Provençal Pairings: Wine with Food A Birthday Gift
by David Scott Allen
Winery: Château Barbebelle
Cuvée: Cuvée Hortense, Blanc de Noirs
Classification: Vin de France
Vintage: 2023
Grape Varieties: 65% Caladoc, 35% Marselan
Alcohol: 13%
Average Retail Price: France €13.00
What a birthday gift for Hortense! Her parents, Château Barbebelle winemaker Madeleine Premmereur and her husband Valentin, named their new Blanc de Noirs cuvée for their daughter when she was born. Hortense is the first of the 5th generation at Château Barbebelle. Such a shame she isn’t old enough to enjoy this wine!
However, Mark and I, along with Susan and Towny, did enjoy this beautiful wine during our “working” holiday at the end of 2025, pairing it with my Roasted Salmon with Meyer Lemon-Thyme Beurre Blanc. You can get the recipe on Cocoa & Lavender. Susan reached out to Madeleine to ensure my intended meal would pair well; we got the thumbs up!
I took notes from the suggested pairings on the Château’s tech sheet: salt-crusted fish, fish en papillote, and salmon gravlax. I thought of wild salmon immediately because of the gravlax, and a quick brine of the fish would achieve the salinity of the salt-crusted fish. Topping it with the beurre blanc and thyme adds elements I’d consider for any fish en papillote. I, however, roasted the fish.
Cuvée Hortense is a beautiful straw-colored white wine made from black grapes — Blanc de Noirs. The wine is classified as a Vin de France because the blend of Caladoc and Marselan do not conform to the Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence appelation guidelines.
We took the wine out of the refrigerator for a few minutes before opening, as our refrigerator is set quite cold. The nose was flinty and clean with notes of green grape and citrus. On the palate, we tasted white grapefruit and clementine, with savory highlights. With the salmon, the white grapefruit was the strongest in the pairing and we all noted that the wine became smoother and rounder with the salmon. It has a very nice salinity that paired seamlessly with the dish.
This is a beautiful food wine, especially for fish pairings. I imagine it would be perfect with sushi and sashimi.
And many thanks to Madeleine and Valentin for having two beautiful babies: Hortense and Cuvée Hortense.
They start them young in France, though I distinctly remember being given a glass of champagne, age two at a wedding!
Hortense, Blanc de Noirs sounds like an excellent wine and perfect for your salmon.