Runaway American Brown Ale and chicken poutine

Last week I was in Manchester for lunch at the new Hawksmoor, a restaurant I can hardly review given it’s one of my son Will’s.

However I think I can fairly point out that the outrageously good chicken poutine barm in the bar (which you can also order in the restaurant) is the perfect match for local Runaway Brewery’s American brown ale.

Poutine, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is a Canadian fast food dish of chips with cheese curds and gravy. What the kitchen’s done here is replace the curds with pulled chicken - and crisp shards of chicken skin - add an egg and stuff the lot into a soft bread roll or barm as it’s known locally in Manchester. It comes with a jug of gravy on the side which is the element that makes the brown ale pairing work so well.

Sound filthy? It is but it’s soooo good!

Runaway is a new Manchester brewery and also makes a cracking smoked porter I’m told. There's a list of the other places you can buy or drink it on their website.

Gorgonzola dolce and La Stoppa Ageno 2005

I’m a bit obsessed with orange wine* at the moment. It seems to go with so many things not least blue cheese as this match with gorgonzola at Le Baratin in Paris underlined.

It may of course have been the age of the wine which was nearly 10 years old and from an unusually warm vintage that gave it an extra richness. It’s made from Malvasia, Ortrugo and Trebbiano and comes from the La Stoppa estate in Emilia Romagna (You can read US importer Louis Dressner’s interview with the owner Elena Pantaleoni here. As you can see (right) it was an incredibly deep colour and tasted (most deliciously) of dried apricots and quince.

The Gorgonzola was creamy and not too strong - a surprising cheese, admittedly for a French restaurant to be serving but Le Baratin - one of my favourite Parisian restaurants - is quite unconventional despite describing itself as 'traditionnell'.

The Solent Cellar has the 2007 vintage of the Ageno for £24 and Wine Bear for £25.33. The more recent 2009 vintage is stocked by Ottolenghi at £26.50 with 10% off if you buy a case of six

You can see my review of Le Baratin here.

* for those of you who aren't familiar with the term an orange wine is a white wine that is made by leaving the juice in contact with the skins as you would a red which give the wine its deep orange (or sometimes lighter than orange) colour.

Lamb curry and Luigi Bosca De Sangre 2011

A cabernet would have been the last wine I would have thought of drinking with a curry but as happens from time to time you come across an unexpected wine match that really works.

It was at a lunch at Benares in Mayfair hosted by Argentinian producer Luigi Bosca and as is typical of Indian meals a number of dishes were served at the same time including a Rajasthani spiced lamb stew called Laal Maans, a chicken korma, a potato and tomato curry and a dal - quite a challenge for any wine to stand up to. Bosca’s 2013 pinot noir was also good particularly with the korma but I was struck by how well the full bodied (14%) 2011 De Sangre - a cabernet-dominated blend with a dash of merlot and syrah - paired with the Laal Maans.

When it comes down to it I guess that lamb is lamb and this was not a searingly hot dish. The wine was also almost 4 years old, mellow and supple. I don’t think it would have worked with a more tannic young cabernet.

Bosca also showed a deliciously fragrant white called Gala 3 - an unusual blend of old vine viognier, chardonnay and riesling - that went well with the tandoori salmon and plaintain kebab that kicked off the meal.

I’m not sure I’d go so far as to suggest drinking cabernet regularly with your curry but this shows you shouldn’t totally rule it out.

Waitrose sells the De Sangre for £16.99 - which is quite a bit more than Bottle Apostle which has it for £14.85. The most recent vintage of the Gala 3 I can find is at The Oxford Wine Company which has the 2011 for £19.50. (We had the 2012).

I was invited to Benares as a guest of Luigi Bosca.

Lobster with lichen and Torello Special Edition Cava

I went to the most extraordinary wine pairing dinner last week at Elena Arzak’s Ametsa in London, sponsored by the Consejo Regulador for Cava

Arzak, if you don’t know her, runs one of Spain’s most avant-garde restaurants in San Sebastian alongside her father and the menu was a roller-coaster ride of dishes that looked nothing like their descriptions.

There was seabass with ‘celery illusion’ for example where the celery was apparently formed from pineapple - an unlikely but delicious combination with this delicate fish. And an extraordinary dish of ‘pigeon with seeds’ (below) where the pigeon had been disconcertingly arranged on the plate to look like a shot bird lying in a pool of blood (actually a rather gorgeous chocolatey, raisiny purée). It was a powerful dish to match with cava but the weighty 2006 Recaredo brut nature reserva held its own remarkably well thanks to the accompanying seeds.

But the most harmonious match was a dish of lobster claw with swiss chard, a lacy corn wafer and a dusting (I think) of lichen. (It’s hard to keep up with exactly what’s going on in dishes like this.) That was paired with a 2010 Torello Special Edition brut reserva, an elegant creamy cava with a lively mousse and a dosage of only 4.3g. As you’d expect from lobster and fizz it was spot on.

You can buy the Torello which, as you can see, comes in a really wacky bottle from Hic for £16.50 and Great Western Wine for £17.50 - great value for a sparkling wine of this quality.

I attended the dinner as a guest of the Cava D.O.