Mini Yorkshire puddings with rare fillet of beef and Central Otago Pinot Noir

A student gathering is not the first place you’d think of finding a good wine pairing or, indeed, a drinkable wine at all but the talk I gave last week at the University of Bristol Wine Circle produced some great combinations.

The food which was prepared by recently graduated student Emma Barlow was pretty impressive too. I think most of us would feel well pleased with ourselves if we’d managed to rustle up such posh canapés as the mini Yorkshire puddings with rare fillet of beef, creamed horseradish and pea-shoots on the right.

With it we’d paired a mature 2002 Haut-Médoc, Chateau Lamothe-Bergeron which I thought a little austere though have to admit the majority of the students disagreed with me. I preferred a younger, more lively Central Otago Pinot Noir 2010, the Yealands Estate ‘Chancet Rocks’ which confimed my belief that pinot is a particularly good match for fillet steak.

The truth is that both would be fine with beef though I think the Bordeaux would drink better with a roast dinner and the pinot would be the better party wine.

Other good pairings were a Western Australia Sauvignon-Semillon called Allegory with some parmesan and rosemary shortbreads with roast cherry tomatoes, feta and black olives and a 2011 Sauvignon de Touraine with filo tartlets filled with smoked chicken, mango and coriander.

Those Bristol students know how to live . . .

Fried red gurnard and chips and Devon red cider

It was a bumper week for food pairings last week a number of which I’ll be flagging up elsewhere on the site and my Facebook page but I’ve gone for this very straightforward combination because its so simple to replicate at home

It was served at Mitch Tonks’ Rockfish seafood restaurant in Dartmouth this weekend where I was down for the food festival. Red gurnard isn’t normally a fish you find fried - it’s more commonly used in a Provençal-style fish soup or stew but this was obviously super fresh.

The cider, which I didn’t know either, is made by Sandford Orchards near Crediton and is incredibly refreshing and fruity - just on the dry side of medium dry. You can buy it from their farm, online and from various local stockists.

It worked so well, I think, because the sweetness of the fish mirrored the slight sweetness of the cider. Or maybe it was the dash of Padsters Lemon Vinegar - another find.

Perfect Friday night drinking anyway!

Click here for other good fish and chip matches.

 

Chacra '55' Patagonian Pinot Noir and mushroom risotto

Most of the pairings in this weekly slot are chosen for the way they flatter food but here’s one that’s designed to show off a very special wine: a 2010 Argentinian Pinot Noir called Chacra Cinquenta Cinca or Chacra 55.

It comes from Patagonia in the south of the country, 620 miles south of Buenos Aires - south being, of course, colder than north in the southern hemisphere. What’s extraordinary about it is how low in alcohol it is - just 11.5% which winemaker Piero Incisa della Rochetta attributes to the vines being on their original rootstocks.

When I first tasted it about a year ago I thought it was a little tart and thin but in the intervening period it has developed a beautiful pure fruit character without being remotely jammy. It certainly bears comparison with top notch burgundy, perhaps unsurprisingly given the £39.50 price ticket (from importers Lea & Sandeman).

Della Rochetta, who I met a couple of years ago at the International Pinot Noir Convention, is no ordinary winemaker. His grandfather founded Sassacaia but this is very much his own project,

"The wine is made in as natural a way as possible" he explains on his website. "No mechanization is used at any stage of the production process. The berries are placed whole, without crushing, in the fermentation vat, where the weight of the grapes near the top of the vat crushes some of those at the bottom of the vat. This method, which shares similarities with carbonic maceration, allows the wine to express the subtle, complex and finely textured tannins characteristic of very old vines."

He also seems to be a bit of a cook, judging by this selection of recipes in Food & Wine.

I went for something quite a bit simpler - a mushroom risotto - one of the 20 pairings to learn by heart I posted recently. Even though the flavour of the risotto was quite intense - it was made with a dark chicken stock and included ceps from the Auvergne - the wine still stood up to it, complementing it beautifully. A blissful combination.

 

Turkish coffee cake and Abanico Solera Gran Reserva Vi Dolc Natural

One of the things I most enjoy doing when I get a new cookbook is flicking through sticking Post-it notes on the recipes I plan to cook and this recipe for Turkish coffee cake in Margot Henderson’s charming You’re all Invited really stood out.

I’m not sure in what way it’s Turkish - whether it’s Turkish because it includes coffee or that it's designed to go with coffee (which it would) - there’s no introduction on that page - but it’s unbelievably delicious: fudgy sweet with a big hit of cinnamon. And very easy to make.

We had it as a pudding with a glass of raisiny Spanish dessert wine, Bodegas Abanico’s Solera Gran Reserva* from Emporda which is made from white and red garnacha and aged in oak using a solera system for a minimum of 10 years. Similar to a Rivesaltes - in fact it's labelled Vi Dolc Natural. And is a similar ABV at 15.5%.

When I got round to reading the back label I discovered the suggested pairings were desserts, cakes, pastries, dried fruits and chocolate. So spot on then! A Vin Santo or Samos Muscat would work well too.

* UK stockists include Hedonism Wines, Carruthers & Kent, The Longship and Liberty Wines. The retail price is around £19.99 for a 50cl bottle.