Fine Wine and Fast Food

The news that Greggs, the mass market bakery was opening a champagne bar in Fenwick in Newcastle created a predictable storm of publicity this week (good on them!) but the idea of matching fine wine with fast food is nothing new. 

Here’s a feature I wrote for Decanter magazine 17 years ago which admittedly didn’t include sausage rolls or steak bakes but easily could have done. Back in 2014, after a trip to Edinburgh, I suggested champagne too!

Anyway enjoy it and regard it as licence to crack open a serious bottle with your favourite takeaway. ‘High-low’ as it’s called nowadays is definitely a trend. Here’s the article as it appeared back in 2007

Fine wine and fast food

One of the most enjoyable food and wine matches I’ve experienced was also the most serendipitous. The family were away, I was working on a book and staggered down half way through the evening to find the fridge virtually bare except for a half bottle of Krug, a half-empty packet of the kids’ fish fingers and some frozen spinach. Ten minutes later, the spinach well anointed with butter, the fish fingers grilled and the Krug poured I had the perfect supper.

Since then various wine lovers have confessed to me their secret pleasures: bacon and eggs or hamburgers with cru class Bordeaux, kebabs with Cote Rotie, champagne with popcorn and it’s made me question why we generally save our best wines for special occasions.

Why pour them for friends who may not appreciate them when you could be tucked up on the sofa with a takeaway and a good DVD and have them all to yourself?

Why create unnecessary competition for your best wines in the form of redundant foams and sticky jus? Let the wine be the hero.

In the interests of encouraging you to hang loose with your cellar I conducted a few experiments courtesy of Decanter’s wine cupboard and a selection of local takeaways.

Needless to say I’m not encouraging you to head for your local McDonald’s - fast food needn’t be foul food - but if even Robert Parker takes his favourite bottles along to his local Chinese as he once told me when I interviewed him - why shouldn’t you?

Armando Ascorve Morales at unsplash.com

Burgers and Bordeaux ****
Why it worked
First stop the local gourmet burger outfit, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and a pukka bottle of Pauillac (Chateau Pontet-Canet 2001). I order their classic, served with salad and relish and a bowl of chunky fries. Apart from struggling to get it into my mouth without covering myself with creamy goo it’s hard to fault the classic meat and potatoes match. Red wine, grilled rare beef, salty potatoes - what’s not to like? The Pontet-Canet even stood up to the raw onion and relish though the match would probably have been marginally better without it and brought some refreshing acidity to the partnership which counteracted the carb overload
What to hold/go easy on
The raw onions and relish. And skip the ketchup
What else to try: A top-notch Californian cab, a Super-Chilean

See some other posh (and not-so-posh) pairings for a burger

Champagne and Sushi *****
Why it worked
The sugar in the sushi rice keyed in perfectly with the dosage in the extravagant Jacquart Katarina we paired with it, the bubbles counteracting the oiliness of the raw salmon. The match also held up when I dunked my sushi in soy (umami at work) and, surprisingly, even when I added a modest amount of wasabi and nibbled some pickled ginger. The seaweed in the maki sushi also tied in well. Is there a nicer way to eat sushi?
What to hold/go easy on
Don’t overdo the wasabi
What else to try: Muscadet

See other good wine matches for sushi

Fish, chips and white Graves ****
Why it worked
I was surprised, I confess, how successful this match with a 2004 Clos Floridene blanc from Denis Dubourdieu was. I would have thought pure unoaked sauvignon would have been better (on a similar basis to adding a squeeze of lemon) but this seductively lush white added a fabulous note of luxury to what were admittedly not the crispest most sizzlingly fresh fish and chips I’ve ever eaten. A bit like partnering them with some really good home-made mayonnaise. White graves is an underrated wine
What to hold/go easy on:
Added lemon juice. Brown sauce. Ketchup
What else to try: Sancerre, Pouilly Fume and other top sauvignon blancs. Champagne - though the Katarina was a bit sweet. Champagne almost always goes well with crispy, deep-fried seafood including fish fingers (see above).

