Pheasant & Folie

... I discovered a terrific new taste pairing last week: roast pheasant and the superb 2007 Rully from Clos la Folie. The 'Schildknecht-fave' Domaine de la Cadette 'La Chatelaine' from Vezelay had also been my preferred mid-priced 2007 white Burgundy/Châlonnaise, but this Folie -a bit less nervous, perhaps, with less overt 'greenness' than the former, more yellow apple and textural 'give' - is of equal, if not superior quality. Roasted for 2 hours at 375ºF alongside raw white onion, basted in 2004 Montbourgeau 'L'Etoile' Jura Chardonnay, stuffed under-skin with fresh sage leaves [!] and butter, dusted with cracked black pepper and sea salt, the phinished pheasant had the ideal balance of sweet gaminess, buttery succulence, and pronounced herbality to allow the wine's otherwise disguised sinuous and muscular development to show itself. I ate the whole bird in one sitting, at 3am, along with the entire bottle. At times the Rully had the perfume and salty grip of a top manzanilla, La Cigarrera, let's say; at others, the grapefruit/taffee-ness of a Slovenian Tocai; and at others still, the autumnal fresh honey-crisp apple and cracked pecan that signals Rully... 'Clos la Folie' is one of their oldest sites, but perhaps not their meilleur cru... I can't wait to try their 'Clos St.-Jacques' with coquilles St-Jacques!!! Perhaps this spring...