Garlic rabbit
Rabbit is lean meat, sweet garlic and bay, with oil and a clear juice. Acidity cuts the fat, silky tannin does not dry the meat, and the pepper in the wine meets the bay.
- Trepat style
- Young Trepat Red
- Temperature
- 13 - 15 °C
Garlic rabbit is a short pot: pieces of rabbit, garlic, bay, oil and a clear juice, not a dark civet. The fat is the meat's and the oil's. The garlic is sweet if it is not burnt. Bay is the herb. There are no snails: the plate is the rabbit, a lean meat that light reds can follow without tiring the table.
Trepat fits for the same reason it fits duck or a short stew. Light body, high acidity, silky tannin, red fruit and pepper. Acidity cuts the oil and the fat of the rabbit. Fine tannin does not dry a meat that is already lean. The fruit follows the juice. White pepper, and the bay note of reds from the variety, meet the bay in the pot. A dry, tannic red would leave the rabbit tough and the garlic bitter.
The style is a young red, at 13–15°C. If the juice has reduced a long way, a short ageing in used wood or a foudre — a vessel that keeps the fruit and the pepper — adds a little body, as long as the fruit is still visible. Rosé falls short of the meat. Do not serve the wine warm.
Tip: the garlic golden, not black. Little juice, not a thick sauce. A wide glass, ten minutes, and the bottle out of the kitchen until it is time to eat.
