Kohlrabi with fig leaf oil and English sparkling wine

A really fascinating pairing from a wine dinner at Skye Gyngell’s restaurant, Spring in collaboration with Domaine Hugo (and their vegetable supplier Fern Verrow)

Domaine Hugo is a Wiltshire based producer - the French name refers back to the time its owner Hugo Stewart was making wine in the Languedoc as Les Clos Perdus. He and his winemaker Daniel Ham make mainly sparkling wine from classic champagne grape varieties but in a natural, low-intervention style.

The wine that was paired with this dish was a rich, almost floral, sparkling brut nature without any added dosage but ripe enough to have just a touch of honey - the element that chimed in perfectly with the fig leaf oil drizzling the plate.

it was a surprise as the dish - which was sensational - was all about the salt-baked kohlrabi and the herbs - but fig leaves have an exotic scent with which the wine chimed in perfectly. Figs and honey - it makes sense when you think about it but it was a very clever, intuitive pairing from Skye.

You can buy the wine, which is unfortunately not cheap, as it’s made in tiny quantities, from the Good Wine Shop for £54 but it is extraordinary. There are links to other stockists on the Domaine Hugo website

More wine dinners are planned at Spring so it would be worth signing up to their mailing list to be kept informed.

I attended the dinner as a guest of the restaurant

Pasta with pork, peas and lemon and bardolino

So often a wine takes us through several courses these days (which, of course, is a virtue) but I’m rather arbitrarily spotlighting just one dish on the menu we had at Sonny Stores in Bristol the other night as the ideal match for the Bardolino we were drinking.

It was a pasta called paccheri served with a sauce of pork shoulder (cooked in milk, I would guess), with peas and lemon zest, a light summery combination that went perfectly with the wine

Bardolino is a light fruity red from north-east Italy, made from the same grapes as Valpolicella. (There’s a fuller description of it here)

To be honest it wasn’t the best example - sorry, Sonny’s*, you can do better - but there are more attractive ones out there including this one from Majestic which is very reasonably priced at £7.99 if you buy any six bottles. Which you always should at Majestic as their single bottle prices are generally a bit toppy. Oh, and chill it lightly too

* Their pasta is amazing though which is why I go there so often.

Tandoori lamb chops and a Portuguese red

In our careless way we often refer to Indian food as ‘curry’ especially when talking about wine pairing but the base ingredient and the way it is cooked is just as important as in any other cuisine. And surprisingly the wine match can be quite obvious.

Lamb chops and red wine? Hardly rocket science. But you might think the fact that they were marinated and came with a pungently spicy mint sauce as at Pahli Hill in Mortimer Street London’s West End would have thrown a red off track.

The wine we drank with them was one of the reds that were available by the glass Azamor, Vinho Regional Alentejano Tinto, Portugal 2019 an impressively complex blend of Syrah, Touriga Nacional, Merlot, Trincadeira, Alicante Bouschet, Mourvèdre and Petit Verdot. It had that lovely suppleness so many Portuguese reds possess but also packed a fair wallop of alcohol which you might have thought would be jarring but which was pitch perfect with the chops.

I think the fact that we ate them without anything in the way of side dishes* helped but I think it would have still powered through.

You can buy the wine for £15.49 from Hay Wines, or £15.98 from Alexander Hadleigh.

*Although we did have some marvellous chicken tikka as well with which it also went brilliantly.

I ate as a guest in the restaurant though we ordered our own wine;

Cheese soufflé and old Sauternes

OK, OK. It wasn’t just *any* Sauternes but a bottle of 2003 Chateau d’Yquem and not just *any* old cheese soufflé but a Stinking Bishop double baked soufflé with hazelnuts and Comté sauce with pear, apple and ginger chutney

It was the final course at a splendidly lavish wine dinner at Bob Bob Ricard City which kicked off with 1996 Dom Pérignon and included a 2018 Saint Aubin 1er cru Les Charmois from Domaine Paul Pillot which went beautifully with my truffle, potato and mushroom vareniki (quite a similar match to this).

I also ordered* the spectacularly glossy chicken and champagne pie which would also have gone with the Dom Pérignon but was actually rather good with a 2006 Chateau Giscours Margaux (in magnum), better, to my surprise, than the 2017 Domaine Chanson 1er cru Clos du Roi Beaune which was still a bit youthful.

I don’t imagine you’re going to have a bottle of 20 year old Yquem to hand (me neither) but you could try the same trick with any bottle of Sauternes you’ve forgotten about in the wine rack or a bin end if you’re lucky enough to run across one in a local wine shop. The wine was really quite evolved, almost caramelised in taste like a tarte tatin, but still perfectly offset the richness of the cheese. Some clever pairing there from Head of Wine Giacomo Recchia.

What’s so clever about both branches of BBR (there’s another one in Soho) is that the mark-up on all their fine wines is a comparatively reasonable (for the quality and rarity of the wines) £75. Chateau d’Yquem 2003 is currently on the wine list for £32/47 for a 50ml/75ml glass while Dom Pérignon is £38 for an unusually generous 125ml glass (but you can have a glass of Beaumont des Crayères champagne for £15).

It’s all wildly over the top but fun for a special occasion.

* Love the fact that you can order from the à la carte menu in the private dining room.

As you might have guessed I ate at the restaurant as a guest!

For other Sauternes pairings see here