Seabass carpaccio and Grûner Veltliner

publication date: Apr 14, 2008

 | 

author/source: Fiona Beckett

The other day we went to Il Vino d’Enrico Bernardo, an innovative new restaurant in Paris run by the world’s best sommelier in 2004 which has just won a Michelin star. The unusual aspect is that there is a wine rather than a food menu. You choose what you want to drink and they create a dish or a menu around it.

I’ll be writing about the experience in the July issue of Decanter but in the meantime I’ve picked out one pairing which I found particularly striking for my match of the week which was a carpaccio of seabass, seasoned with lemon peel and with a few lightly dressed leaves piled on top. it was served with a sensationally good wine, a young (2006) but very rich, opulent waxy Grûner Veltliner Honivogl Smaragd from Franz Hirtzberger, a wine I would have thought was too assertive and characterful for such a light dish but which matched it perfectly. A real treat.

Hirtzberger's wines are stocked in the UK by Noel Young Wines though they unfortunately don't appear to have this particular wine at the time of writing.