Pairing Comté cheese and Chivite Coleccion 125 Reserva 2001

I spend a lot of my time trying to discourage people from drinking their favourite red wine with a cheeseboard because it's so often a disappointment but every now and again you come across a red wine and cheese combination that really works.

I had in fact picked a cheese for the purpose, a nine month old Comté. It's similar in style to Gruyère but has a richness, roundness and depth of flavour - almost a fruitiness - that you rarely get in Gruyère cheese.

Being a comparatively young cheese it was mellow rather than intense so gave an easy ride to a mature modern Spanish red, a 2001 Coleccion 125 from Bodegas Julian Chivite, a blend of Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It's a wine I've consistently enjoyed over the years, a wine that's still very much in its prime but on which the tannins have softened sufficiently not to intrude on the pairing

It also survived a Dorset Blue Vinney, a West Country cheese which is milder and more mellow than many blues.

Those were the only two cheeses on the table by the way - and all you need. The more cheeses you have, the more chance that one of them will get into a fight with your wine.

Image ©Awe inpiring images

Smoked eel, beetroot and Malbec

This pretty dish was served the other night at what is still our favourite Bristol restaurant, Culinaria, even if we now live over the other side of town. It provided everything you want from a starter - light, appealing, appetite-stimulating.

It was constructed on a base of a warm blini, topped with beetroot, horseradish cream (made with fresh horseradish) eel, and a few lightly dressed leaves.

Normally I’d reach for a glass or a bottle of German Riesling with eel but we’d ordered the Malbec on the list - an Altos las Hormigas 2005 - to go with our main courses (boeuf bourguignon and roast loin of venison) and they have a limited by the glass selection. But the rich earthiness of the beetroot - always a good bridge to a red wine - and the spicy kick of the horseradish made the pairing a surprising success. Other fruity, and not overly oaky red wines would have worked equally well.

Pot-roast pigeon and Sangre de Toro

As the weather is finally turning warmer we thought we had better clear the freezer of winter ingredients so last night my husband pot-roasted a couple of pigeons we’d picked up on the cheap. Unusually we didn’t have any red wine left over so we cracked open a bottle of Torres Sangre de Toro, a sound but not overly exciting Garnacha and Cariñena-based Spanish red.

We chose it because we thought it would give the sauce body (it did) and were intending to open something more serious with the finished dish but when we tasted it we found it went really well - not overwhelming the quite complex sauce but having enough power and character (it’s 13.5%) to hold its own.

Although it’s a commercial brand (and has a rather cheesy label) it’s an easy-drinking companion to all sorts of dishes: as the back label suggests - game, stews, meat paella and traditional mountain cuisine. (Though not Alpine cheese-based dishes like cheese fondue and tartiflette which would be better with a white. More like bean- or chickpea-based Spanish dishes with ham or chorizo)

Grüner Veltliner and salt cod

I came across this unlikely combination while I was flying back from Argentina with the Brazilian airline TAM* who have this year decided to inaugurate a Brazilian menu in business class devised by a woman chef called Ana Luisa Trajano. And quite right too.

They’ve also introduced some unusual wines on the flight including a Grüner Veltliner from Kamptal from Weingut Brundlmayer which I found went surprisingly well with a cooked ‘tartare’ of salt cod topped with a layer of lightly spiced tomato confit. The unoaked Sauvignon-based white Bordeaux on the list - Château de Rougerie - would probably have worked pretty well too.

The Grüner struggled with the main course - tilapia in coconut milk with canjiquinha (a corn-based recipe a bit like polenta) and plaintain purée, a delicious dish but one never designed to go with wine. I guess an oaked Chardonnay would have worked pretty well, maybe a Viognier but a beer would have coped better with the sweetness of the plantain. Maybe a Belgian style blonde ale or strong lager such as Duvel.

Grüner Veltliner owes its cult status at the moment to the fact that it is so wonderfully flexible with food so don’t let this put you off. I’d drink it with almost any lightly spiced south-east Asian dish with great pleasure.

* I can recommend TAM so long as you don’t mind the fact that one of the film channels is entirely dedicated to Leonardo di Caprio movies and the unnerving fact that the route map indicates that you will be landing in Amsterdam. They’re punctual though which is more than you can say for Ryanair.