Why a little wine pairing knowhow is useful

Every so often someone has a pop at food and wine pairing. The media love it as they like to knock anything to do with wine (the other old chestnut being that wine professionals haven’t a clue because they can’t always recognise wines blind)

A typical sally is this post on Eater headed It’s Time to Forget the Old Rules of Wine Pairing by a Miami-based sommelier called Bianca Sanon

One of Sanon’s arguments - and it’s a fair one - is that in many restaurants nowadays small plates are the norm and it’s impossible to find one wine that will go with them all let alone take into account everyone’s personal taste.

But that’s not the only occasion on which we eat. More often at home - and it is more often at home nowadays - we decide to make a dish and have to choose what to drink with it. Easy enough, goes the argument, drink what you like but wouldn’t it be better having taken the trouble to cook something special to find something that would show it off?

It’s this idea that any advice about the subject constitutes a ‘rule’ that I have an issue with “There is a long history of the all-knowing wine guru telling you that you absolutely must have X with Y.” (No there isn’t. It’s merely a suggestion, a prompt.)

“There is no such thing as an objectively perfect pairing” she continues.

I agree no more than there’s a perfect rendition of a particular dish but that doesn’t mean that if you’re enthusiastic about a particular combination you shouldn’t communicate it on the basis that someone mightn’t like it.

Take sauvignon blanc and goats cheese. Of course it won’t appeal if you like neither sauvignon or goats cheese in which case there are a number of other options such as rosé - no-one’s pretending that there aren’t. But MOST people will enjoy it. Same with duck and pinot noir or fish and chips and fizz. It’s useful to have a few combinations up your sleeve just as you know that tomatoes, mozzarella and basil are great bedfellows.

20 food and wine pairings to learn by heart

I like Sanon’s advice - pair to the vibe - and the people and the occasion. I wouldn’t serve natural or orange wine to your conservative in-laws for example or a high alcohol sweet-fruited cabernet to a natural wine fan but you can tailor the type of wine to your audience and still consider the flavours, just as you would if you were choosing a side.

‘Drink what you like’ is really not that helpful a counsel. Translate that into ‘forget recipes just eat what you like’. Most people are not confident enough to cook without a recipe yet no-one says they shouldn’t follow someone else’s guidance.

In her desire not to put up barriers Sanon claims ‘most wines will taste pretty okay with most foods’. But it’s not really helpful to people to suggest that they do if they end result is disappointing. If you drink a full-bodied shiraz with your spaghetti carbonara or a dry white wine with your dessert it’s nothing to beat yourself up about but the people you’re feeding or hosting might enjoy it more if you poured them an Italian white or a sweet wine respectively.

Basically it comes down to hospitality. If you have a bit of knowledge of food and wine pairing you can make the experience of being round your table more enjoyable for your guests and who can argue with that?

If you’re new to food and wine pairing you may find this post useful

A beginner’s guide to pairing food and wine

Top image by Yulia Grigoryeva at shutterstock.com

What to drink if you (or your friends) are not drinking at Christmas

It’s hard to get away from the fact that Christmas - in fact pretty well the whole of December - is a mega-boozy period hence the reason so many people go in for Dry January

But supposing you don’t normally drink at all? Or you’re trying not to drink every day over the holiday? What do you substitute for the normal Christmas bottles?.

You are of course OK if you drink beer. There are many good alcohol-free beers nowadays although I say this as an occasional rather than a regular beer drinker. But what about champagne, wine, mulled wine and other Christmassy drinks? Are there satisfactory substitutes for those?

The good news is the technology behind these drinks - is constantly improving. Which sounds rather sinister but the fact is that it’s tricky to replicate the job that alcohol does both in terms of carrying flavour and ensuring the stability of a drink. Which is why AF drinks tend to be surprisingly expensive.

Wine in particular is still a challenge - you’re generally better to find something completely different - but the quality is constantly improving as I found when I dropped into the mindful drinking organisation Club Soda’s bar and tasting room in Covent Garden last week.

Here are my top picks and some (hopefully) easier-to-source alternatives if you’re nowhere near London or too late for an online delivery although this advice applies for other occasions too.

Alternatives to champagne and sparkling wine

As with other wine substitutes sparkling wine doesn’t quite live up to the real thing though if you’re not drinking at all you might be grateful for something that tastes reasonably like it. (Although bear in mind that’s not always the case. People who have had a drink problem in the past don’t necessarily want a substitute that reminds them of alcohol)

I’ve tasted a couple that are acceptable - Lyre’s Prosecco-like Classico Grande which is on offer at £7 at Ocado and Vilarnau’s 0% Cava which is available in quite a lot of indy wine merchants but which you can also buy from Amazon but neither totally rocks my boat.