See other great matches for fish and chips

Rotisserie chicken and Chardonnay *****

Why it worked
No news to Decanter readers, I’m sure, but just to draw attention to the fact that even a humble rotisserie chicken can be turned into a feast by partnering it with a top class chardonnay like the big lush creamy Voyager Estate 2002 I tried. Don’t even think of removing the skin. That’s what makes the match.
What to hold/go easy on:
Accompanying veg and salad particularly if dressed with a vinaigrette. Just a few roast or fried potatoes will do.
What else to try: White hermitage. Good pinot noir

See other good matches for roast chicken

Crispy duck and Pinot Noir *****
Why it worked
Another timeless classic but how often do you order crispy duck on its own? Or drink it with a wine as good as the silkily sweet 2003 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir? A crispy duck and pinot noir party. What a great way to entertain!
What to hold/go easy on
Don’t overdo the hoisin sauce. Or order everything else on the menu to eat with it especially dishes with black bean sauce
What else to try: Cheaper pinots from Chile. A fruity Italian red like a Dolcetto. Mid-weight merlots should work too.

See other pairings for duck, crispy or otherwise

Pizza and Chianti ***
Why it worked
I’ve had better matches for Chianti Classico admittedly but a bottle of Villa Caffagio 2004 doesn’t half improve a supermarket pizza. The acidity in chianti is always great for tackling cooked cheese. Even at its superior best it has a quaffable quality that makes it a relaxing sip.
What to hold/go easy on:
Too many topping ingredients (very un-Italian). Avoid curried meat pizzas - as I hope you do anyway
What else to try: Most other Tuscan reds, new world sangioveses, Languedoc reds like Faugères

See other wine - and beer - pairings for pizza

Curry and Rioja Reserva **
Why it (just) works
I’ve partnered rioja successfully with curry before, most notably rogan josh and the smooth plummy Ondarre Rioja Reserva 2001 just about held its own with a moderately spicy selection of South Indian dishes including a prawn curry, a chicken Chettinad and a potato curry. The key to making it kick in was taking a spoonful of raita with each mouthful which calmed the heat and upped the acidity of the match.
What to hold/go easy on:
The overall heat level. Really hot curries do wine of any kind few favours
What else to try: To be honest a substantial new world red would have been better: with a few years bottle age to tame the tannins. Maybe a Grange 1990? (Only joking)

My top 5 wine picks with curry

Top photo by Meelan Bawjee at Unsplash.com 

 

Why I’ve put part of matchingfoodandwine.com behind a paywall

Those of you who consult matchingfoodandwine.com regularly may have noticed I have put the Top Pairings section of the site behind a paywall.

You may wonder why after all this time. After all the site has been free to use since I first set it up back in 2006.

At that time it wasn’t common to charge for online content - Jancis Robinson was one of the only writers who did - and then, working for the Guardian, I felt it was all part of the service.

But in many ways it’s been a victim of its own success. Loads of people were using it and not paying for it - something I didn’t mind in the case of private individuals but found slightly galling in the case of large companies. But hell, why wouldn’t they? I wasn’t asking them for money despite offering them over 18 years of expertise!

So, having left the Guardian in the summer, I finally decided to put the key Top Pairings section behind a paywall which you can access by buying a bundle of credits, a model those of you who subscribe to photographic libraries will be familiar with. Or think a ‘carnet’ of Paris metro tickets if you aren’t.

You can either buy them as a monthly or annual subscription where they get automatically topped up or a on one-off basis. 

One credit buys you access to one article so it’s basically pay-as-you-go. You can get an idea of what the article is about from the first couple of paragraphs.

Once you’ve paid for an article you have permanent access to it and there’s no time limit by which the credits have to be used.

Many sections of the site still remain free - the regularly updated Match of the Week slot and Recipes, Entertaining, Wine Basics and Food & Wine Pros among them so there’s plenty to browse.

But if you’d like to access the key recommendations here’s how to go about it;

How to buy a bundle of credits

It’s actually really simple.

