Good Spirits

By Lyn Dowling

In the minutes before the start of Café Margaux’s first spirits-themed pairing dinner of the season, Nicolas Palazzi breezed from table to table, exchanging introductions and small talk.  

“Is that the cognac guy?” a woman diner, no child, asked, a little incredulous and a lot pleased. “He doesn’t look like a cognac guy.”

He doesn’t, if preconceived notions of representatives of distributors and makers of fine, French wines and spirits hold true. Palazzi is not one of those slicked-back, middle-aged fellows in a double-breasted suit who oozes old-fashioned, kiss-your-hand Gallic charm. He is a very young man with very short hair in a striped dress shirt and informal trousers, who looks more like a footballer than a vintner, who oozes energy and intelligence.

He apologizes for his English, which is ridiculous, because it is flawless. He certainly does not need to apologize for his cognacs, which are exquisite.

They are the products of small houses like Maison Paul Beau, Guillon-Painturaud and Paul-Marie et Fils. This is the stuff of the French countryside, the sort of things you might discover after the proprietor of a little café places it on your table, next to the bread, cheese and fruit.

And, like Palazzi, it does have the credibility. Raised in a winemaking family in Bordeaux, he became a chemical engineer “because my family wanted me to have a real job,” and worked in his profession for a time before he realized it was not for him. Cognac was. His grandfather’s best friend, a ninth-generation producer, owned a company has distilled since 1702, and he introduced the fascinated young Palazzi to other artisans. Thus, Palazzi “became able to source, taste, buy and accumulate small batches of unique casks of rare old eau-de-vie.

“Cognac is to be treated exactly as wine because there are so many flavors, so many aroma profiles, as it is with wine,” he said, and throughout the meal, his products bore out his words.

The introductory Sidecar, made with six-year-old VS grande champagne from Maison Paul Beau, was not your ordinary, 1950s-style cocktail; and the 15-year old Maison Paul Beau Grande Champagne VSOP was flawlessly complementary to the cream of butternut squash, with its dollop of spiced crème fraiche and brilliantly selected bits of Winesap apple. Palazzi called the cognac “a masculine spirit, much more forward (than others).” That probably is why so many women in the dining room loved it.

Palazzi described the 15-year-old Guillon-Painturaud Grande Champagne VSOP as “completely unique; distilled with the lees;” and “creamy, round and more feminine,” and he was right again. It was served with that ultimate feast for the palate, foie gras, in this case, seared and placed over grapes, Maytag cheese, spinach and frisée, sprinkled liberally with toasted pignolias, and dressed with quince white balsamic vinaigrette.

The wine was served in sherry glasses and Palazzi did not let it go unrecognized. “I don’t like snifters,” the former chemical engineer explained. “Alcohol evaporates when it comes into contact with air, and a lot of surface contact means it concentrates toward the top of the glass. So with a snifter, the only thing you smell is the alcohol. You shouldn’t merely smell alcohol.”

You didn’t when the next selection was served: a chilled version of the same cognac from the previous course so that “you don’t just feel the alcohol. You just have that beautiful, flowery aroma.” It was perfect for the dish with which it was served: medallions of seared Florida rock lobster over bamboo Carnaroli rice drizzled with superb line-honey sauce.

It was followed by magret duck breast with plantain walnut risotto and Clementine honey jus, another of Chef Erol Tugrul’s culinary wonders, matched with a smooth, elegant 30-year-old Guillon-Painturaud Grande Champagne Hors d’Age.

Wishing to show the subtle and not-so-subtle differences in products of different houses, the next cognac was a 30-year-old Maison Paul Beau Grande Champagne Hors d’Age, which came with a substantial piece of seared filet mignon over Yellow Finn potatoes.

“I would use the word ‘rustic,’” Palazzi said. Others would use the word “exceptional.”

White Stilton cheese with dried pear and dried apple makes for a wonderful cheese course. That it was paired in this case with 40-year-old Guillon-Painturaud Grande Champagne “Renaissance,” with its beautiful, lingering finish, made it no less than stunning,.

When the servers brought out Tugrul’s apple and Tahitian vanilla cake, they also brought a surprise. Paul Marie et Fils Pineau des Charentes 25-year is a fortified wine made with fine cognac, that tastes of honey, caramel and nuts. Neither cloying nor sticky, it is an aperitif which with Americans should be better acquainted, especially in the Paul Marie et Fils version.

En conclusion, la pièce de résistance: 1951 Paul-Marie et Fils “Devant la Porte,” a cask-strength, single-barrel cognac best described, naturellement, by Palazzi, who gets it from his mentor back in France: “This is what cognac tastes like when you get cognac from the guy who made the stuff.”

So it does. It also is what cognac tastes like when in possibly is the best cognac you ever will consume. It costs $650 per bottle. But then, fine art is not cheap.

These cognacs are available in limited quantities at Café Margaux. Treat yourself. Savor them.

All wines and spirits listed are available at Café Margaux, 220 Brevard Ave., Cocoa. The Italian wines of Bertani, Anselmi and Planeta will be served at pairings dinners Thursday and Friday May 5 and 6. Cost is $95 per person. For more information, call 321-639-8343.

Back to Dine Brevard Home