An Appetite for Wine: Wine Bar Pinot in Breda, the Netherlands

Last week, after an intense WSET4 class day, we met up in Wijnbar Pinot in Breda’s city centre. Pinot is one of many lively bars and restaurants in this vibrant Dutch town, and owned by one of our predecessors, DipWSET alumnus, sommelier and wine educator Martijn Roos.

The plan for the evening was that we would each bring a bottle to share and pair with the courses on their set menu. As we suspected, we ended up with a wonderfully eclectic mix of wines.

Our D3 ‘Wines of the World’ class/study group is really diverse, bringing together people not only from Belgium and the Netherlands, but also from France, Italy, Taiwan, Romania, Hongkong, Poland, etc., many of whom have travelled or lived all over the world and are currently residing in the Benelux, France or Germany.

Once again it showed how food & wine (and a common ordeal ;-)) have the power to bring people together. A class-act evening full of flavours, laughs and stories.

After a few appetiser bites to go with the Crémant de Die apéritif Martijn selected for us, we paired our own bottles with the rest of the menu, which consisted of:

  • Smoked carrot / radish / kimchi / purslane
  • Celeriac dumpling / steak tartare / egg yolk / red onion
  • Baked plaice / BBQ leek / sea buckthorn berries / sea vegetables
  • Suckling pig / penny bun mushroom / jerusalem artichoke / potato
  • Yuzu / coconut / turmeric / green pepper

A number of pairings which stood out for me:

  • Belgium’s Aldeneyck Pinot Gris 2017 with the smoked carrot / radish / kimchi / purslane starter;
  • the Valdespino barrel-aged Palomino with the celeriac dumpling / steak tartare / egg yolk / red onion dish;
  • with the plaice / leek / sea buckthorn / sea vegetables main: 2 vintages of the Vigneti Ripetto Derthona Timorasso ‘Quadro’ (2017 and ’18), ánd the Belgian Jean Rijckaert’s 2018 Arbois Savagnin;
  • an impossible to identify, but truly delicious amphora-made biodynamic 2015 Pinot Noir from Burgundy’s Morey-Saint-Denis, Domaine Michel Magnien, which was great with the suckling pig dish;
  • the Romanian Pătrar Fetească Neagră by Domeniul Bogdan, not only delicious in its own right, but also gorgeous with the suckling pig;
  • a 2008 Quarts de Chaume sweet Chenin Blanc with the yuzu / coconut / turmeric / green pepper dessert.

It may sound strange, coming from an enthusiastic, long-time low-carber, but the dessert deserves a special mention. It is possibly the best one I’ve had in a decade: not overly sweet, with intense flavours and a variety in textures, pinpricks of citrussy yuzu acidity and a tantalising play on hot-and-cold due to the semi-hot green chillies underneath the velvety ice cream. This alone would be worth a detour. Less but better, right? 🙂

Contact

Wijnbar Pinot
Grote Markt 46
NL-4811 XS Breda, Netherlands
https://wijnbarpinot.nl/

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