Match of the week

Crispy chilli lime squid with edamame bean and coriander salad and pinot gris
Having picked up a heavy cold a couple of days before flying to New Zealand last week I arrived unable to taste a thing but this delicately pretty wine from Brick Bay Winery in Matakana managed to penetrate the fog.
It undoubtedly helped to have drunk it at an outdoor table at the winery cafe underneath their pinot gris vines.
It went perfectly (I’m pretty sure) with my dish of crispy squid and edamame bean salad and I suspect would have gone equally well with my neighbour’s chicken salad*.
Although sauvignon blanc still totally dominates the New Zealand wine scene pinot gris appears to be becoming increasingly popular, not least because of its versatility with food.
* Undoubtedly true - I had a similar Asian-style chicken salad with a pinot gris at Wairau River in Marlborough which was equally good.

Pork, chilli, coconut and gapi salad with Momo Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
I’ve been tasting a lot of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc this week but was also reminded how well it goes with Asian food at Peter Gordon’s new restaurant Kopapa.
I ordered a glass of the Momo Sauvignon Blanc on their wine list and found it sailed effortlessly through the tapas-style dishes, especially a bite-sized, Thai-ish Pork chilli coconut and gapi salad with roasted shallots. (Gapi is the pungent Thai shrimp paste so this was quite a challenging dish.) It also survived the surprisingly delicious chickpea battered lambs brains with tomato masala my companion bravely ordered and - more to be expected - some grilled chermoula marinated tiger prawns with watermelon pickle
Momo, I discover, is made by Seresin which is now an organic and biodynamic producer though they only claim organic status for this range. It’s also fermented with wild yeasts which gives the wine a much less aggressively herbaceous character than some cheaper Sauvignon Blancs (though, as I’ve learnt this week, that is exactly what draws so many of its fans to it).
You can buy it in the UK from Harper Wells for £10.75 a bottle (£10.50 if you buy six), a good price for a wine of this quality. AG Wines stocks it for £11.25.
Image © Blinztree - Fotolia.com
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