I ordered Coq Au Vin the last two visits to Brasserie Pavil (1604 and Huebner).  I'm more a yard bird than cow sorta guy, so, I'm pretty sure that chicken cooked in wine brings out the French in me.  While it's only like one-eighth of my Heinz 57 makeup,  my minimal French roots contribute to my love of wine and food.  And, if you believe that, I'm willing to sell my ownership in the Golden Gate Bridge and the Helotes Mulch Pile.

Last night's meal at home was a double score:  great food and equally great wine with a French flair.  Angie caught Rachel Ray making Coq Au Vin a couple Saturday's ago and got inspired to try it for her own personal taster, me.  Her only flaw was entrusting me with the shopping list.  I picked out the biggest chicken leg and thighs instead of the smaller ones.  That meant the single bottle of red wine the recipe called for turned into about two bottles.  I went to the wine fridge and picked a California Pinot to go along with the French one I bought for the meal.  But in the excitement of the new season of 24, I polished off half the second bottle.  We were out of Pinot, so, I substituted a cheap Italian.  Our French dinner was now cooked in multi-cultural wine.  Since my cooking skills are reserved for breakfast meals only, I was asked to go pick another bottle of wine to have with dinner and stay away from the kitchen. 

Returning to my "French food demands French wine" weirdness, I dug out my last bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Clos de L'Oratoire des Papes 2005. It's a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, and Cinsault.  According to the Wine Bible, Chateauneuf-du-Pape translates to new castle of the Pope.  In the fourteenth century, the Pope lived in Avignon, France not Rome.  The town of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Avignon are located in the Southern Rhone Valley.

I bought two bottles of the L'Oratoire des Papes a couple years ago, drank one, and left the other in the wine fridge.  The extra time in the bottle really worked.  The aroma was somewhat tight even after breathing a over an hour.  I caught grilled meat and a little dark fruit on the nose.  As it evolved in the glass it really started to grab my attention.  There were flavors of black berries, a little dark cherry, a hint of violet and pepper with some chocolate on the back end.    

The Coq Au Vin was perfection.  The chicken was so tender and the sauce....well, I wanted to roll in it but figured it would be a real pain to clean up.  The flavors were more subtle than right in your face, so, I wondered if the wine might overpower it.  It didn't.  This was a meal you would invite friends over for and then gloat because your wife was such a great cook.