Matching Armagnac with food

Skeptical at first that it would be possible in any way to match Armagnac with food, I came away from a recent Armagnac and Indian food matching event with a greater appreciation for this eau de vie. Armagnac is like malt whiskey - complex, lots of styles, a drink to savour and appreciate -but without the branding you get with the bigger malt producers.

On arrival I was given a glass of white Armagnac mixed with rosehip and lychee. Wonderfully lifting this shows Armagnac producers are being innovative by producing a totally new drink - well, at least new to me.

Each course had a range of Armagnacs matched with tasting samples of the wonderful food produced by the chefs at London's Tamarind restaurant. (Click on the picture above to get more detail of the food and the Armagnacs.) Although I don't think any of the guests would actually have said there was an Armagnac to go with every course, the final food sample - a wonderful teaspoon of carrot fudge cooked with melon seeds and raisins- did go very well with a chilled 15 years old from Samalens in Bas-Armagnac. The food brought out the caramel in the eau de vie.

The event certainly succeeded in spreading the word and raising the profile of this under appreciated spirit. Focussing on the samples reinforced the complexity of the Armagnacs. It's a shame that currently they are really only appreciated by the connoisseur. The BNIA would like to change that.