Match of the week

Pomerol and gravy

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on June 23 2025 at 09:53

This might sound a bit of a weird pairing - what about the meat the gravy goes with? The answer is there wasn’t any.

The gravy - and what gravy- was served with a small potato sourdough loaf at chef Stevie Parle’s new restaurant, Town, the (brilliant) idea being you dunk the warm bread in the gravy, a bit like a French dip.

The gravy, referred to as Town house gravy (I love the idea of a restaurant having a ‘house gravy’) was satisfyingly dark and meaty with more than a hint of bone marrow, the sort of sauce, I thought, would show off a good Bordeaux, maybe a Pomerol …

Fortunately there was one available by the glass on the wine list - a 2019 Clos René and you know what? It was absolutely perfect - one of those rare pairings where the whole is better than the sum of the parts.

You can find that vintage online at Four Walls Wine Co for £29.95 among other stockists but other vintages are quite widely available. Justerini & Brooks has the 2017 for example.

For other Pomerol pairings see Which foods pair best with merlot

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