Comté cheese and Languedoc Syrah

We’ve been down in the Languedoc for the past week and two bottles - both Syrah - have impressed me for very different reasons. One was an inexpensive but characterful Ressac Vin de Pays d’Oc Syrah which we bought from the co-op at Florensac, Vinopolis, after eating at their showcase restaurant Bistrot d’Alex which I’ve mentioned on the site before. The other a much classier bottle called Clos du Fou (the 2004 vintage) from a local Faugères winemaker Château des Estanilles which bore comparison with a Côte Rôtie.

Both went extremely well with a chunk of Comté, an unpasteurised Gruyère-like cheese from the Jura we bought from the local supermarket (the lack of good cheese shops in this part of the world is really quite depressing.) I mention it not because the cheese was exceptional but because it didn’t detract from either of these wines - one relatively light, one complex and full-flavoured. A more mature Comté might have done them fewer favours (a Jura or Savoie white is the more usual pairing).

Clos du Fou is made in limited quantities and does not appear to be available from the main UK stockist The Wine Society though you do appear to be able to order it from 1855.com The current vintage is 2005 but it definitely repays keeping.

Image ©Awe inpiring images

Kylie Kwong's roasted beef fillet with Cape Mentelle Cabernet Merlot

Celebrations come thick and fast at this time of the year - first Burns' Night, and now Chinese New Year and Australia Day. Since both fall on the same day this year I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone (terrible expression but you know what I mean) and mark the Year of the Ox with a beef recipe matched with an Australian wine.

Appropriately enough the recipe - a barely seared beef fillet dressed with a punchy sweet and sour dressing - comes from Australia-based chef Kylie Kwong whose family originally came from China.

This is the kind of dish you could serve with either a red or white wine so I'd go for a (relatively) cool climate red with sweet fruit and supple tannins, a description that perfectly fits the Cape Mentelle Cabernet Merlot available from Waitrose and independent wine merchants for £11-£12.50 a bottle.

Image © Igor Klimov - Fotolia

Rocket and parmesan salad with dry amontillado sherry

I've taken recently to combining my salad course and cheese course. Over the years, influenced by the time we've spent in France, we've picked up the habit of following our main course with a salad and nowadays I prefer - and it's cheaper - to eat one cheese at a time.

My favourite combination is a rocket and parmesan salad - the peppery rocket and salty parmesan, which I shave over the top, just go so well together. I've been using some fabulous 22 year old parmesan which has a real depth of flavour and dress the salad lightly with an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing

It's a salad that works pretty well with whatever red wine you're drinking but the other day I thought I'd dry it with a dry amontillado sherry - nothing special just one in the Waitrose own label range - and it added a whole other dimension, almost like adding grilled nuts to the salad. With a nice little touch of sweetness, even though the sherry is technically dry.

Very easy to do at home - do try it!

Image © Maksim Shebeko - Fotolia.com

Charcuterie and young Syrah

Last week I had lunch at my new favourite London hangout, the wine bar Terroirs which is run by a partnership including the quirky and original Caves de Pyrène. It's a place that you'll absolutely love if you're a Francophile: it feels just like a Parisien wine bar - without the surly service. The food is also cracking but as we'd resolved to kick off the new year by splitting a Vacherin Mont d'Or, as you can read on my cheese blog The Cheeselover, we didn't get a chance this time to sample chef Ed Wilson's robust bistro food.

Our meal kicked off with some really fabulous charcuterie - some of the best I've had in London, which we washed down with a bottle of Vin de Pays de L'Ardèche 2007, a vibrant young Syrah from Hervé Souhaut of Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet that was exactly right with the silky, sweet fat of the Lardo di Colonnato and some fine prosciutto and salami from Cinta Senesi.

Like many of the other producers that Caves de Pyrène handles, Souhaut is a natural winemaker who uses only organic and biodynamic winemaking techniques - his wines are widely available in the US and elsewhere if you check out his site

Surprisingly, as I have a strong preference for crisp dry whites with Vacherin, it also went with the cheese, mainly I think because of its own crisp acidity and lack of intrusive tannins.

It was one of Douglas Wregg's ('Caves' web maestro and restaurant advisor) favourite wines of 2008.