Food & Wine Pros

Using 'bridge' ingredients to create a perfect match

Using 'bridge' ingredients to create a perfect match

One of the most useful tricks to master, especially when you’re dealing with a tricky-to-match ingredient, is to introduce a ‘bridge’ ingredient - in other words an element in the dish that makes it easier to pair with the wine you want to drink. It can be something as simple as cream or mashed potato or something rather more specific that picks out a flavour in the wine you’re serving.

Cheese is the most obvious example. Some cheeses such as blue or washed rind cheeses are tough on wine but if you bring some other ingredients to the party (rather than other cheeses which will make the job even more difficult) the task becomes easier.

  • Add a slice of walnut bread and a handful of dried fruits such as apricots, figs or raisins to a piece of Stilton, for example and it will be easier to match with an aged red like a Rioja. Or serve a bright cherry compote with a young sheep's cheese as they do in the south-west of France and you’ll be able to pair it with a more full-bodied red than you would if you served the cheese alone.
  • With chocolate too it can help to have a red fruit accompaniment if you want to serve a strong sweet red wine such as port (but not if you wanted to serve a full bodied dry red like a Cabernet where the added fruit would knock out the fruit in your wine, leaving you with a very tannic accompaniment. Your wine needs to be sweeter and more intense in flavour than the element you introduce)
  • Pork or game like pheasant served with a light jus and apple sauce will immediately be easier to match with a fruity white like a Riesling or a young Chenin Blanc than if you serve it with a rich, wine based sauce which would lead you more towards a red.
  • A rich potato gratin like a gratin dauphinoise served with your roast lamb or beef will soften the tannins of a young, angular Cabernet. (Cheese can act as a bridging ingredient too, for instance in salads where it can counteract the sharpness in a dressing and make it more wine-friendly.)

How do you know which ingredient to introduce? Well, just as you know what vegetables or other accompaniments to serve with your base ingredient - it comes with experience. If you’re a practised cook you’ll find it easy. If you’re less experienced this site is here to help you but don't hesitate to drop me a line at fiona AT matchingfoodandwine DOT com if you've got a specific query.

See also How cream can help a fine wine match

Photo © Polina Ponomareva at fotolia.com

The issue of consistency in food and wine pairing

The issue of consistency in food and wine pairing

A while ago I encountered a problem that restaurants must deal with every day: the issue of consistency.

I was doing a series of workshops for the Irish wine distributor Febvre as part of their Febvreuary promotion (clever name!) three of which were held at Drury Buildings in Dublin’s city centre and involved the same menu.

Two courses in particular varied quite significantly - a dish of pappardelle with wild mushrooms where the amount of saucing ranged from quite dry (making the mushrooms more dominant and therefore more pinot-friendly) to creamy which kicked in better (in my view) with the De Bortoli chardonnay we were offering as an alternative.

The T Bone steak also tasted different each time. More or less charred, more or less rare and more or less fatty depending on which part of the cut you got. In session 3 it was significantly salter which make the Banfi chianti we were tasting with it even more appealing (though on balance it was most people’s favourite) The D’Arenberg Darry's Original (a GSM blend from 2010) worked best with the rarer slices and accompanying shallot which again differed in its degree of caramelisation and sweetness. (This by the way is no reflection on the kitchen - simply what you'd expect when you taste a dish on successive occasions.)

Even the wines tasted different, I thought - better on the second day (February 18th) than the first. Bottle variation (some were under cork)? From a different case? Atmospheric pressure? Who knows. Both days were root days as a matter of interest.

The net effect was the pairings varied each session. And so did the reactions of those present. Different people, different preferences.

Does this prove - as I’m sure some would argue - that food and wine matching is a pointless endeavour? You’d expect me to say this but absolutely not any more than it’s pointless putting a dish on the menu as it might not taste exactly the same the following day.

But it does perhaps make a case for keeping an eye on your food and wine pairings particularly if you change elements in a dish (such as the vegetables) or switch vintages. A new delivery of a wine might even taste different from the last few bottles of the previous one. Or, then again, it might not ....

Restaurateurs who offer food pairings I’d be interested to have your reactions to this. How you deal with the issues of vintage variation and consistency in the kitchen?

How food can make your wine shine

How food can make your wine shine

I have no evidence for it but I’m sure that the vast majority of wine that people buy is bought to drink with food. Yet most of the wine that’s tasted or presented to journalists and bloggers is shown on its own.

As I conceded in my first post on showing off your wine that may be the only practical way. Some journalists - the ones who write purely about wine - don’t want the distraction of food and food smells, as Andrew Jefford made clear in his Decanter post, Lunch is not a Story. But some do, especially those of us who write about food. And it seems to me wine producers, importers and retailers are missing a trick.

