In these awkward times (awkward at best), it seems the best people spend their time in isolation making gifts for their friends, and most often the gifts are food and wine to go with it.

The crew at Le Jardin put together this amazing package with three wines (half bottles), an amazing Pâté de Campagne, and a pair of duck legs confit, the legs vacuum sealed with all that beautiful duck fat.

Do I detect a Japanese influence in this elegant and complex package, with layer after layer of wrapping, first a maroon bag with the house logo, then a natural cardboard box labeled with instructions, and then more layers of crepe paper each sealed with a leJardin sticker. Then come the bottles and the labeled packages of food, all bedded in something like straw.

The Wine

I confess, I love Bandol and couldn’t resist opening it early, and one piece of the pâté also soon disappeared.

Bruno PAILLARD NV

But for the Duck Confit we had to step up, and so you’ll see that I pan-fried the duck, but just for warmth and to crisp the skin. Before the duck I sautéed julienned carrots, oyster mushrooms and garlic in the duck fat and added them warm to a random leaf salad with chunks of tomato and julienned yellow pepper. Lots of color there. Naseem made up a platter of Taiwan-made salami and smoked ham (her current promotion) with cornichons, and olives I have marinated for a week in my spicy solera. The duck was superb, and it paired magically with the Champagne, the brioche and leesy bubbles cutting right through to balance the richness of the duck meat and add a mysterious dimension to the crispy, salty duck skin.

Blind Tasting (250ml)

This red wine was ink-dark with aggressive dark fruit and a ration of a French oak, slippery tannins and a strong finish. Naseem nailed it right away as Madiran, mostly Malbec (oops, that was wrong. It was mostly Tannat), but anyway, it wasn’t fair because we use this wine in our WSET WINES L3 program.

What a wonderful adventure in isolation. Of course all these same delights would have been still more delightful at a table in Le Jardin. Let’s all hope we can go back soon.