Head for the Purchase Credits page and sign up or sign in, choose from the credit packs and you’ll then be able enter your payment details.

(Prices start at £6 ($7.82/7.20€*) for a one-off bundle of 10 credits i.e. 60p (78 cents /.72€*) an article or you could take out an annual membership for £55 (/$71.76/66€*) which would give you 120 credits which works out at only 46p (60 cents/.55€) an article. There is a range of other options.

If you’re a business and would like to set up access for more than one member of your team you can take out a corporate subscription. Only one person needs to sign up but you can then add the email addresses of up to four other colleagues to give them access to the content. If they sign in with that email and hit “forgotten password” they can set up their own password.

Here’s the link you need again

* at the current rate of exchange 20/10/24

Pairing oysters with sake and other seafood

Shirley Booth explains the different grades of sake and why it goes so well with oysters and other seafood.

Ten years ago, when I started the British Sake Association, my dream was to see sake being served in British bars and restaurants, being drunk by young hip urbanites: by people, and in places, with no relationship to Japan at all.

So when I was invited to a sake and oyster tasting at the newly opened Oystermen Seafood Bar & Kitchen in Covent Garden how could I resist? In Japan it’s a classic combination, as we were about to appreciate.

Oystermen was originally set up as a catering business by Matt Lovell and Rob Hampton back in 2016. The following year they established a permanent home in Covent Garden, which expanded into the adjoining building at the end of last year.

As well as an oyster bar, with oysters from Ireland, Maldon, Whitstable, Jersey and Menai, there is a selection of seafood dishes, prepared in the (tiny) kitchen by the talented Alex Povall and Joel Ryan, both formerly at Murano. And, alongside the great selection of wine in the fridge, there is Japanese sake.

The tasting was part of the Japanese government’s JFoodo initiative, a series of events, called Journey of Sake: Harmony Series, created to introduce sake as a partner to a variety of non-Japanese cuisines and was hosted by Oliver Hilton-Johnson from TenguSake

Ollie, as he is known, began by explaining the polishing rate of sake, and how this determines the categorisation and, of course, the flavour. In brief, the more highly polished the rice grain, the more delicate and elegant the taste.

The different styles of sake

Ginjo is polished down to 60% (i.e. 40% of the rice grain is milled away); together with a long slow fermentation this results in a sake characterised by floral and tropical fruit aromas; a DaiGinjo is polished even more – at least 50%, and sometimes down to 38% or even 19%., resulting in a supremely delicate (and expensive) sake.

These styles often have a little (up to 10%) brewer’s alcohol added - to stabilize and enhance the flavours and aroma. But a further categorization, Junmai, refers to sake with no added alcohol, sometimes described as ‘pure rice sake’. Junmai tends to have a more rice-based umami character.

Another categorization concerns the style of brewing, in particular the starter mash. Yamahai and Kimoto are both made with old fashioned slow methods, producing a style of sake which is more complex, dense, earthy and more full bodied, sometimes with ricey or lactic notes.

Honjozo is polished down to only 70%; and Futsushu is ‘everyday sake’ rather like vin de table, and outside the Premium Sake designation. In futsushu the polishing rate, as well as additives and procedures, are not bound by such strict rules: which means you can get some terrible ones, but also some very decent futsushu.

Sake and Food

The synergy of sake with food was enthusiastically explained by Ollie, who told us the three things that sake can do (that wine can’t).

First: temperature. Unlike wine, sake can be - and is - drunk at varying levels of temperature. The Japanese have poetic names for a range of subtly different temperatures (‘flower cold’ and ‘snow cold’ for example) but the main differences are between chilled, room temperature and warm.

This ability to determine the serving temperature means you have the ability to mask or enhance the characteristics of the sake as you serve it. Warmth will mask acidity and seem to make it taste sweeter: chilling it will enhance acidity, and so on. To me this is one of the most instructive things you can do to learn about sake: try the same sake at three or four different temperatures and see how it changes.

