Drinking with Black Truffles

There are few problems as fun to tackle as what to drink with Black Truffles. But it is a problem facing us as we move into Black Truffle Season in East Tennessee.

Luckily, I’ve recently returned from The Rhône Valley where I travelled to visit wine producers with a friend and wine importer, Frederick Corriher. While visiting, Gerald Lafon of Domaine d’Arbousset in Lirac, he happened to mention that the trees lining one of his vineyards were white oak trees. He also happened to mention that Black Truffles grow on the roots of the white oak tree in the Southern Rhône Valley. Needless to say, Frederick and I were noticeably excited by the opportunity of black truffles and that evening at dinner with Gerald and some other wine makers, Gerald presented us with a Black Truffle. We carefully packed the truffle and brought it with us to our next stop in Pezenas in Southern France where we met up with Christophe and Laurence Blanc of Chateau de Montpezat. They make wines similar to those of the Southern Rhône, that is to say Syrah and Grenache dominated wines.

We showed them the truffle and discussed what to do with it for dinner. We landed on Soft Scrambled Eggs and Toast with shaved black truffles as a first course paired with a few different wines of varying ages and blends. I can honestly say that after taking in the various combinations, I landed on a cuvee called Palombieres which is a wine dominated by Grenache as my favorite. It’s lighter body and high level of perfume was an excellent combination with the earthy and powerful perfume of the Black Truffle. Together it was exquisite.

But, we won’t always be in a place to have all of these wines at our fingertips and the truffles that we will have here are from this country, so what to do? There are several Grenache producers in our country that make incredible versions of this grape. In Washington, there’s Cayuse winery making God Only Knows Grenache, in Napa there’s Outpost winery making a wonderfully elegant Grenache that could be mistaken for a great vintage of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and in and around the Paso Robles area there are numerous producers of this grape and blends of this grape that are well worth your while. Tablas Creek Winery, Epoch Winery, Saxum and Alban are all producers of wines that feature the grape Grenache and would do this exquisite ingredient the justice it deserves.

Andy Chabot, Director of Food and Beverage

There are few problems as fun to tackle as what to drink with Black Truffles. But it is a problem facing us as we move into Black Truffle Season in East Tennessee.

Luckily, I’ve recently returned from The Rhône Valley where I travelled to visit wine producers with a friend and wine importer, Frederick Corriher. While visiting, Gerald Lafon of Domaine d’Arbousset in Lirac, he happened to mention that the trees lining one of his vineyards were white oak trees. He also happened to mention that Black Truffles grow on the roots of the white oak tree in the Southern Rhône Valley. Needless to say, Frederick and I were noticeably excited by the opportunity of black truffles and that evening at dinner with Gerald and some other wine makers, Gerald presented us with a Black Truffle. We carefully packed the truffle and brought it with us to our next stop in Pezenas in Southern France where we met up with Christophe and Laurence Blanc of Chateau de Montpezat. They make wines similar to those of the Southern Rhône, that is to say Syrah and Grenache dominated wines.

We showed them the truffle and discussed what to do with it for dinner. We landed on Soft Scrambled Eggs and Toast with shaved black truffles as a first course paired with a few different wines of varying ages and blends. I can honestly say that after taking in the various combinations, I landed on a cuvee called Palombieres which is a wine dominated by Grenache as my favorite. It’s lighter body and high level of perfume was an excellent combination with the earthy and powerful perfume of the Black Truffle. Together it was exquisite.

But, we won’t always be in a place to have all of these wines at our fingertips and the truffles that we will have here are from this country, so what to do? There are several Grenache producers in our country that make incredible versions of this grape. In Washington, there’s Cayuse winery making God Only Knows Grenache, in Napa there’s Outpost winery making a wonderfully elegant Grenache that could be mistaken for a great vintage of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and in and around the Paso Robles area there are numerous producers of this grape and blends of this grape that are well worth your while. Tablas Creek Winery, Epoch Winery, Saxum and Alban are all producers of wines that feature the grape Grenache and would do this exquisite ingredient the justice it deserves.

Andy Chabot, Director of Food and Beverage

There are few problems as fun to tackle as what to drink with Black Truffles. But it is a problem facing us as we move into Black Truffle Season in East Tennessee.

Luckily, I’ve recently returned from The Rhône Valley where I travelled to visit wine producers with a friend and wine importer, Frederick Corriher. While visiting, Gerald Lafon of Domaine d’Arbousset in Lirac, he happened to mention that the trees lining one of his vineyards were white oak trees. He also happened to mention that Black Truffles grow on the roots of the white oak tree in the Southern Rhône Valley. Needless to say, Frederick and I were noticeably excited by the opportunity of black truffles and that evening at dinner with Gerald and some other wine makers, Gerald presented us with a Black Truffle. We carefully packed the truffle and brought it with us to our next stop in Pezenas in Southern France where we met up with Christophe and Laurence Blanc of Chateau de Montpezat. They make wines similar to those of the Southern Rhône, that is to say Syrah and Grenache dominated wines.

We showed them the truffle and discussed what to do with it for dinner. We landed on Soft Scrambled Eggs and Toast with shaved black truffles as a first course paired with a few different wines of varying ages and blends. I can honestly say that after taking in the various combinations, I landed on a cuvee called Palombieres which is a wine dominated by Grenache as my favorite. It’s lighter body and high level of perfume was an excellent combination with the earthy and powerful perfume of the Black Truffle. Together it was exquisite.

But, we won’t always be in a place to have all of these wines at our fingertips and the truffles that we will have here are from this country, so what to do? There are several Grenache producers in our country that make incredible versions of this grape. In Washington, there’s Cayuse winery making God Only Knows Grenache, in Napa there’s Outpost winery making a wonderfully elegant Grenache that could be mistaken for a great vintage of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and in and around the Paso Robles area there are numerous producers of this grape and blends of this grape that are well worth your while. Tablas Creek Winery, Epoch Winery, Saxum and Alban are all producers of wines that feature the grape Grenache and would do this exquisite ingredient the justice it deserves.

Andy Chabot, Director of Food and Beverage