Match of the week

Pizza and chilled red wine

Pizza and chilled red wine

We’re in Arles this week for our annual visit to the Rencontres Arles, the fabulous photography festival that takes over the entire town. Since we’re with our youngest son, culinary exploration has to alternate with visits to his favourite pizza and sandwich joints which is how we ended up last night at a basic but brilliant pizzeria in the Trinquetaille on the other side of the Rhône.

I have to say I don’t think I’ve had a better pizza in Italy. The wood-fired crusts are just fabulous, so thin, crisp and full of taste that you could eat them on their own. I ordered a Four Seasons, topped with mushrooms, anchovies, mozzarella and chorizo which went perfectly with the carafe of cold red wine (a Cabernet blend, I think) they unceremoniously plonked on the table.

It was a great match certainly but undoubtedly helped by the fact that it was a beautiful evening, we were eating out of doors and were just pleased to be back in a city we know and love so well. Sometimes a food and wine match is more about mood and occasion than anything else.

Goats cheese and mature Alsace Riesling

Goats cheese and mature Alsace Riesling

Last week I had the greatest cheese and wine tasting I’ve ever experienced conducted by France’s most famous affineur Bernard Antony who supplies cheese to most of France’s top chefs. You’ll have to wait till the article comes out in Decanter in a couple of months’ time for the full details but here’s a star match to whet your appetite.

It was a superb Valençay de Touraine, a goats’ cheese from the Loire which is normally served with a Loire Sauvignon Blanc but which was paired - along with other sheep and goats’ cheeses with - a 20 year old Zind Humbrecht Riesling, Clos St Urbain Rangen de Thann 1988, which was still thrillingly crisp and vivacious.What is really fabulous about M. Antony’s cheeses is that they are perfectly mature but have none of the complex farmyardy flavours that sometimes get in the way of fine wine pairings. The Valençay was pitch perfect - full and mellow but with lovely acidity and not a trace of ‘goatiness’. A fine cheese and a fine wine.

Gooseberry and saffron crème brûlée with a southern French Muscat

Gooseberry and saffron crème brûlée with a southern French Muscat

Once you get a feel for food and wine matching you don’t always need to taste a wine with a dish to know what will work. So it was with a simple, seasonal dessert I had last week at my favourite local, Culinaria.

It was described as a gooseberry and saffron custard but in fact was more like a crème brûlée with its crunchy sugary topping. The original was apparently conceived by Joyce Molyneux of the Carved Angel at Dartmouth, who has been a big influence on Culinaria’s chef Stephen Markwick.

I wasn’t in the mood for a sweet wine but if I had picked one it would have undoubtedly been a southern French Muscat which goes really well with gooseberries. Cream is a neutral factor in a sweet wine match - it pretty well always works - but the clincher was the addition of saffron which has a slightly bitter note that would have really enhanced the fruitiness of the wine. I almost wish I’d had a glass . . .

Image © Jiri Hera - Fotolia.com

Guava Collins and Singapore Noodles

Guava Collins and Singapore Noodles

Traditionally it’s been difficult to find a pairing for noodle dishes, especially soup noodles which have the triple drawback of being hot, sour and wet. But the other night at Alan Yau’s new restaurant Cha Cha Moon (of which more to follow when I do my round-up of new London openings) I had a delicious non-alcoholic cocktail which really hit the spot.

It was described as a Guava Collins and contained guava, coconut and lime leaf - very sweet, very pink and very refreshing!

It worked best with a dry noodle dish called Singapore char kway teow which included Chinese salami, fish ‘cake’ (not the British kind, obviously), clams, Chinese chives, beansprouts, eggs and ho fun (wide Chinese rice noodles). It had a deeply savoury umami taste which I suspect would have made it a good match for anything, not just the Collins but the wines were - oddly for a Yau restaurant - so poor I didn’t get a chance to test the theory. A deliciously refreshing cucumber and apple cocktail worked too.

Lapin au vin and Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir

Lapin au vin and Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir

The other night I went back to one of my favourite restaurants Ransome’s Dock, a friendly neighbourhood restaurant in Battersea that has great food and an even more stellar wine list, put together with detailed and well-written tasting notes by chef/proprietor Martin Lam. (You can download it from the site)

It’s always difficult to decide what to eat there but I knew my husband would go for the rabbit (he always does, if it’s available!) which was cooked French bistro-style in red wine with bacon and mushrooms. I ordered some Welsh lamb cutlets so it wasn’t too difficult to find a wine that would go with both.

What we chose, having already had a half of Macon Igé with our starters, was a half of the ‘La Bauge au-dessus’ Pinot Noir 2005 from Au Bon Climat in the Santa Maria Valley. It was Californian Pinot at its luxuriant best, scented and supple - like sticking your nose in some exotic bath filled with raspberries and rose petals. It was good with my lamb but just went sensationally well with the rabbit. Better even, dare I say, than many similarly priced burgundies . . .

About FionaAbout FionaAbout Matching Food & WineAbout Matching Food & WineWork with meWork with me
Loading