The second difference, Ollie explained, was the acidity in sake. Sake has a fifth of the acidity of wine – it’s significantly low in citric and malic acid - the ones you find in wine. Conversely though, whilst wine is low in glutamic acids (15mg per litre in red wine), sake contains a lot : 250mg glutamic acid per litre.

This glutamic acid component of sake is the key to the third big difference from wine. Amino acids - glutamic acid as well as lactic acid and succinic acid - are the agents responsible for what has been described as the fifth taste, umami. Sometimes described as ‘deliciousness’ or ‘savoury’, umami is one of the reasons why sake is so good with food. Amino acids, especially if present in both food and drink in combination, intensify taste, creating more and more umami – enhancing taste, and making everything more delicious.

Oysters too are high in amino acids (particularly succinic acid and glutamic acid) and this is why sake and oysters ‘do so much for each other’.

Our first dish confirmed it. Maldon Rock Oyster (a large oyster) is high in salinity, so Ollie had paired it with Tatenokawa 50 ‘Stream’ - an aromatic Junmai Daiginjo which stood up to the saltiness. Alongside, the smaller Kumamoto oyster, a Japanese breed, was meatier and was paired with Konishi Gold, a Daiginjo Hiyashibori: this was a less aromatic, creamier and richer sake, paired with an oyster with more depth and richness, the sake bringing out the creaminess and richness of both.

As the bream carpaccio was served Ollie explained how sake can wash away, or minimise, any fishiness and saltiness , thereby allowing other aspects of the dish to shine. The Silent Blossom Junmai DaiGinjo had distinct aniseed notes, something you often find in sake and, as the dish featured aniseed herbs, this was a perfect complement. (I had kept back a bit of my Konishi Gold and thought that worked well too, but the Silent Blossom was sweeter).

Next came Oyster-Stout-Braised Beef Shin and Oyster Pie, with a toasted breadcrumb topping– a take on the classic nineteenth century London dish of steak and oyster pie made with stout brewed in south London. An umami-rich aged Junmai DaiGinjo called Aperitif accompanied it. Ageing breaks down sugars into amino acids, creating an umami-rich sake which is good with cheesecake or biscuits (hence the pairing with the breadcrumb topping). The mushroomy, soy sauce-rich flavours of the sake were perfect with this dish.

But we hadn’t finished: a ‘risotto’ made with orzo and braised cuttlefish from Dorset, with Lyonnaise onion and red butterfly sorrel was placed in front of us. This was a rich dish that needed the robust acidity of Black Face – another Junmai Daiginjo.

Then came tempura served with something quite different: Misty Mountain is a Bodaimoto, named after the temple in which it was first brewed. Bodaimoto is an ancient medieval method which results in a 17% slightly sour sake (from the slowly and naturally created lactic acid used in the mash ). It’s rich, fun and vibrant and, unusually for Japan, made by a woman.

We finished with a dessert of roasted peaches in sugar and butter de-glazed with sake (of course) served with peach puree and caramelized white chocolate: the toffee notes of this dish harmonized with a sweet sake UmeShu – sake infused with plum.

To discover more harmonies of sake and food go to https://foodandsake.com/london/ which lists all the places in London where sake is served - there are many more than you would think – and many of them non-Japanese.

For more information about sake and the British Sake Association, or to become a member, visit www.britishsakeassociation.org

To buy the sakes mentioned here on line visit www.tengusake.com

Shirley Booth is founder and president of the British Sake Association

© Shirley Booth 2018. Images © Nic Crilly-Hargrave / niccrillyhargrave.com

10 things you possibly didn’t know about champagne

We are all familiar with the pop of the cork, the seductive stream of bubbles and the heady sensation as you take your first sip, but how much do you really know about the world’s most romantic drink ?

Here are 10 facts to drop into conversation next time you’re clinking glasses:

1. Dom Pérignon didn’t invent champagne

Possibly the most well known “fact” about bubbly turns out to be fiction. Dom Pérignon may have created techniques to stabilise the bubbles during the ageing process but he didn’t come up with the méthode champenoise. In fact, the oldest record of sparkling wine being made is 1531, and it’s from nowhere near the region; Blanquette de Limoux was produced in the Abbaye de Saint-Hilaire in the Aude region down in the South of France.

