White Chateauneuf with white truffle

Matching wines with white truffles is a demanding task. The key to this match lies in the ability to find a wine which seeks and finds the garlicy, spritzy side revealed by the truffle – not just in the aromas but especially in the persistency of the taste.

Our Italian friends would probably go for red wines from the Piedmont and choose a great Barolo or Barbaresco. I don’t want to offend them, but in my opinion there can be a better association – one that is more subtle and persistent – when pairing white truffle with white wine with emphasis on mineral and contained oxidation.

The impulse to look for powerful alcohol to dominate the white truffle is not the way to go. Let’s take a look at white truffle risotto, where the rice, if properly cooked, is al dente and coated with the ensuing creaminess, and flecked through and through with white truffle. The idea here is to find the wine which can both work with the creamy fatty texture of the risotto and seek out and enhance the savours inherent in the white truffle.

I have an indelible memory of a Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 1985 from Edouardo Valentini. A mythical marriage for one of the greatest Italian whites. As it ages, it displays positive evolution, extreme minerality with a tense, affable support which sets off the texture of the risotto beautifully. Great classical champagnes, such as intense, elegant Dom Pérignon 1988, also pair with white truffle to perfection. The carbonic medium of champagne provides an additional asset, with its superb contrast to the soft texture of the risotto.

A white Château Rayas 1999 was unforgettable with pasta with white truffles. This Châteauneuf du Pape evolves with great distinction and offers mineral nuances of almond, fruit stones, and honey plants. The tertiary aromas obtained with retronasal breathing ally beautifully with white truffle.

To go with gnocchi and white truffles, I was totally bowled over by the 2000 white Château Simone, a multi-varietal wine from the Palette appellation, where the Clairette grape dominates. Also, on the same wavelength, try the 2006 white cuvee Clarendon Cote de Provence from Domaine Gavoty, amazingly precise and pure.

I’ll finish up by talking about eggs with white truffles. Generally speaking, eggs are hard to pair with wine, especially red wines. Whites with good acid tension can be served with eggs. I recommend that you try eggs with sake, in particular a Dassai 23, where the rice polishing rate is 77%, and the sake is perfectly crystalline. This sake goes beautifully with egg and the rooty nuances are the perfect ally for the persistency of the truffle.