An imaginative choice of food or an unexpected meal can make your wine stand out. I admired the chutzpah of Robert Rolls a while back choosing to host a lunch with one of their producers Hubert Lignier in the middle of Burgundy week. A well chosen venue (The small first floor dining room at the Quality Chop House), simple French food (home-made paté and lamb chops) and the chance to taste some older vintages made this a memorable occasion and put Rolls on the radar for me. And how much more convivial it was than spending a couple of hours standing and spitting which provides only a fleeting chance to talk to producers.

Then there was the lunch at Bodegas Beronia where a great home cook came in to make a lunch of typical Riojan dishes including the fabled menestra and milk fed lamb giving us a real feel for the local food and the unexpected discovery that a dish with artichokes can be delicious with a young red.

Drinking sherry with Sam Hart of Fino and Javier Hidalgo in Sanlucar a couple of years ago reinforced something I admittedly knew from a previous visit - that sherry shouldn't be limited to tapas and that that manzanilla makes a great match for a whole range of fish and shellfish. The message to take away from that? A Friday night bottle of fino or manzanilla would be great with your fish and chips.

And I doubt many wine journalists would be writing about McGuigan had they not gone into partnership with chef John Torode and produced an enticing selection of recipes with which to pair their wines. And Nederburg have recently set up a similar partnership with TV presenter Jimmy Doherty.

Alright for some, you might say, with a lavish budget to spend but bringing food into the equation doesn’t need to be expensive or involve a pricey restaurant. It could be a simple matter of offering 4-6 canapés at the end of a tasting to show how your key wines work with different dishes and ingredients. Or, for wine merchants, taking a couple of local press and bloggers to a local Chinese or Thai restaurant and playing about with some different wine styles.

You might also ask yourself if you can afford not to show your wine with food particularly if they’re the sort of wines that don’t stand out in a line-up or the shouty ‘look at me' kind that win wine competitions. Or if they’re tannic young wines like Barolo which may be unforgiving on their own.

Obviously it’s difficult for wine shops to prepare food on site unless they double as a deli but there’s no reason why products at ambient temperature like chocolate, charcuterie or truffle paste shouldn’t be served, especially if you can persuade a producer to come along and hand out samples. Or even charge a nominal amount for a ‘sip and a snack’, refundable if you buy a bottle to discourage freeloaders. Many wines would taste better for it.

Another argument against involving food (we’re incredibly good in the UK at finding reasons NOT to do something) is that telling people what to eat with a wine intimidates them. That they should be able to drink whatever they like with the food they like. No rules against that, obviously, but let’s not pretend some matches aren’t more appealing than others.

Would you take the same attitude to food and say ‘you want to serve fried fish with gravy - go for it!’. ‘Top your steak with sliced strawberries? Hell, why not?’ Why not is because most of your customers' guests wouldn’t enjoy it. And you (the producer or wine merchant) might be able to guide them to something they would find much more pleasurable.

So, to paraphrase Andrew Jefford, lunch can be a story - it depends on the kind of story you’re telling. And for most people food is an entrée to wine, not the other way round.

'Rad' food matching at the London Wine Sessions

'Rad' food matching at the London Wine Sessions

The second London Wine Sessions took place last Saturday - rather appropriately in über cool Hackney. It was a day of wine tastings and discussions featuring some prominent, established names such as Fiona, Jamie Goode of Wine Anorak, the Telegraph's Victoria Moore and the Independent's Anthony Rose as well as current trail-blazers.

It was fun with a a young crowd, a relaxed spontaneity and deliberately free of the kind of formal reverence you can find at wine events. Joint organiser Emily O’Hare of The River Café hosted the sessions in a warm and inclusive manner – adjectives not often used by consumers to describe the wine world.

The day culminated with some ‘rad’ (ie radical) food and wine matching. According to the organisers we were promised six amazing wines and six very good things to eat from Jack Lewens (ex River Café and Quo Vadis, now working with Skye Gyngell on her forthcoming restaurant, Spring) and Matthew Young of Mayfields. I wasn’t sure about the rather self-conscious title ‘Rad Food Matching’ – we were in E2 after all – but it sounded interesting nevertheless.

We began with a glass of Fleury Blanc de Noirs Champagne Brut and carrot and fennel crudités with anchovy dip – a fresh, crunchy pick-me-up at the end of a long day’s tasting (and listening). So far so good, but not that rad.

