Invited guests arrived at Alfred Prasad’s Michelin starred Tamarind restaurant, in Mayfair’s Queen Street, to be greeted with a very pleasant White Rose cocktail, a little sweet for me, but I drank it nevertheless, it’s only polite after all. As we were seated, there were two different Armagnac pours at each setting for us to taste with the first platter of canapés. From that point, I knew it might be a dangerous afternoon.
Others that we sampled with the food were the Baron de Sigognac 10 year old, which has a fruity peppery spiciness and a sweetness, the Delord 25 year old – a deeply coloured Armagnac, that is sweet soft and peppery with vanilla notes and the Darroze Domaine Petit Lassis 1973, which had pepper, fruity sweetness. All of these make excellent after dinner drinks and if you haven’t tried Armagnac, I would urge you to do so. Its not been in production for 700 years for no reason.
So, the purpose of the event was to see whether these two artisan products – Armagnac and regional Indian cuisine worked well together. All I would say is, personally, I wouldn’t chose to drink Armagnac as an accompaniment to Indian cuisine, however good it is, except perhaps with a dessert. But then, I wouldn’t choose to drink it throughout any meal. These artisan creations should be enjoyed for what they are, savouring the complexity of each, after all, they weren’t created to have to compete with bold dishes, were they?
For more information about Armagnac, go to www.armagnac.fr