And to add insult to injury for the French, it was an Englishman named Christopher Merret who documented the process of adding sugar to fully finished wine in order to create bubbles, way before Dom Pérignon even came near Hautvilliers Abbey in 1668.

2. Champagne has always had a royal connection (and not just because the royals drink it)

Since one of the most important cities in Champagne, Reims, was the seat of some of the most important Catholic dignitaries in Gaul (as France was called at the time), it may come as no surprise that wine from Champagne was used at the baptism of the First King of the Franks, Clovis I, in 496.

This is the beginning of the long history of Champagne being used by royals in all ceremonies, religious or otherwise; a total of 25 French monarchs were crowned in Reims, starting with Louis VIII in 1223.

3. Waiter, there’s salt in my champagne …

You may find that some champagnes have a saline quality which can be traced to the local Kimmeridgean limestone.

About 155 million years ago there was a low sea shelf in the region of Champagne, where there were lots of sea critters. When the creatures died their skeletons fell to the bottom of the ocean and fossilised. If you look at the soil in the region you can see evidence of these fossils which is what gives some champagnes a certain salinity.

. . . and sugar too!

Even when described as 'brut' most champagnes contain added sugar which is known as a “dosage” and is used by producers to counteract the basic acidity of the grapes in what is a pretty northerly growing region. You can tell roughly how much has been added from the description on the label.

Brut Nature / Brut Zero means there is no added sugar to the champagne; it’s known to be the favourite style of celebs like Kate Moss due to its low sugar and low calorie content (60kcal per glass)

Brut is anywhere between 0 and 12 grams of added sugar per litre, and this is the style that is most commonly found in the big brands or 'grandes marques' (although sugar levels have been inching down over the last few years)

Sec is between 17 and 32 grams of added sugar per litre. Although it means ‘dry’ in French, it is clearly not with almost a teaspoon of sugar in each glass.

Demi-sec has 32-50 grams of added sugar per litre. This means ‘half-dry’, which is even more confusing for native English speakers. Medium sweet would be a more accurate description.

4. The champagne grapes you've never even heard of

You may know that the main three grapes in the Champagne region are chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier, but it is less well known that three other permitted grapes - pinot blanc, petit meslier and arbane. Although the quantities are tiny - less than 1% of the grapes grown in the region they can be found in some blends. Specific houses like Duval Leroy produce single varietal champagnes from these varieties and they are really interesting wines should you ever get your hands on a bottle.

There is also another variety which represents the smallest percentage of grapes grown in Champagne and very few people know of it at all: enfariné noir, or as it is known locally, Gouais Noir. This is a pale red grape that is rubbish for sparkling wines but is widely used for table wines in the region.

5. Champagne doesn’t only produce champagne

The region is also able to produce two types of still wines: Coteaux Champenois and Rosé des Riceys.

Coteaux Champenois are still whites or reds from the region, some of which are blindingly brilliant (like Bérêche et Fils), and others are produced for local consumption.

Rosé des Riceys is made down in the Côte des Bar (see below). Little known fact: the appellation Les Riceys is the only wine growing area in France that has three officially recognised denominations in it: AOC Champagne, AOC Côteaux Champenois red wine and AOC Rosé de Riceys

6. Vintage isn't automatically better than non-vintage

The names you most commonly see on supermarkets such as Moët & Chandon Imperial and Veuve Cliquot Yellow Label, are known as Brut Sans Année (BSA) or a Non Vintage (NV), and represents the house style of each producer or 'maison' as they're called.

Many count their NVs as their pride and joy and consider them the ‘flagship’ of the their champagne house. When you go out to buy your bottle of G.H. Mumm Cordon Rouge for instance, you know that it will taste the same time after time. But that's not that easy to achieve as the grapes will taste different from harvest to harvest. So how do they do it? The cellar masters of each champagne house use a blend of wines from multiple vintages (some up to 20 years old) to create a consistent cuvée.

