Six of the best drink pairings for kale

Although there's not quite the feverish frenzy there was about kale a couple of years ago there's still a lot of kale lurve around.

The reason of course is its well-documented health benefits which might suggest you shouldn’t be drinking alcohol with it at all but there are many dishes containing kale with which it would be pleasant to have a drink.

With its slightly bitter taste kale also has an impact on wine when it's served as a vegetable: it’ll tend to make any wine taste sweeter so you may want to serve it with both reds and whites that have a good level of acidity. That effect can be counteracted though if you serve it with something like chorizo that has a stronger flavour. Then you should match the chorizo rather than the kale

* Apple-flavoured drinks especially apple juice and cider work well with salads that include kale such as this one. Or try a grüner veltliner.

* Fresh carrot and beet-based juices

* Italian white wines such as Gavi are good with creamy pasta dishes with cavolo nero

* Fresh-tasting natural reds such as young syrah and mencia from Spain’s Bierzo region are good with hearty stews and soups that are based on kale. If they include a spicy sausage like chorizo you could serve a fuller bodied red like a Rioja crianza or a red from Portugal’s Alentejo region.

*Tuscan reds like Chianti work well when kale is used as an accompaniment for lamb or game with polenta

* Give kale an oriental spin with soy or sesame and you could drink a sake

And of course kale can be served IN a drink rather than paired WITH one. You’ll find some good ideas on my friend Monica Shaw’s blog Smarter Fitter blog.

If you enjoyed this post you may also find my posts on pairing wine and cauliflower and wine and brussels sprouts useful.

The best food pairings for syrah

Syrah and shiraz, as you may know, are the same grape variety but quite different in character. Syrah, especially from the Northern Rhône, tends to be savoury, shiraz from Australia, far more sweet-fruited.

In this guide, I’m concentrating on food pairings for syrah. Learn, for example... 

*Which meats and cooking styles bring out the best in syrah’s savoury notes?

*Are there surprising vegetarian or cheese pairings that work beautifully with syrah?

*How do you pair high-end syrahs like Côte Rôtie or Hermitage with food?

*What unexpected dishes, like fish or Moroccan tagines, pair well with syrah?

What sort of food goes with syrah?

In a nutshell, meat, especially steak and other beef dishes. Particularly if it’s grilled or cooked on an open fire. With an inexpensive syrah think steak frites: a rib of beef with a finer, more expensive wine.

Pork is also good, especially if it’s grilled.

Garlicky Toulouse sausages are divine. In fact garlic generally makes syrah sing as do fragrant herbs such as thyme, oregano and rosemary (think Provençal and southern French food generally). Be wary about black pepper though. Just because there are peppery notes in syrah doesn’t mean you should pair it with peppery food. Something like a steak in pepper sauce can cancel out the pepper notes in the wine.

Oh and black olives. Great with syrah if you want to add them to a dish.

Why not lamb? Personally I think there are better matches for lamb. For me lamb is best with cabernet, tempranillo (especially rioja) and Italian reds but I’m not going to get precious about it. Go for it!

In terms of pairing syrah with vegetarian dishes I’d go for hearty dishes based on beans or lentils and intensely flavoured vegetables like aubergines and mushrooms. And syrah is one of the best red wines with cheese.

I’d also suggest different food pairings for different styles of syrah.

Young quaffable syrah

These are often natural, brimming with fresh, bright berry fruit - real vins de soif (thirstquenching wines) as the French call them. Perfect with charcuterie and cheese - so the wine for your fancy meat and cheese platter. Especially with olives!

Young syrahs are also good with lighter meats like grilled and sautéed chicken and rabbit like this braised rabbit dish.

Medium bodied syrah around 2-5 years old

e.g. Crozes-Hermitage, or Saint-Joseph (sometimes referred to as cool climate syrah)

We’re talking slightly more substantial, more full-bodied syrah here, with a bit of bottle age. Typically from the northern Rhône.

So grilled meat again, obviously but also think braises and daubes which are excellent with this style, especially beef short ribs (especially with Cornas). Oxtail and ox cheek too. And I do like black pudding with a syrah. (Haggis too, come to that)

Although I prefer a ripe new world style with barbecue (see below) they’re also tops with a fatty lamb belly kebab according to my colleague Zeren Wilson. And, to my surprise, with this pairing with coffee and maple syrup-brined pork though I’d probably still go for the fruitier type of syrah below.

Think cheese too with this style of syrah. Aged Comté can be bliss.

Ripe fruity syrah from e.g. California and Chile.

Typically fruitier than Northern Rhône syrah but less ripe and full-bodied than an Australian shiraz.

Great with American-style barbecue and spicy marinades, especially with pork (think pulled pork. Look at this pairing of spicy grilled quail and a Boekenhoutskloof Syrah too. They work with hoisin duck too.

You could even try it with seared or grilled meaty fish like tuna as in this pairing with Elephant Hill syrah.

If your wine is labelled shiraz, particularly if it comes from Australia, click here.

Posh syrah

Syrah produces some of the most seductive wines in the world - think Côte Rôtie, Hermitage and Grange (which in my view counts more as a syrah than a shiraz from a pairing perspective) If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on a bottle what should you pair with it?

Basically the answer is the same sort of food you’d eat with a cheaper syrah, only up the quality. Think rib of beef, Chateaubriand, Wagyu beef and aged Galician beef. Venison and wild boar will also show off a top syrah as will feathered game such as grouse, pheasant and pigeon/squab (see also below). Same goes for goose - top Rhône syrah is a great wine to put on the Christmas table. It also has the intensity to handle rich wine-based sauces or ‘jus’.

