Bastille Day Celebration

[wondersofwine]

Butterflies Restaurant in Raleigh, NC is celebrating Bastille Day from July 13-21 (actual day was the 14th) with a special menu of French wines and complementary foods. The night I was there they ran low on the advertised champagne and offered to substitute another champagne but I said I would let the chef's wife pick a white wine for me. She picked a New Zealand sauvignon blanc to go nicely with the salad of warm fig with asiago cheese, and grape tomatoes in a vinaigrette. The next course was an Alsatian Riesling with grilled North Carolina shrimp and fennel. This was followed by duck breast with haricot vert and carrots and a Languedoc-Rousillon red wine. The next serving was rib-eye steak with roasted Gold Yukon potatoes and a 1998 Rapet Pere & Fils Pernaud Ile des Vergelesses Premier Cru burgundy. The dessert (unbelievable!) was a chilled peach soup with apricot sorbet and a pastry topped with a thin slice of apple floating on the soup. It was accompanied by a Sauterne--Chateau Bastor-Lamontague, 1997.
The wines that stood out for me were the New Zealand sauvignon blanc, the red burgundy, and the sauterne. The Languedoc red was pleasant but a bitty peasanty in comparison to the elegance of the Pernaud Ile des Vergelesses. My favorite dishes were the salad and the dessert.