I first had the pleasure of drinking a sauternes when I was at a friend's house for dinner. He served a sauternes with foie gras. The combination of the sweet and the savory was amazing and it was truly a wonderful match. Since then I've had the lingering memory of the sauternes and how lovely it was.
One day Ming and I happened to come across a 1990 sauternes in a wine store and we immediately knew we had to have it. One amex card later it was in our car and on its way to its new home. Not only did we both know we'd enjoy the sauternes but 1990 was supposed to be an exceptional year for sauternes as well.
The next biggest dilemma we had was what occasion to drink our prized wine at. I received a call from my mom telling us that we were all to have dinner at my aunt's house one day. I immediately recognized that this was to be the occasion for the sauternes. My uncle was a wine connoisseur and everyone at the table would enjoy a dessert wine.
The next question was what to pair the sauternes with. Since dinner was already taken care of, dessert was the next logical choice. After consulting with various internet sources about what the best pairing should be, I decided to make an apple tart. Cheese, while another really good accompaniment to sauternes was out of the question since no one at the dinner really appreciates cheese. I decided to make an apple tart and blended two recipes together. I made the tart's base using Dorie Greenspan's pate sablee recipe, which I used to make my french pear tart. The apple topping was simply taking 4 apples, slicing them and placing them on top of the partially cooked pate sablee. I stuck the whole tart into then oven for about 1 hour at 375 degrees.
The sauternes and apple tart were magical together. The sauternes was beautifully sweet and the apple tart was slightly crunchy and salty (from the buttery crust). It was a dessert that was well received by everyone and one not to leave my memory anytime soon.
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