Far more interesting is Jorg Geiger’s Bratbirne - a sumptuously rich, complex alternative to perry but aged for 3 years which explains the £30 price tag (at Club Soda and online at Wise Bartender) and tastes deliciously like baked apples as well as spiced pears

Easier to get hold of - and more affordable - is sparkling tea, a category pioneered by the Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company. I like Royal Flush which is on offer at £7.50 at Waitrose currently

Other aperitifs

My usual go-to, Botivo which you can buy from several stockists, including Majestic, is not especially Christmassy and I find gin and tonic a bit chilly at this time of year. If you don’t my usual alcohol-free ‘gin’ is Sipsmith’s Freeglider which is £17 also at Majestic and £20 currently at Waitrose. 

Otherwise a couple of AF aperitifs in a suitably festive red are Martini’s Vibrante which you can find on offer in Waitrose and at full price at Tesco and - rather harder to track down - High Point’s Ruby Aperitif which is normally stocked by Master of Malt. I also like Pentire’s blood orange-based Coastal Spritz - also at Waitrose as well as direct from their website. (Better in the bottle than in cans)

White ‘wine’

White wine is slightly easier to replicate than red although does have (for me) a tendency to be too sweet. Zesty whites like de-alcoholised sauvignon blanc tend to be the most successful although I was impressed by the Moderato Cuvée Revolutionnaire white which is made from colombard £13 from Club Soda.

If you’re into natural wine you’ll probably prefer kombucha which generally comes flavoured these days. Lemon and Ginger will probably work best with the kind of food with which you might normally drink white wine. I like Momo’s (available at Ocado) but most health food shops should have one.

Red ‘wine’

The best option for me up to now has been Thompson & Scott’s Noughty though as you can see from the 3 star rating on the Waitrose site, where it’s stocked for £9.99 it’s not totally convincing. However I tasted 2 at Club Soda: Eisberg’s Selection Pinot Noir which is a really reasonable £8, less still at Majestic if you buy it on a mix six deal. Even better, though twice as expensive is Jörg Geiger’s richly fruited 37° Pinot Noir at £17 at Club Soda which would be a good bottle to put on the Christmas - or New Year’s Eve table.

In terms of what you can get your hands on at the last minute, elderberry juice, which you should be able to find in a health food shop, is a decent substitute for red wine (Biona does a good one)

Mulled ‘wine’

One of the best festive AF drinks. Several producers make them including Belvoir whose mulled winter punch you can find at Sainsbury’s and Rochester’s mulled berry punch which is stocked by Holland & Barrett

Port and sherry

No real equivalent. Make a high strength mulled wine out of a cordial

A cream ‘liqueur’

Believe it or not you can find one! Twisst Caramel Cream which you can also buy from Club Soda and online from several AF drinks suppliers including the alcohol-free company. (Lay in a supply for dry January!)

If you want a suggestion as to what bottle to take your host as a gift this Christmas check out my Substack Eat This, Drink That.

How to pair beer and food

I was recently asked the question: “What am i looking for when matching beer and food? Do I want a beer with similar flavours or should I be looking for a contrast?”

Good question because beer actually behaves differently in many ways from wine as my son Will and I explained in our book An Appetite for Ale:

“As you’ve probably already discovered beer behaves differently from wine when it comes to food. Most lack acidity and tannin, two qualities that help wine match well. But it has other qualities such as bitterness, sweetness, carbonation, lower levels of alcohol and, most importantly, a range of flavours you simply don’t find in wine (chocolate, smoke and caramel to name just three) that more than compensate.

The most significant of those is bitterness, which is not likely to bother you if you’re a beer lover but which may put off friends you’re trying to get to share your enthusiasm.

So far as food is concerned it’s a double-edged sword. It can be intrusive and jarring, much as an over-exuberant use of oak can be in wine, but also incredibly refreshing especially with foods that are sour, salty, fatty or in other ways palate-coating like chocolate and cheese.

There are two types of bitterness, hop bitterness and roasted malt bitterness. Hop bitterness works fantastically well with spices which is why IPAs are such a great match for spicy food while roasted malt bitterness has a palate-cleansing quality which can help with such disparate foods as roast or barbecued meats, cheese and chocolate.

With a rich chocolate dessert for example you don’t want yet more richness in your glass. You want something that is going to be refreshing like a bitter porter or a sour wheat beer.

Complement or contrast?

People often talk about complementing or contrasting flavours with beer but we think that’s an unnecessarily complicated approach. All you need to ask yourself is “What sort of a drink do I want with this dish or this meal?” And that’s a question of balance.

If you know the flavours are going to be delicate like a salad or a seafood risotto you want a beer that won’t overwhelm them such as a pilsner or a wheat beer. If the flavours are full as they would be in a steak and ale pie or a beef stew you want a beer of equal weight like a traditional British or a Belgian trappist ale. If the flavours are extreme - very hot, spicy or sweet - you want a beer that offers some respite and refreshment.

A similar common sense approach applies to deciding the order in which you’re going to serve beers. In general it’s better to drink lighter, drier beers before richer, sweeter, more powerful ones just as you serve lighter dishes before more intensely flavoured foods.

Light or dark?

If you’re just getting into beer you may not have fully grasped that beers don’t always taste as they look. A light colour doesn’t necessarily mean a light beer as those of you who have tried strong Belgian golden ales like Duvel will know. Nor does the fact that a beer is dark mean that it’s powerful. (Think of traditional British brown ales like Mann’s or stouts like Mackeson). So let flavour rather than colour be your guide.

