Pet nat and pizza

I’ve been on a road trip visiting wineries in Kent for the last few days but the highlight from a food and wine pairing point of view was the pizza and pet nat combo we had at Westwell, a ‘low intervention’ (aka natural) wine producer just southwest of Canterbury.

Like many other English wineries now they produce a ‘pet nat’ or pétillant naturel which is an deliciously fruity semi-sparkling wine that is bottled while it’s still undergoing its first fermentation (as opposed to champagne which is aged on its lees). There’s a good explanation here. Westwell’s, which is rather charmingly called Naturally Petulant Pink, is particularly appealing

We got the chance to try it with pizza as they had a truck from Alkham Valley Pizza dishing it out on the Friday evening we were there. I'm not sure the toppings made a huge difference - maybe the Spicy was a tad challenging but the Margherita was a cinch and I loved the garlicky, cheesy ‘Nutty Blue’ (above) which had Stilton and confit garlic on it. Pet nat basically works just like a beer with pizza - thirstquenching and refreshing. (And yes, beer is cheaper but pet nat is more fun!)

You can buy it direct from their website for £24 a bottle.

You can see their other upcoming events here.

For other pizza pairings see the best wine and beer pairings for pizza

I visited Westwell on a press trip.

Fresh crab and a citrussy spritz

Even wine writers have to take a day off occasionally, especially if they’re lunching with a teetotaller, but it’s always a bit of a challenge finding a drink that goes as well with food as wine

A crisp dry white would always be my first choice with crab (see my list of pairings here) but I had ordered a 'temperate' cocktail, the Mellow Yellow Spritz, with my crab on toast at Hawksmoor Guildhall and it went really well

It’s based on an aperitif called Botivo which admittedly sounds a bit like a tropical disease you might want to inoculate yourself against but it made a refreshingly citrussy spritz along with lemon, elderflower and soda water. It’s actually 0.1% so not totally alcohol-free but so long as you're not avoiding alcohol on principle or for health reasons, as near as makes no difference

The crucial thing - for me at least - was that it was refreshingly dry and in no way interfered with the delicate flavour of the crab. You can find a similar spritz on their website.

I ate at Hawksmoor (with my daughter) as a guest of my son!

Pistachio pesto and solaris

One of the best food pairing experiences I’ve come across in a winery is the one laid on by Hebron vineyard in West Wales.

It obviously helps that the co-owner of the vineyard, Jemma Vickers, is also a caterer and that she and her partner, Paul have a garden which produces most of the veg they serve but she lays on regular wine and ‘tapas’ tastings with which you can taste their organic low intervention wines

All the pairings were interesting but the one that particularly stood out for me was a dish of finely sliced raw courgettes with a pistachio pesto (top left) - made without cheese, with pistachios rather than pinenuts and with less basil than in the Ligurian version which made it gently creamy rather than pungent.

It worked brilliantly well with their light, fresh, citrussy almost appley 2021 Solaris which is only 9 1/2%. It’s made in an amphora and is unfined and unfiltered. (And they serve extra ingredients on the side like mayonnaise and chilli so you can see how they react with the wine too.)

They also make a 7% red from rondo - an ABV so low they’re not allowed to call it wine but it still showed really well with some slow cooked lamb and salsa verde.

If you’re in that part of Wales it’s a really charming place to visit and the vineyard where the vines are trained up willow saplings (a strategy to combat mildew) is just gorgeous.

You can buy both wines from their website for £28 and book tours and tastings via this link.

I was given a complimentary tasting and tour by Hebron vineyard.

Oysters and Provence rosé

I wouldn’t have thought of pairing rosé with oysters to be honest when there are so many good alternatives in the way of white wines but when I was poured a glass of Chateau Galoupet’s Côtes de Provence rosé at Hawksmoor Wood Wharf the other night I found it was a surprisingly good match.

They serve oysters three ways - unadorned, roasted with bone marrow and with a Scotch bonnet mignonette.

The chilli-spiked mignonette was particularly good with the Provençal style of rosé which in many ways works similarly to a white with seafood.

I’m not sure I would abandon my usual choices which you can see if you click on the link below but if I was opening just the one bottle with a meal of which oysters were part it would work just fine - as it would with a less expensive but equally dry rosé

The best wine (and other) pairings with oysters

You can buy Chateau Galoupet’s 2021 rosé on offer £36 at Berry Bros & Rudd at the time of writing and for about £45-50 at other indies

I ate at Hawksmoor as a guest (of my son!)