The main differences between a non vintage and a vintage champagne are two main things: grapes and ageing. In vintage champagne, grapes can come from any part of the region, as long as they are 100% from the declared vintage, and they have to be aged for 3 years as opposed to 15 months for a non-vintage. The time and care that is taken over vintages can mean a superior, more complex champagne but some champagne houses' non-vintage is in the same class.

7. Champagne is big business…

We all like to think of our wines being made by gnarled artisanal winemakers but Champagne doesn't work quite like that. Larger groups virtually monopolise the UK champagne market. For example, the multinational conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) owns Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon, Krug, Veuve Cliquot, Ruinart and Mercier - and is estimated to account for about 20% of the total sales of champagne by volume.

You may see the letters NM on some of these larger brands; this stands for Negociant Manipulant, and signifies that the grapes used in the wine are bought from many different sources and produced in house. These houses do often own their own vines but the majority of their grapes will come from other growers. In the production of LVMH brand champagnes, 75% of their grapes come from external growers.

If you see the letters RM on a bottle, this means the Champagne is produced by a house that uses only their own grapes in their finished wine. This Recoltant Manipulant produces what is known as a “grower Champagne”, and some of them are considered among the best in the region. Some wines worth looking out for are those from the houses of Henri Giraud, Vouette & Sorbée, Ulysse Collin and Egly Ouriet.

8. But aren’t a lot of sparkling wines made using the Champagne method?

Technically yes, but they can’t use the C-word. Outside of Champagne the Méthode Champenoise must be called the “traditional method”. And don’t forget that Prosecco is produced using an entirely different technique called the charmat method which has no second fermentation in bottle but instead in huge tanks, which makes the process faster and more cost effective.

So what is Méthode Champenoise? After the still wine is made, it is put in bottle and a solution is added called the liqueur de tirage that contains wine, sugar and yeast. The sugar and yeast react together to produce more alcohol and carbon dioxide, the latter of which dissolves into the Champagne, and produces its famous bubbles. This process takes a minimum of 15 months for non-vintage champagnes. The leftover yeast is removed, and the cork is inserted, ready for further ageing or consumption.

9. Why champagne corks are such a strange shape

Corks are synonymous with Champagne; the unique shape, the classic pop, it’s all part of the experience. The weird thing though about the cork is that before it is put in the bottle, it has the same uniform shape that corks from other still wines have. The next bottle of champagne you buy, you should keep the cork after you open it and watch it regain its original shape.

The wire cage keeps the cork in place, and makes sure that it doesn’t pop out while it’s sitting on the shelf. There are about 6 bars of pressure in a bottle of Champagne, which is enough to take an eye out, so this cage is key for safety. It’s also a good reason to keep your champagne chilled; it's less likely to burst explosively out of the bottle if the wine is cold! (If you want to see how to open a bottle of champagne check out this video)

You may be one of those people that collect the decorative caps of champagne bottles, but very few people know the purpose of these caps. Dry style champagnes are a relatively recent trend; before this, Champagnes had a much higher sugar content. This meant as the bottles were laying in the cellar, rats would come and nibble at the sugary corks, resulting in hundreds of shattered bottles (and probably a few lacerated rats). The cap was introduced to stop the rats from getting into the bottles. Now that a drier style is more common, and health and safety standards have been raised ever so slightly, the cap is only there for decorative purposes!

10. There's a part of the champagne region no one talks much about.

Côte des Bar, in the Aube region, is situated well to the south of Reims and Epernay. It doesn’t have the same reputation as the rest of the region for quality but it’s a very interesting place for champagne production, since this is where land is cheapest. This has new producers to get established bringing their innovative practices and fresh ideas to the region.

Surprisingly, for an area that is not spoken of much, Côte des Bar makes up around 20% of the wine producing area of Champagne. The area almost exclusively plants Pinot Noir due to its slightly warmer climate; the champagne house Drappier, which is based in Urville, claims that pinot noir is the grape that “runs through their veins”.