Scrambled eggs and sparkling wine

If your New Year breakfast today includes eggs, especially brunch-type dishes such as scrambled eggs with smoked salmon or eggs benedict there’s no better partner than Champagne or other dry sparkling wine.

The bubbles deal with the one of the perceived problems with matching eggs and wine - the way the runny yolk coats the palate and can make still dry whites taste thin and sharp.

But it’s not just the bubbles: the crisp, refreshing quality of sparkling wine is just want you want with a dish like eggs. Sparkling Chardonnays and blanc de blancs Champagnes work particularly well because of their creaminess. You can also mix your bubbly 50/50 with freshly squeezed orange juice for a restorative and slightly healthier Bucks Fizz.

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Foie gras and Sauternes

While I no longer eat foie gras myself (as explained here) for the French there is no other way to celebrate the réveillon, or New Year’s Eve.

Usually the foie gras is served cold, on its own or as a terrine and the lush, sweet lemon and honey flavours of the wine acts as a perfect counterpoint to the super-smooth texture and otherwise slightly cloying flavour of the foie gras.

Can you pull off the same trick with other dessert wines? To some extent yes. Other sweet Bordeaux such as Cadillac and Loupiac or sweet wines from around the Bordeaux region like Monbazillac are pretty good but they don’t have quite the intensity of Sauternes - or the impact when you put the bottle on the table. You can also partner foie gras with similar wines such as a late-harvest Semillon or Sauvignon.

The only downside is having to start a meal with a sweet wine which is not to everyone’s taste. An alternative would be to serve a mature reserve Chardonnay in which rich, buttery, caramelly notes have developed.

Sloe gin and Stilton

The port and Stilton combo has become a bit of a cliché. Not that it doesn't work - it's hard to fault - but if you want to really impress your guests and take them out of their comfort zone, serve your stilton with a shot of sloe gin instead. It has much the same brambly flavour as a Late Bottled Vintage port but, despite being stronger, manages to taste lighter, fresher and less alcoholic.

Gordon's and Plymouth Gin both do a version but if you can find a bottle from a small artisanal producer, even better. In the UK Bramley and Gage (www.bramleyandgage.co.uk) does a good one, and also a very good damson gin which also works very well with blue cheese.

Cave aged gruyère and dry oloroso

If I were to tell you I was seriously excited about the pairing of a supermarket sherry with a supermarket cheese you'd probably think I'd totally lost it - but hang on a moment.

The cheese is a cave-matured gruyère from Sainsbury's that has somehow survived 5 weeks in the wildly fluctuating temperatures of my domestic fridge and the sherry a bottle of Sainsbury's Taste the Difference 12 year old Dry Oloroso sherry - far cheaper than it has any rate to be at £6.99 a 50cl bottle. Made by Lustau it's wonderfully dark and nutty, like grilled hazelnuts with a piercing acidity that harmonises beautifully with the sharp crystalline cheese.

You should be able to pull off the same trick with any comparable dry oloroso and mature hard cheese - a great way to round off a meal.

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