Match of the week
Lobster and sweetcorn with Allende Rioja Blanco
I came across this pairing at a dinner to launch the London Restaurant Festival. It was held at Nuno Mendes Loft Project, a permanent East London pop-up - if there is such a thing - where he normally hosts visiting chefs of a similarly experimental bent. Mendes is one of the most talented chefs in London at the moment and normally cooks at nearby Viajante in Bethnal Green which I reviewed here.
It was an immensely complicated dish which, when quickly announced by our server, sounded like lobster, bread porridge, sweetcorn, confit egg yolk and girolles, a combination you'd never think of putting together unless you were mad or Mr Mendes. It also included a touch of chilli and fresh coriander which made it taste like an exotically spicy but rather wonderful brunch dish.
I'm not normally that keen on eggs in the middle of savoury dishes (a hot trend at the moment, it seems) but the yolk had been cooked to the point where it was firm but not hard and added another layer of unctuous richness.
The inspired pairing was an oaked white Rioja - the Allende Blanco 2008 which dealt with all the complex flavours marvellously. It was, I find, a recent Jancis Robinson pick of the week and you can read about it here. As she points out, it strikes a perfect balance between the new crisper Riojas and the more traditional heavily oaked style. Really quite lovely.
You can buy it from slurp.co.uk for £17.45 a bottle.
I ate at the Loft Project as a guest of the London Restaurant Festival and Wines of Rioja.
Apricot soufflé and Coteaux du Layon
Why don’t more people make souffls these days? I include myself in that. They’re not that difficult, look so impressive and are such a lovely match for a dessert wine.
This was a pairing we enjoyed at the Auberge de Chassignolles in the Auvergne on our trip back through France last week. A final taste of summer before returning to what is turning out to be a premature, dreary, wet autumn.
The soufflés had a thin layer of fresh apricot purée at the bottom which echoed the rich apricotty tones of the wine, a Domaine des Sablonettes Fleurs d’Erables Coteaux du Layon 2008, a biodynamic wine from the Loire which was more evolved than you'd expect from a conventionally made wine.
To be honest I think any light to medium bodied dessert wine would work reasonably well, especially a Muscat or sweet Bordeaux. It’s a great way to show off a modest wine.
Anchoïade and strong dry southern French rosé
Anchovies are supposed to be tricky with wine but I pretty well always find that rosé hits the spot.
Mind you, over the last few hot sunny days in the Languedoc (sorry to rub it in for those in the UK who've endured a week of grot) we've been drinking it with pretty well everything from charcuterie to pasta. But I was impressed by its ability to handle this particular anchovy paste which was very strong and fishy - almost like a patum peperium.
The wine came from our neighbour a couple of doors up the road, Domaine Belles Courbes, whose vineyards are in Saint Chinian. He makes two - one that's oak aged (elevé en fûts de chêne) which is 13.5% and a slightly lighter fruitier one that's just off-dry and which I think would work better with kormas, and other mild Indian and Chinese dishes.
They appear to be stocked in the UK by a company called Wines Unfurled but the most recent vintage they have is 2008 which is really too old for this style of wine. (The oaked version I had was 2009 and the unoaked 2010). If you're in the Languedoc you can buy them direct from the winery in St Geniès-de-Fontedit. Or buy something similar in style.
Langoustine cannellonis and citrus with Pacherenc de Vic Bilh
It's always a challenge to pick a single wine with an elaborate tasting menu but the Jardins de Bouscassé 2008 Pacherenc du Vic Bilh sec from Alain Brumont we ordered with our meal at La Renaissance in Argentan last week hit the spot with almost every dish.
My favourite match by a whisker was an intricate dish of 'cannelloni' formed from pieces of squid, wrapped round some beautifully fresh langoustines and served with an intense seafood broth flavoured with pomelo and dots of mandarin and basil (I think) pure. I'm not normally that keen on the French obsession with 'sucré-salé' but the combination of fish and citrus worked perfectly with the light, lush, tropical fruit-scented wine. (There was also a hint of Sichuan pepper in the dish.)
It also went brilliantly well with the next course of John Dory with small, sweet crevettes grises (shrimps) and carpaccio of pigs trotter, an extraordinarily intense surf'n'turf combination.
I'll be writing a bit more about the restaurant in due course but it was an outstanding meal. Bizarrely it doesn't have a Michelin star.
Smoked trout and a Tricycle
My problem this week is that I have a terrific wine pairing but I can't tell you about it because it's the result of a tasting I was running for Decanter magazine. So you'll have to hang on till December for that. Sorry.
In the meantime here's my second best match which is not a wine at all but a Tricycle, a refreshing apple, cucumber and mint-based soft drink I had at the Riding House Café with my daughter this week. Like many places these days they specialise in small plates so it had to take an artichoke dip, salt cod fritters and red pepper aioli, cured trout, jalapeno pepper and crème fraîche (right) and sea bass ceviche with lime and chilli in its stride.
It actually coped very well, particularly with the trout, in much the same way, I think, as a herby Sauvignon Blanc would have done. (I always find it helps to think of a vinous equivalent of soft drinks.) I've ordered that kind of drink in Lebanese restaurants before and it goes well with mezze too.
It would also be a nice summery drink to take on a picnic for non-drinking friends. Assuming we still have some summer left, not obvious from today's overcast sky :(
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