You might also think of veal kidneys if you like them.

Syrah (along with syrah blends) also handles cheese better than more fragile burgundies or Bordeaux so they’re a good wine to drink with a cheeseboard as long as you avoid pungent washed-rind cheeses and strong blues.

Older syrah vintages

Syrah ages well, often developing a gamey note which itself goes well with game, especially pheasant, pigeon and woodcock as you can see from this report about a spectacular Cambridge college dinner. That’s true of ‘new world’ syrah too as this pairing of a 17 year old Californian syrah and venison proves.

Think too of well matured beef like Pete Hannan’s Himalayan salt-aged beef which will bring the fruit in an older vintage to the fore.

And you might be surprised but the gentle spicing of Moroccan food, especially tagines, seems to work well with mature syrah. Worth thinking about them with middle-eastern and Persian food too.

What are your favourite pairings with syrah?

Read this post if you’re looking for matches for shiraz though there is obviously some overlap.

Top photo ©chiyacat at shutterstock.com
Charcuterie photo ©rawpixel at shutterstock.com
Wagyu beef photo ©hlphoto at shutterstock.com

8 great wine matches for brussels sprouts

The idea of doing a post on wine matches with brussels sprouts might strike you as a tad over the top - after all who eats sprouts on their own? (Answer: me. Whenever I get the chance.)

I’m not the only one it seems. When I've posted these sprout pictures on Instagram they've got an amazing number of ‘likes’. There’s some serious sproutlurve out there.

For those who are resolutely anti-sprout a reminder that they are no longer the soggy, sulphurous veg of your youth but can be served all manner of delicious ways. And it’s a myth that none of them work with wine. Here are 8 and the wines (and other drinks) that match with them.

Sprouts with bacon or pancetta and chestnuts

Probably the favourite sprout dish of the festive season. I’d be inclined to serve them with the same sort of red as the turkey - in other words a gutsy Rhône or Languedoc red. If they’re roasted or pan-fried they can handle a bit of tannin

Sprouts with chorizo

Has to be Spanish really. I’m rooting for Rioja reserva.

Stir-fried sprouts

Any sprout dish with Asian-style seasonings such as fish sauce, sesame and soy would be good with a Gruner Veltliner. Or a dry-ish riesling. Or, better still, a sake.

Sprouts with cheese

Roast sprouts and baked Camembert is a surprisingly good combination and one which goes well with a simple white burgundy like a Maçon Villages. Or a medium-dry cider. You should also try sprouts with Tallegio (once sampled - and never forgotten - on a pizza in New York). I’d drink a Gavi with that.

Sprout gratin

Involves cream so think Chablis or chardonnay again

Shaved sprouts with pecorino (or parmesan)

Enjoyed at my favourite Bristol wine bar Bar Buvette. With a dry Vouvray which was perfect.

Sprout slaw

Depends a bit on the seasoning and what you serve it with. With the Christmas leftovers, for example, I’d quite fancy a Beaujolais or other chilled gamay. With Ottolenghi’s brussel sprout and ginger slaw I’d go for a Clare Valley riesling

Sprouts with citrus

Ottolenghi again. Needs a white with some tropical fruit character such as a lush sauvignon-semillon blend or a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc

If you're a leafy green vegetable fan you can also check out my drink pairings for kale and cauliflower

Six of the best pairings for a burger

It might surprise you to hear it - and maybe you’ve never tried it - but a serious red wine is a really good match for a burger. Not a Maccy D, maybe but a big lush gourmet burger. And why not?

Agreed it's not quite as simple as steak. Obviously the more ingredients you add the more a wine can struggle. Burger sauces and ketchup are the main culprits. They both have a sweetness that can strip the fruit out of lighter, drier reds so stick to riper wines. Raw onions and strong pickles like kimchi also present a challenge so steer clear of those if you're drinking something special.

Here are my six favourite wine (and other) pairings

Cabernet sauvignon, merlot and blends of the two

Cabernet is probably my favourite burger wine especially with cheeseburgers (burgers with blue cheese in particular) but merlot runs it a close second. That obviously means that Bordeaux and Bordeaux blends work too though I’d suggest only once they hit a certain level of alcohol. A light 12.5% claret may struggle

Read about Cheeseburgers and Cabernet

Six of the best matches for Cabernet Sauvignon

Modern Tuscan reds

You might not be able to run to a Tignanello or Sassacaia but lesser modern Tuscan reds such as those from Bolgheri and Maremma have the ripeness and lushness to complement a burger. (And see this surprisingly good match for a Shake Shack burger!)

Other full-bodied reds like Grenache, Malbec, Shiraz and Zinfandel

You’ve probably got the drift by now: big reds work with burgers so include grenache, malbec (a burger is after all, only chopped steak), shiraz and cabernet-shiraz blends and zinfandel among your options.

IPAs and double IPAs

If there isn’t a better occasion to crack open a hoppy IPA I don’t know what is. (Well, maybe pulled pork but that’s another story ….) Rich amber ales also work well if you find craft IPAs a bit sweet. (I was drinking one only last night!)

A Manhattan

You should really try this! The sweet/strong combination of whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters is just perfect with a gourmet burger.

Milkshakes

How could I leave out a gorgeous creamy ice-cold milkshake? Not that strawberry or chocolate is really a good match for beef but who cares? Ultimate comfort drinking!

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The best wine and beer pairings for pizza

6 of the best matches for fish and chips

What to drink with chicken wings

photos © Joshua Resnick (top) and Jag_cz (centre) at fotolia.com