Cider and Camembert

I know we always think in terms of wine and cheese but sometimes other drinks can be just as good, if not better. Like this week’s pairing of medium-dry cidre traditionnel and Camembert I came across at a simple roadside restaurant just north of Domfront in Normandy.

You could tell it was worth stopping by the number of cars that were lined up outside and the fact that the local postman and dustmen had come in for their lunch.

It was nothing remarkable - just honest, home-cooked food - a plate of salade de museau and céléri rémoulade, hachis parmentier and salad and a generous selection of cheese and fresh fruit with cider thrown in - all for the amazingly cheap price of 11 euros (just over $13 or £8.50)

Camembert is the local cheese in that part of the world and cider the local drink* so it was an obvious ‘terroir’ based match but none the worse for that. It was also excellent with the museau (a kind of sausage made out of pig's snout or muzzle. Nicer than it sounds.)

It’s easy to forget if you live outside an area that produces cider what a good - and incredibly inexpensive - match it is for all kinds of food. Much better to drink good cider than bad wine!

*This one came from Chais Briouzains in Briouze

Lobster burger and Kumeu River Chardonnay

I’m conscious there’s a marked French bias in the pairings on this site so I’m going to go not for the excellent Alsace riesling and choucroute combo I had last week - or the many amazing wine matches at the Szechuan dinner which I’ve written up here but a very flashy lobster ‘burger’ and chardonnay I had at the Soho restaurant Bob Bob Ricard

Lobster rolls are all the rage in London at the moment. My son’s restaurant Hawksmoor was, I believe, the first to kick off the trend, Burger and Lobster (which we couldn’t get into) have built a chain around them and now everyone’s doing them. Being absurdly extravagant they deserve a glass of something posh and aged chardonnay fits the bill perfectly.

BBR always has interesting - if not always cheap - wines by the glass (including Yquem) so I picked a 2007 Hunting Hill Chardonnay from the top New Zealand producer Kumeu River (at £12.50) which added a deliciously smoky note to the lobster tail. Hardly an everyday combination but a perfect one when you feel like splashing out. Vintage champagne would have been good too though more obvious - and considerably more expensive!

Steak and ale pie and horseradish mash with Domaine Tempier Bandol 1994

The great thing about going to old country pubs is that they tend to have wines you can’t find anywhere else - or certainly not at the price. Like the bottle of Domaine Tempier Bandol 1994 we found at the Nobody Inn in Doddiscombleigh in Devon at the weekend.

Of course the Nobody has long had a reputation for an amazing winelist - which it still retains even though its much-admired landlord Nick Borst-Smith has moved on. This bottle, which must have dated from the Borst-Smith era was listed at an incredible £38* - a total bargain for a wine of that vintage and reputation. It was still wonderful, exotic, dark and plummy - not faded in the least.

What to order with it? Well I could have gone for a steak but the idea of a steak and ale pie with horseradish mash appealed even more. Normally I’d have gone for a beer with it but it proved absolutely brilliant with the slightly gamey notes of the wine. The rosemary in the gravy also did its bit.

One of the most memorable combinations I’ve tasted this year.

*and, fatally, £26.60 if you want to take away. So we bought another couple of bottles . . .

Stir-fried lobster, egg white and scallop mousse with Chateau Fombrauge Bordeaux Blanc 2009

A standout combination from the Hong Kong Tourist Board lunch at Bordeaux’ annual wine festival Fête le Vin last week. It was also the standout dish, a finely worked assembly of delicate flavours and textures from Chef Man Sing Lee of the Mandarin Oriental.

It would have been easy to overwhelm it with a more powerfully oaked white Bordeaux like the Château Pérenne 2010 which accompanied a cold starter of crab with mushrooms, seaweed and a sesame and citrus dressing but the lusher, lighter Fombrauge added a lovely fresh, citrussy lift.

The meal also contained one of the most bizarre wine matches - and desserts - I’ve ever come across - a couple of coconut coated marshmallow rabbits which were paired with a full-bodied (14%) 2006 Magrez Fombrauge 2006 Saint Emilion Grand Cru.

It wasn’t as much of a mismatch as I thought it was going to be - the dessicated coconut managed to marginally offset the tannins - but it was definitely a case of ‘you could but why would you?’ Maybe I’m missing a significant cultural reference here but it’s not even year of the rabbit.