Family Recipe, Food and wine pairings

For the Bourgeois family, fall means game: as soon as hunting season opens, venison tenderloin makes its way back onto Jean-Marie’s table, served with mashed celery and potatoes and a red wine sauce that’s been simmering since morning. It’s a weekend dish—the kind you prepare when the whole family gets together.

This new episode of our “Family Recipe” series follows up on the one featuring salmon à la Bellevue: in each article, a member of the Bourgeois family opens the doors to their kitchen and shares a dish they prepare to pair with one of our vintages.

Serves 6 · Prep 1h · Cook 45 min · Overnight rest

Ingredients

For the marinade:

• 6 venison filet mignons
• 1 bouquet garni (bay leaf, thyme, parsley)
• 1 onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 3 shallots
• 4 celery stalks
• 4 carrots
• 15 cl cognac
• 1 bottle red wine
• Black peppercorns
• Cloves
• Olive oil

For the celeriac-potato mash:

• 1 celeriac
• 1 kg Charlotte potatoes
• 25 g butter
• 25 cl thick crème fraîche
• Salt, pepper

For the red wine sauce:

• Venison trimmings
• 10 g butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon cranberries (airelles)
• Salt, pepper

Make the marinade (to be done the day before)

Place the filet mignons in a large container.

Prepare the vegetables: stud the whole onion with the cloves, crush the garlic, cut the shallots, chop the celery into chunks and slice the carrots into rounds.

Add the vegetables and the bouquet garni.

Pour in a drizzle of olive oil, the cognac, a few peppercorns, then cover with red wine.

Cover with film and let marinate overnight in the fridge.

Make the celeriac-potato mash

Peel the celeriac and potatoes, cut into cubes, then cook for 25 minutes in salted, peppered water.

Drain, mash with the butter and thick crème fraîche, adjust the seasoning and set aside.

Make the vegetable purée

Using a slotted spoon, lift the vegetables out of the marinade.

Remove the cloves and bouquet garni. Dice the onion.

Place the vegetables in a saucepan and add half of the marinade liquid. Simmer until cooked through.

Blend with the butter and crème fraîche until smooth. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Make the red wine sauce

Drain the filet mignons on paper towel and set aside.

Heat a pan with olive oil and butter, add the venison trimmings and brown them. Deglaze with the remaining marinade liquid and let it reduce. Mix the flour with a ladle of the hot sauce, then pour it into the pan while stirring. Let it thicken until it coats the back of a spoon.

Remove the trimmings, add the cranberries, season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Cook the filet mignons

Brown the filet mignons for 2 minutes on each side in a hot pan.

Place them in a dish and cook for 10 minutes in the oven at 190°C.

Coat with the red wine sauce, then return to the oven for a further 10 minutes. Set aside.

Plating

Spoon a portion of the mash and the vegetable purée onto the plate. Slice the filet mignon and arrange it on the plate. Coat with the red wine and cranberry sauce. Serve immediately.

Red Sancerre "ES-56" grows on flint (silex), the terroir that gives our estate's most linear, precise red Sancerres, with a mineral tension close to that of the white wines grown on the same soil.

This precision lets the wine hold its own against a flavourful game dish — venison, red wine sauce, cranberries — without ever becoming heavy. Unlike a more tannic, dense wine, it lets the dish breathe rather than trying to dominate it.

Serving note: serve hot, with your red wine lightly chilled (16°C).

Jean-Marie's Tip

For an even more flavourful sauce and filet, use a bottle of red Sancerre "La Bourgeoise" 2014. A wine at its peak, ideal for cooking the venison.

Wine

Red Sancerre "ES-56" is available in our shop, online and at the estate. It's the cuvée Jean-Marie serves at the table alongside this game dish — precise enough to stand up to the venison, without ever overpowering it.

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