2007 Kiralyudvar Furmint Sec...re-Ducks...

So I'm channel surfing last week and I come across this old, horrible Food Network show called "Melting Pot" featuring pre-Iron Chef Michael Symon and Wayne Harley Somethingorother and Symon is cooking duck. My ears perk up further when he mentions it's a duck breast in a Hungarian-style paprika/orange sauce. Hmmm....Hungary...citrus...duck...my mind immediately drifts to the 2007 Kiralyudvar Furmint Sec, Tokaji I was eerily fascinated by about 6 months ago and I figure this is the perfect dish to pair with another bottle. (Yeah, I know I said I probably didn't need another bottle, but what the hell?) Besides, I still had two whole ducks in the freezer from last fall's, um, harvesting of excess farm animals.

The wine hasn't really changed much at all since the last time I had it. It still shows a pretty advanced, deep golden color and the nose is loaded with oxidative aromas. If you work through the oxidation, layers of butterscotch, mushroom and overripe apricot and citrus fruits emerge. I'm not generally a fan of wines with oxidized qualities but for some reason it kind of works with this one. The palate is, once again, thick and oily with overripe fruit, refreshing acidity and just a hint of sweetness.Still a real oddball of a wine that tastes like a dessert wine that went horribly wrong and fermented itself (almost) dry.

And that brings me back to the food. How was it? Well, it was okay. I loved the duck/paprika/orange aspect to it but the endive really threw me for a loop. It was quite bitter, texturally odd and the wilted endive on top of the sliced duck breast just looked horrible. If I did this again (which I probably won't) I would omit the endive all together. But I thought it was another wonderful pairing with the wine; both flavor-wise and texturally. The wine had plenty of body to stand up to farm-raised duck and, of course, the citrus aromas and flavors in the wine were perfect with all the orange in the sauce. Overall, I'd say this was an even better pairing than the salmon I drank it with last time. I was really happy with the duck itself considering neither duck was a breed known for its meat. But it was plump, moist and full of clean flavors.