Smørrebrød and a Sonoma County Sylvaner

I’ll be focussing on some of the more conventional wine pairings I came across during my recent visit to Napa and Sonoma later this week but here’s a really off-the-wall match I encountered in San Francisco

It was at brunch in the popular Bar Tartine in the Mission district - a restaurant that has a bit of a mittel European/Scandinavian vibe and a winelist to match but also some intriguing oddities in the way of Californian wines.

I went for a glass of the Scribe Sylvaner Ode to Emil no 11, from Andrew Mariani in Sonoma which is named after Emil Dresel who first brought sylvaner cuttings to America back in 1858. It was deliciously crisp and fruity (think starfruit) similar to some of the silvaners I was drinking in the Rheinhessen a few weeks ago.

I chose it because I thought it might stand up to the pickles we’d ordered but found it even better with a selection of open sandwiches on pumpernickel which included quark topped with lox, smoked pork with mushrooms and fried onions (particularly good with this) and kale with yoghurt and seeds (kale being very on-trend in San Francisco right now).

It even survived the smoked potatoes and potato pancake with corned beef and horseradish we ordered in the interests of - er hem - research. (Yes, we did pig out)

A grüner veltliner - and believe it or not they do have some in California - would have worked too, I suspect.

The sylvaner appears to be sold out from Scribe but still available from Domaine LA in the US. But substitute a dry German or Alsace sylvaner which should match equally well.

Pithivier of pigeon with Hermitage jus and 2011 Château Plaisance, Fronton

Matching a rich dish like pigeon with wine is quite challenging, especially if you serve it with an intense jus like this one so should you go for something equally rich or a refreshing contrast?

The sommelier at Galvin Bistrot de Luxe went for the latter option at a dinner to celebrate the restaurant’s eighth anniversary last week, choosing a light fresh dry Fronton from south-west France instead of a similar Rhone like a Crozes Hermitage or a Hermitage itself and it was absolutely perfect.

It may have been in his mind that the dish followed on two rich main courses with equally rich wines. The first course was a velouté of Potimarron squash with ceps and chestnuts (matched with a 2011 Chateau Lamothe-Bouscaut Pessac-Léognan) and the second a lasagne of crab with beurre Nantais which was paired with a 2009 vintage of the Galvin’s own label white burgundy, which is made for them by Vincent Girardin. They were great matches too (you get three for the price of one in match of the week this week!)

The art of food and wine matching is all about balance - not only in a single dish but right throughout the meal

German spätlese riesling and rare venison

One of the most interesting things I noticed on my trip to Germany last week was how Germans drink riesling with red meat. I wouldn’t have thought it would work but was utterly convinced by this pairing of super-tender rare venison with an exotic spätlese (late picked) riesling.

The dish was devised by the chef at Zum Krug who obviously has extensive experience of matching food and riesling and was interesting not just for the venison but the way he handled it - topping it with a herby crust and accompanying it with buttery cabbage (in spätburgunder butter), honeyed carrots, which played on the sweetness of the wine, and a delicious potato and walnut terrine which emphasised its nutty notes.

The wine was an off-dry 2006er Oestricher Lenchen Riesling Spätlese from Weingut P.J. Kühn in Oestrich, an impressive producer we had visited the previous day in the Rheingau and was full of exotic fruit flavours.

Just one of those serendipitous wine matches where everything fell perfectly into place.

Rheinhessen silvaner and penne with tomatoes and peppers

I must confess I’ve never associated German wines with pasta dishes especially ones based on summer vegetables like tomatoes and peppers but then I haven’t come across many genuinely dry German wines in Italian restaurants before.

This was our lunch on the first day of my current trip to Germany at Weingut Brüder Dr. Becker who make biodynamic wines in the village of Ludgwigshöhe in the Rheinhessen.

They make a couple of silvaners - a local grape for the region - both dry: a simple crisp fruity ‘Grüner Silvaner’ and a village wine - the Ludwigshöhe Silvaner which is fermented in large wooden vats and left on its lees for greater complexity. Neither, sadly, is available in the UK at the moment.

For lunch they laid out a summery spread of gazpacho and big dishes of vegetable pasta, obviously made with locally grown ingredients. As well as the penne, which was quite piquant, there was a linguine with chanterelles, chives and parmesan. Oh, and a generous bowl of freshly made pesto to spoon over them.

The silvaners were similar to drinking dry Italian whites - i.e. a very good match. Their rieslings went well too but I’ll be posting some more thoughts on matching German riesling after the trip.