Carbonation - or the lack of it

The other factor to take into account when you’re matching beer and food is carbonation. Of course this is more pronounced in some beers like wheat beers or pilsners than in others such as traditional British ales and virtually non-existent in a few like strong barley wines. But, again, if your palate is likely to be under assault from deep-fried, spicy or fatty foods, look to a beer where it’s more pronounced.

Carbonated drinks also support flavours better than still ones. If you drink a peach flavoured dessert wine with a peach-flavoured dessert for example the dessert will strip the peach flavours from the wine. The carbonation of a peach flavoured lambic on the other hand will preserve the fruit flavours of the beer, cleansing the palate between each mouthful and echoing but not overwhelming those of the dessert. It means you can rely on flavour rather than strength or sweetness for the match which again makes for a more refreshing experience.

Top picture by Auster Pics at shutterstock.com

10 foods you wouldn’t expect to pair with Cava

Advertising feature: Let’s face it, we’re creatures of habit. If it’s sparkling wine we think party time - and party nibbles. But the beauty of Cava is that you can partner it with almost any kind of meal from classic Spanish tapas to …. well, look below for some dishes you probably wouldn’t have thought of.

Cava inesperado - unexpected Cava!

Croissants

Maybe your automatic go-to is coffee but you really should know how well a chilled glass of Cava goes with a crisp, buttery croissant, or any breakfast pastries come to that. Sound like the perfect weekend treat? It is!

Sushi

Not traditional, I grant you, but if you’re enjoying sushi with a glass of wine rather than a cup of green tea, make that wine a light, creamy Cava

Tuna tataki - or other seared tuna

Still in Japanese mode - you know how seared tuna goes with still rosé? Well it’s great with a sparkling Cava rosado too. Try it with tuna tataki.

Fried chicken

Pretty well anything deep-fried is good with sparkling wine so why not fried chicken - even a KFC! Of course there are other fancier versions these days such as Korean fried chicken but a bit of spice never did Cava any harm.

Katsu Curry

Talking of spicy chicken why not crack open a bottle with a katsu curry which as I’m sure you know (‘cos it’s EVERYWHERE) is fried chicken - or veggies - in a curry sauce. (You can find the hugely popular Wagamama version here) The sauce is actually quite mild and, as we’ve established, fried chicken is great with Cava. Bring it on!

Egg and chips (preferably with truffles!)

I don’t want to sound like I’m stuck in a deep-fried groove here but I HAVE to mention this as it’s one of the best dishes I’ve had with Cava - and a gran reserva at that. It’s a dish I had at Boca Grande in Barcelona called huevos rotos (broken eggs) where the eggs are basically pulled apart over the chips and topped, in this case, with black truffles. Sound good to you? Trust me, it was!

Duck casserole

A local dish from the Penedes region I would definitely have thought was FAR too heavy and rich for a sparkling wine but which worked magnificently with an oak-aged Cava from the top Cava de Paraje Calificado classification. The secret I think was the prunes in the casserole but I suspect it would work with figs, dates or chestnuts too. Just gorgeous.

Here’s a similar recipe with pears.

Christmas (or Thanksgiving) turkey

Now that I’ve emboldened you how about drinking a rich, toasty gran reserva Cava or Cava de Paraje Cava with your Christmas - or Thanksgiving - turkey. OK, there are family members who are going to insist on a red but that doesn’t mean you have to follow suit, does it? I bet they’ll be eyeing your glass enviously!

Vacherin Mont d’Or (or Torta del Casar)

If you’re a fan of the gorgeous gooey French cheese Vacherin you may have struggled to find a wine to go with it but Cava actually works surprisingly well, cutting through the richness. As it would with Spain’s own king of gooey cheeses, Torta del Casar.

White chocolate (with strawberry or raspberry)

Last but not least here’s another great match for rosé or rosado cava. White chocolate with crunchy little bits of raspberry or strawberry in it which the Cava will pick up on and enhance. You can buy it from chocolatiers like Hotel Chocolat or make your own.

Cava lowdown

Coming mainly from the south of Spain the D.O. Cava is much warmer than that of champagne which means there’s a ripeness and richness in the wines that can cope with big flavours. Added to that the depth and complexity that comes with bottle ageing (all wines are a cava de guarda and have a minimum of nine months ageing) and you can even pair it with spicy meats and marinades.

Which bottle you choose depends on what you’re eating. Younger, more inexpensive cavas will be better with lighter foods like simply cooked fish and vegetables , reservas which have to be aged for 18 months can handle more robust flavours while a gran reserva which is aged for at least 30 months or a top end cava de paraje (minimum 36 months ageing) would be a treat with a whole fish or a lobster. If you see a vintage date on the label that’s an indication of a more complex style.

This is an advertising feature in association with D.O. Cava

Top photo © By Portgas D. Add, Tuna tataki by Hans Geel, Roast turkey by Bochkarev Photography all at shutterstock.com