What to serve with Barolo?

[Tyrrell]

This board is always full of posts that have the format "I'm serving meal x what sort of wine would you choose to go with meal x?" Today I'm going to be backwards.

I have a bottle of Barolo in my basement. Being a slave to curiosity I purchased it because Barolo is wine that I've read about but never drank. I bought the bottle on sale, I suspect it was on sale because it was somewhat old (94-96, I'm at work and can't check it out) and the store needed to make room for new stuff. I believe I've read that Barolo can cellar for quite a long time but sadly I don't have a good storage facility for the bottle. So before this wine dies in the bottle (hopefully), I'd like to enjoy it with a good meal. What meal would you suggest I create in order to set off this wine best?

[Innkeeper]

Goes best with smokey main dishes such as Cassoulet, smoked ham or smoked pork chops, various pit roasted pigs or kids, combinations of wood roasted pork and lamb.

[Thomas]

..and wild boar.

[Tyrrell]

Deducing that January in Minnesota isn't the most convenient time and place to get a smoker running and that I didn't have access to wild boar I made a cassoulet. I looked at a bunch of cassoulet recipes. Apparently cassoulet is not a particularly precise term. I between the few recipes that I looked at, I found lamb, lamb shoulder, beef, bacon, pork shoulder, pork tender loin, pork trotter, pork rind, chicken, duck, Italian sausage and goose. I made a cassoulet with pork tenderloin and smoked Italian sausage I served it with a salad and fresh baguette.

The Barolo was vaguely reminiscent of what I imagine a "barbera and water" would taste like. It could have been my storage but I'll be more careful of the bargain shelf in the future.

[Innkeeper]

At least you gave it your best shot!

[wineguruchgo]

If you were expecting Barolo to be big, fat and chewy like a California Cab then I understand your disappointment. It's a relatively lean wine, yet with great power and complexity.

Barolo isn't one of my favorites and I'm thinking it's not one of yours either!

Bargain shelf is a great place to try a wine that you have never had. I would hate to see you spend a lot of money on a wine you have never had.

[winedope1]

Ty- if you didn't check this yet, look at Julia Child and/or Jacques Pepin for classic cassoulet recipes. WD