Food and wine matching at Ourea

I enjoy trying food and wine matching - as I've mentioned on Bluesky, the right food can uplift a wine, and the wrong one can sink it .

Sometimes simply posting the wine reviews seems to be missing the meat of experience, so I decided to do a brief food and wine matching report from a recent experience at Ourea , a small restaurant in Marseille, France.

They have a short lunch and a complete course - I took only the "short" one.

To begin...

First off, Mediterranean bluefin tuna belly, prepared with 'nduja, lemon gel, and plums.

Now, I'm vocal about not being a fan of natural wine, but if a restaurant recommends a pairing, I'll give it a shot (to their credit, they did say they could bring out other options after my "is this a natural?" reaction upon tasting it, but I figured I'd go with whatever they recommended as their best pairing).

Followed by...

Then eggplant sautéed with tamari, pomegranate, peanut chili oil, a coconut curry sauce, and focaccia.

The main course...

The roasted veal was just slightly over, but went well with the crispy polenta, green beans, and smoked ricotta.

With, of course, a Malbec.

And dessert...

Finally, gorgonzola and fig jam.

And for my sins, another natural.

To close...

I was about to request the bill when the chef asked if I would like some eau-de-vie. The flesh was weak.

I did end up getting the check before I did something dumb like asking which cognacs they stocked.