein from the meat in the mouth, little of that hardness remains. The dried prunes in the pan form the second bridge, because dark dried fruit is also in the glass. The bacon brings salt, and the taste research by Green and colleagues from 2010 shows that sweetness strongly suppresses that salt, so that the stew comes across rounder. Finally, this is a matter of weight against weight: a dish with a whole bottle of red wine in it calls for a glass that does not fall away.

At the table

The dish

  • For 4 people
  • Ready in 3 hours and 30 minutes, plus 1 hour soaking
  • Type main course

What you need

  • 900 g wild boar shoulder, cut into 4 cm cubes
  • 14 pitted dried prunes
  • 120 ml armagnac
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 80 g bacon strips
  • 3 shallots, halved
  • 1 large carrot, in slices of 5 mm
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 500 ml full-bodied red wine
  • 2 bay leaves
  • a bouquet garni of 2 sprigs of rosemary, 2 sprigs of thyme and a handful of celery leaves
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper

How to make it

  1. Preheat the oven to 165 degrees.
  2. Put the prunes in a small bowl with the armagnac and let them plump up for at least an hour at room temperature.
  3. Heat the olive oil in a lidded casserole over medium-high to high heat. Sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper and brown it on all sides in batches, without overcrowding the pan. Transfer the meat to a dish.
  4. Fry the bacon until the fat has rendered. Add the shallots, the carrot and the onion and fry them for five minutes. Add the garlic and fry for another minute.
  5. Put the meat back into the pan. Add the prunes with the armagnac, then the red wine, the bay leaves and the bouquet garni, and season with salt and pepper.
  6. Bring everything to the boil, turn the heat low and put the covered pan in the oven for two to three hours, until the meat falls apart with a fork.
  7. Take the pan out of the oven, remove the bay leaves and the bouquet garni and adjust the seasoning of the stew if needed. Serve with mashed potatoes or polenta.

In the glass

Serving

Pour the LBV between 12 and 16 degrees, the range the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto uses for the ruby styles. Whether this bottling is filtered is not in the information we were able to verify; stand the bottle upright for a day and pour carefully, and you will leave any deposit behind. A tulip-shaped wine glass of normal size, filled a third, works fine with food. According to the same institute, an opened late bottled vintage stays good for four to five days, stored cool and dark.

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Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar. NIX18