Fresh clementines and Jorge Ordonez Malaga Seleccion Especial

No Christmas goes by without some wine pairing discovery and this year it was the delicious Jorge Ordonez Malaga Seleccion Especial no. 1 2007 with some simple fresh clementines we had at the end of a post-Christmas meal with friends.

Despite the contemporary packaging I’d expected the Malaga to be similar to those I’d tasted before: dark, treacley and oloroso sherry-like but in fact it was wonderfully light and fresh. The wines, which are made in conjunction with famous Austrian sweet wine producer Kracher, are unfortified and aged in stainless steel.

The Seleccion Especial is apparently made from grapes that are dried on the vine and has a more concentrated almost orangey flavour than the accompanying ‘Victoria’ cuvée which is very fresh and, grapey and which I would love to try with Asian-influenced desserts with tropical fruits and mangoes or with light airy fruit-topped gateaux.

Surprising though it may sound it’s unusual for a wine with orangey notes to go with oranges, or in this case clementines. The fruit often strips the character out of the wine but this was just delicious. I suspect it might even work with Christmas pudding if you wanted a light, refreshing contrast.

The wines are easy to source in the States, slightly less so here in the UK though according to wine-searcher.com it is stocked by Cambridge Wine Merchants at the very reasonable price for this quality of £14.99 a half bottle. Hangingditch in Manchester has it for £17.50 Roberson in London for £17.95, and Harrods for a rather outrageous £19.95 (how on earth do they justify that mark-up?)

Roast turkey and 2009 Beaujolais

We decided some time ago we were going to drink Beaujolais with our turkey in memory of the late Marcel Lapierre who very sadly died back in September. I thought his vibrant fruity 2009 Morgon would be ideal with the classic Christmas feast and so it proved to be, mirroring the tartness and fruitiness of the cranberry sauce.

We also cracked open a bottle of the charming 2009 Raisins Gaulois on Boxing Day. Just a shade lighter (we chilled it slightly) and intensely quaffable, it was perfect with our Boxing Day lunch of cold turkey and bubble and squeak (which I actually prefer to the main meal).

I wouldn’t extrapolate from that to say that all Beaujolais would do the job. Marcel’s Morgon is particularly full-bodied and generous and 2009 was an exceptionally ripe vintage. It certainly helped that both were young wines (I'm not a fan of venerable reds with turkey). And it does show that in a good year Gamay can do the biz.

Catalan sausage and beans with southern French Syrah/Grenache

Last week’s highlight without a doubt was the meal I had with my Guardian colleagues at Brawn, Ed Wilson’s new restaurant in Columbia Road. As you may know it’s the new City outpost of the hugely popular wine bar Terroirs with a similar natural wine list which you can read about on my natural wine blog here.

Ed suggested wines to go with different stages of the meal which was served tapas-style - we must have tried practically every dish on the menu.

I loved the exuberant La Guillaume Gamay with the charcuterie and the Domaine Matassa Cuvée Alexandria, an extraordinary dry Muscat of Alexandria, with the zander boudin in shellfish sauce but the combination that just pipped the others to the post was Jean-Franois Nicq’s 2007 Domaine Les Foulards Les Glaneurs from the Roussillon, a generous spicy blend of Grenache and Syrah with the mongetes, a ribsticking Catalan dish of sausage and beans.

Although the wine was full-bodied - and funky - enough to need carafing it was still fresh enough to offset the richness of the beans. And just perfect for this freezing cold weather.

Roast duck and Bull's Blood

My match of the week this week was a toss-up between roast duck and Egri Bikavér (aka Bull's Blood) and Chateau Musar and game pie but I've plumped for the former, which I tasted at Soho's legendary Gay Hussar, as the more unusual pairing.

Not having tasted Hungarian wine for a while I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit I hadn't realised Egri Bikavér was Bull’s Blood. Egri Korona Borhas is the producer (I hope I've got that right, at least).

According to Wikipedia which has a surprisingly comprehensive entry on the wine it is generally based on Kekfrankos these days though that wasn’t clear from the producer’s website. It's a well-structured oak-aged red not dissimilar to a traditional minor Bordeaux in style. The duck tasted as if it had been confit'd (and possibly deep-fried) and was served with red cabbage, potatoes and apples.

Of course roast duck goes with practically any medium-bodied red - you could equally well pair it with Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rioja or an Italian red like Barbera or Barolo but this was a sound terroir-based match which worked very well.

You can read more about Egri Bikavr on this Bull’s Blood website - it even has its own Facebook page!