Autumn dishes ans Blancs de Noirs Champagnes.

Blancs de Noirs Champagnes are composed of 100 per cent black grapes from Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier vines. They have a rich, generous, well-structured texture and a powerful bouquet, fragrant with the contrasting aromas of fruit and spices, ripe corn, honey and mocha, wood, leather, smokiness and toastiness.

These Champagnes are the perfect accompaniment to Sunday lunches in the country and dishes with the characteristic flavours of charcuterie, game, poultry or mushrooms.

Blancs de Noirs Champagnes, also known as Champagnes of the Heart, are powerful fleshy wines that suit strong-tasting foods with succulent, tender textures.

First courses

Blancs de Noirs Champagnes add a magic touch to any kind of charcuterie. Try them with meaty country ham, buttery rillettes or a melt-in-the-mouth fricassée of wild mushrooms.

For a somewhat rounder bouquet, choose young Blancs de Noirs Champagnes that suit all manner of preserved and cooked meats - terrines, brawn, rillettes, chitterling sausages, rillons, preserved gizzards, stuffed goose neck and country ham - and mushrooms made into fricassées and pies or served en aumonière.

Main courses

Create winning combinations of Blancs de Noirs Champagnes with game birds or meats served with wild mushrooms, cabbage, lentils, dried beans, potatoes and chestnuts.

These Champagnes have a natural affinity with lovingly prepared stews, preserved meats, roast and spit -cooked meats and casseroles; and they can even be served with light sauces made with cream or wine.

Powerful, mature Blancs de Noirs Champagnes have a firm delicacy that flatters the taste of game meats in terrines, stews, spit cooked or oven roasted.

Vintage, complete Blancs de Noirs Champagnes are ideal with game birds whether cooked in the oven, in casseroles, en salmis or made into pies.

Young Blancs de Noirs Champagnes are a perfect match for roast or fricasseed poultry while more mature Champagnes suit the richer tastes of preserved and stuffed poultry and birds prepared in sauces.Vintage Blancs de Noirs Champagnes are simply superb with dishes based on truffles or Morel mushrooms.

Sweets

Serve cakes with a dry or moist texture based on dried fruit and spices (tea sponge cakes, macaroons, gingerbread, fruit cake, walnut cake, chestnut cake) or creamy puddings such as puff pastry with a marzipan filling (pithiviers) or a Saint Honoré.

Foods to be avoided : Garlic, vinaigrette sauces, gherkins and any dishes with a particularly liquid consistency.