Brined smoked pork and refosco

It’s always a toss-up whether to drink red or white wine with pork. I normally go for white but I really liked this combination of a brined smoked pork chop with a light(ish), slightly smoky refosco at Casa in Bristol the other night.

It was accompanied by yet more pork in the shape of cabbage with pancetta swimming in an indulgently buttery sauce so it could well have been that that fired the pairing too. Anyway, safe to say, refosco and pork.

Refosco is a grape from the Veneto in north east Italy. This bottle which came from Molmenti & Celot, was a 2020 Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso from just outside Venice had a lovely wild hedgerow berry fruit with a hint of bitterness that made it particularly refreshing. It would also be really good with mountain ham and other salumi (charcuterie).

You can buy it for a very reasonable £12.99 from Wanderlust wine which makes it a bit of a bargain

Casa by the way is a more casual relaunch of what used to be Peter Sanchez-Iglesias top end restaurant Casamia and I like it the better for it. It’s pricey but the food is delicious. (I was a guest btw)

Here's another type of pairing with refosco you might enjoy.

Spicy spam and Mosel riesling

I can’t say spam is high up on my list of things to eat let alone pair with wine but in New York last week I discovered a brilliant match for it at a quirky Hawaiian Lower East Side restaurant called Noreetuh

Mind you it’s hard not to find a good riesling pairing there as the list features one of the best selections I’ve seen along with a terrific range of burgundies thanks to the obsessive interest of its engaging GM and co-owner Jin Ahn.

The combination that particularly stood out was one of the musubi or sushi-like Hawaiian snacks just described as ‘spicy spam’ with pickled jalapeno and soy mayo with the simple but delicious 2021 Julian Heart 1000l Mosel riesling that was on by the glass that day and which I could have happily carried on drinking with the rest of my meal had there not been so many other tempting glasses to choose from.

You can buy it for £27.50 from Natty Boy in the UK or from Princeton Corkscrew if you’re in the US for $22. They (Princetown) also provide a bit of background about the producer, who I shall look out for from now on, on their website

See also The best food pairings for dry - and off-dry - riesling

Braised cuttlefish and artichokes with orange wine

This week’s match of the week was a toss up between this pairing of orange wine and braised cuttlefish at Emilia in Ashburton and a delicious tuna and crab taco with a cracking margarita at Zapote in Shoreditch but I reckoned you know that tacos (fishy ones especially) are great with margaritas and it’s always a struggle to know what to drink with artichokes.

Six of the best drinks to pair with tacos

As I’ve said before it’s much easier to pair them when they’re braised or grilled than when they’re boiled, French-style with a vinaigrette or if they're partnered with other more wine-friendly ingredients - in this case cuttlefish and white beans.

I knew from past experience orange wine goes well with octopus so thought it would go with cuttlefish and it did, brilliantly, thanks partly to the wine being so delicious.

It was a deeply coloured 2021 skin contact Malvasia called Giandon Bianco from Il Farneto in Emilia Romagna with really lovely apricot and quince fruit. You can also buy it from the natural wine shop Highbury Library in London for £21. I think orange wines work particularly well when they’re made from aromatic grape varieties like malvasia and pinot gris

You might also find these articles helpful

Pairing wine and artichokes

The best food pairings for orange wines

Oysters with gazpacho and godello

I love oysters but generally find myself ordering the usual suspects with it from a wine list so am also super-pleased to find a new pairing.

This was a godello/treixadura blend from Valdeorras I cam across at a newish Spanish seafood bar called Maresco in Soho. It’s called Louro do Bolo and was made by the masterly Rafael Palacios who always manages to achieve a wonderful precision in his wines. Godello can be and often is rich and buttery, especially when it’s oaked and I don’t think that style would go too well with oysters especially this way of serving them with a light fresh gazpacho-like dressing (which was amazingly delicious) You wouldn’t have wanted too much upfront fruit in it either - albarino or alvarinho are other saline wines that would have worked

If you’d like to try the wine it’s sold by London End Wines, who also have a good description of Palacios’ approach to winemaking at £20.49 and Palmers Wine Store in Bridport in Dorset at £22.

Maresco which is just off Oxford Street on the corner of Berwick Street is a bit of a find. There was a great review of it by Grace Dent in the Guardian the other day.

For other oyster pairings see the best wine - and other - pairings with oysters