Lamb, artichoke and Gevrey-Chambertin

Since lamb goes with practically every type of red wine you can think of you might wonder why I’m singling it out as this week’s match of the week.

Two reasons - one being the time of the year. Lighter dishes like this one at the 3 Michelin-starred Hélène Darroze at the Connaught call for a lighter wine than you might drink in the autumn or winter or with more robust accompaniments. The flavour of the lamb was really delicate and sweet, perfect with the wine head sommelier Lucas Reynaud Paligot had chosen, a youthful 2021 from David Duband, one of the Connaught’s own selections.

The other is the artichokes which you might think would make it a no-no with a fine red wine but the flavour wasn’t intrusive. I suspect they were cooked right down, almost confited. It’s really only an old-school artichoke vinaigrette that is problematic for wine. And how often do we eat that these days?

For other pairings see top wine pairings for lamb. And for another great Gevrey-Chambertin match see here. (No, I don't spend all my time drinking Gevrey-Chambertin. Unfortunately!)

I ate at Hélène Darroze at the Connaught as a guest of the restaurant

White peach and blanc de noirs mousse with rosé champagne

There were a lot of great pairings at the G.H. Mumm dinner I went to in Paris the other night but the most intriguing was the dessert which was served with their RSRV Rosé Foujita

The meal which was devised by 3-starred Michelin chef Sato Hideaki of Ta Vie in Hong Kong was primarily focussed around how the texture of a dish can play with champagne but this last pairing was more about sweetness - or rather the lack of it.

The Rosé Foujita has only 6g of residual sugar but because it's fruitier than most rosé champagnes it was not made uncomfortably tart by being paired with a dessert. Not that the dessert was overly sweet, reflecting more the delicate flavour of white peach. But the accompanying champagne mousse and spun sugar casing were ethereally light which made it the perfect partner for a sparkling wine.

If you haven't the skills to make a similar dessert - and let’s face it which of us has - I think the Foujita could also work with pannacotta and a perfectly ripe white peach or nectarine. It’s also recommended as an accompaniment to beef (rare or raw I’d say) or salmon which really makes it very versatile.

You can buy it from The Whisky Exchange for £69.75 - not cheap but good value. Laurent Perrier rosé is £81.25 and Ruinart’s £89.95

I attended the dinner as a guest of G.H. Mumm.

Langoustine and chickpea velouté with ‘fine’ rosé

I went to a really interesting tasting and lunch in London last week to celebrate the new Fine Rosé Day - an attempt to get the world to take rosé more seriously as a gastronomic wine.

The menu was devised by - none better - the team at the newly two Michelin-starred Trivet, each course paired with two contrasting wines, and contained some really interesting matches.

The standout one for me was a dish of poached langoustine with chickpea velouté - an unlikely but hugely clever combination, with both elements cleverly playing on the strengths of the two accompanying wines

One was the 2023 Feudi di San Gregorio San Greg rosato whose delicate red berry fruit chimed in beautifully with the langoustine (and accompanying dill); the other the more mature, savoury Ultimum from Torpez in St Tropez which was sensationally good with the slightly nutty chickpea velouté.

I can only find the Ultimum in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland at the moment but you can buy the San Greg currently from allaboutwine.co.uk for £19.39 which is a good price as it’s over £22 elsewhere. But do try the chickpea pairing with other savoury rosés.

Sauerkraut and orange wine

I could of course have written about wine pairings with schnitzel this week having spent four days at Austria’s major wine fair VieVinum in Vienna but it merely confirmed my view that grüner veltliner is a pretty unbeatable match. (Along with beer!)

However what was a revelation is just how well orange grüner - even a fairly wild example - pairs with sauerkraut and dumplings, the sauerkraut in particular.

Stands to reason when you think about it. The sourness of sauerkraut offsets the slight sourness of an orange wine. But they also (my friend Ruth Spivey and I had a different one each) went with the grammelknödel (roughly translated as pork scratching dumplings) that were served with it at an excellent little restaurant we found called Glacis Beisl.

You’re going to ask exactly which orange wine aren’t you and I’m going to have to confess I’m not sure given they they didn’t bring the bottles, just the glasses. (My excuse is that we were preoccupied with Ruth’s gorgeous baby, Bob)

However I did at least take a picture of that page of the wine list and am pretty sure it was the first two.

Anyway do remember this next time you’re in a restaurant that serves sauerkraut or choucroute and look to see if there's an orange wine on the list - although riesling does work too as you can see from this post.