Things started picking up though. The first course of lightly cured grey mullet with cherries, peas and tomatoes in a tomato broth was delicate and springlike (although it could have done without so many raw peas – rather too worthy!) Roero Arneis from Valfaccenda was served with this to tasty effect. Aromatic, yet mouthfilling, it was a good choice.

Another pretty dish followed: pea purée, apricot mousse, apricot pieces, samphire and ricotta. Quite a challenge for wine – sweet, salty, aromatic and creamy - however the accompanying glass of Rolly-Gassmann’s Riesling 2009 cut an elegant refreshing swathe through it. Personally, I might have gone for something a little more neutral as the Riesling added another flavour dimension when there was already a lot going on.

What came next was a big surprise: steak tartare served in a beef and smoked eel broth. The meat was unctuously fatty with the added complexity and savouriness of the smoked eel. An inspired (and yes radical) choice for this memorable dish was an orange wine, Macération Blanc Lio from Le Soula in the Languedoc. Burnished, autumnal, ripe, yet fresh and saline, it balanced the richness of the dish and married beautifully with the smoky flavours. Everyone seemed to be blown away by this.

More beef followed, this time tender braised ox cheek that had been brined for a week, served with cotechino sausage, peppery salad leaves and beans. This was paired with something a little more conventional – sleek, polished Navaherreros Viños de Madrid 2011 from Bernabeleva, a high altitude, deceptively alcoholic Garnacha (15.5%). The wine’s fresh acidity and supple tannins deftly partnered the meat and drew out the earthy beans.

We finished with another, more left field combination – sorrel ice cream and honeycomb with Macvin du Jura (Domaine de la Tournelle). Like Pineau des Charentes, this isn’t a wine, but a mistelle – grape juice fortified with grape spirit, although the Macvin has a more oxidative, sherried style from being aged in large oak barrels.

Complex and mellow with its wildflower honey character chiming aromatically with the sorrel and honeycomb. It was an extraordinary choice. The overall effect was confident, thought provoking with an authentic, natural beauty - and very cool. Much like the whole day, in fact . . .

For other orange wine pairings see this post by Donald Edwards.

Lucy Bridgers is a regular contributor to matchingfoodandwine.com. She also has her own blog Wine, Food and other Pleasures

A food and wine pairing experiment with Dr Peter Klosse

A food and wine pairing experiment with Dr Peter Klosse

Over lunch with Peter Klosse the other day I re-discovered what a huge difference the way an ingredient is cooked and sauced can make to the wine you choose.

Klosse who runs his own luxury hotel and restaurant, De Echoput near Apeldoorn in the east of Holland is an expert on food and wine matching with several books to his name and is a professor at two Dutch universities.

His theory is that you should look for two main things when you devise a wine pairing: whether the dish and the wine have a contracting or coating effect on the palate (salty and sour tastes, causing the palate to contract, sweet and fatty flavours, coating it). And whether the dish is flavour intense or not which is self-explanatory.

He lined up three white wines which were served blind so as not to give us any preconceptions. One was crisp and fresh, one smooth and subtly oaked and one rich and weighty, coming into his flavour-intense category

First we were served a simply cooked piece of halibut served with carrots, leeks and a delicate saffron-spiked poaching liquid. It paired perfectly with the crisp white, made the second wine taste slightly clumsy and the oaked wine overpowered it completely. We added a sprinkling of chopped gherkin but that made the crisp white taste simpler and more lemony.

Next the fish was served seared with a light butter sauce which made the dish quite a bit richer. This time the first wine tasted slightly thin, the second, lightly oaked wine much more elegant and graceful but the third was still a little overpowering.

Finally the fish was served with a rich creamy mushroom sauce - an opportunity for the third full-bodied white to shine. The second lightly oaked wine also showed well - it would be a matter of preference which was the better pairing but the first wine tasted positively thin by comparison.

He then told us what the three wines were which was just as much of a revelation. The first surprise was that they were all chardonnay - and French. Two, the first and the third, from the same Languedoc producer Vincent Pugibet of Domaine la Colombette. The first wine a low alcohol chardonnay called Plume that is only 9% and the last a rich 2010 chardonnay called Demi-muid. The second wine was a 2009 Macon Bussières from Domaine de la Sarazinière, Cuvée Claude Seigneuret

As a final party trick Klosse then served a braised dish of beef with cloves and a hazelnut purée with a 2010 Beaumes de Venise Terrisimo then asked us to taste the final white - the rich chardonnay with it as well. I disagreed with him that it was the better match - there’s something about stews that calls for red wines in my view - but it was a clever play on the spices in the dish and did work remarkably well.

De Echoput is at Amersfoortseweg 86 7346 AA Hoog Soeren

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