Bacchus and coriander salsa

English wine isn’t probably not the first bottle you’d reach for if you were serving a punchy salsa but on the basis of last week’s experiment maybe you should!

I was helping a friend make supper and she handed me a spinach pesto and asked me to zhuzh it up. I added some finely sliced spring onions, a bit of chilli, a good squeeze of lime, more herbs (mainly coriander and mint) and it turned into a creditable salsa which we had with some grilled tuna, tomatoes and mange tout.

I’d also taken along a couple of bottles including this very snappily packaged Bacchus which provided an extra layer of citrus that offset the salsa perfectly. It comes in a colourful paper bottle which is made from recycled paper, with a recyclable plastic pouch - rather like a mini bag-in-box which apparently gives it a carbon footprint six times lower than glass.You can buy it from Avery's in Bristol and Laithwaites for £18.99 or £14.99 if you buy any 12 wines from them. (You can see a couple of other recommendations from their range in a recent Guardian column)

A fun wine to take to a dinner party.

Camembert-style cheese and amphora-aged Bacchus

I’ve long felt that white wine is as good, if not a better match for cheese than red but it takes chutzpah to serve it at the end of a wine dinner as Mark Hix and Rob Corbett of Castlewood Vineyard did at an event I took part in last week at The Fox Inn at Corscombe

The cheeses, which came from Hollis Mead organic dairy included Benville, a triple-cream brie-style cheese, Corscombe which is like a camembert and a washed rind camembert-style cheese called Marvel.

None was particularly pungent so caused no problems for this really interesting white, borderline orange wine from Castlewood called Artefact which is aged in amphorae. It’s made from the English grape variety Bacchus but tastes smoother and creamier than Bacchus typically does with more of a pear, quince and sage character than a typically elderflower one.

The bottle and label too are unusual, depicting the events of the 2020 vintage in which it was made (you can find the story of how it came about on Castlewood’s website) Sadly it’s sold out but you might be able to find the odd bottle at the Fox or at The Pig hotels as their sommelier at The Pig in the South Downs, Luke Harbor, was involved in the project. (You could create a similar match though with other skin contact wines and camembert-style cheeses)

You can buy the cheeses online from a site called Harvest Bundle.

For other matches for Camembert-style cheese see What to Pair with Camembert

Bacchus and chilli

The most surprising wine pairing discovery of the year so far is that England’s Bacchus is remarkably good with chilli

I had one (the award-winning New Hall Bacchus Fumé) with kimchi the other day and thought it must be a fluke as Bacchus is generally quite low in alcohol and it seemed unlikely it would stand up to such punchy flavours but last week I tried another one - the 2020 Dillions Vineyard Bacchus from Sussex - with the first course of an amazing seafood feast from Ixta Belfrage of spicy cassava crisps, radishes and a zesty lime mayo and it was perfect.

To be fair the back label on the Dillions Bacchus does suggest Asian food as a pairing so they’re onto it too.

Why? I guess it’s because with its bright citrus and passionfruit flavours Bacchus is quite similar to sauvignon blanc which would be another go-to with these kind of flavours but I always think the image of Bacchus is rather genteel, perfect for English summer food like my other suggestions here. Turns out you don’t have to treat it that gingerly

PS Also in the photograph was a hibiscus, strawberry and lime agua fresca which of course matched the cassava chips and dip too

Bao and Bacchus

Who would have thought a few years ago that it would be as easy to drink local wine in southern England as it is over the channel in northern France? (Well, almost. I’m not counting Burgundy!)

So when I stayed at The Ollerod in Beaminster in West Dorset last week I thought I’d try the local Furleigh Estate Bacchus. But would it go with my spicy starter of crispy prawn and kimchi bao with sriracha mayonnaise?

The answer of course is yes, otherwise I wouldn’t be telling you about it would I?

The bao bun was flavoured with squid ink which is why it’s black (sorry for rubbish low-light photo) and neither the kimchi or the siracha was too hot but it still packed quite a punch. But then the Bacchus - from the excellent 2018 vintage - was quite full-flavoured too - in some ways more like an Aussie riesling than its normal drinkalike, sauvignon blanc. And you’d expect Aussie riesling to go with this kind of food. (Note the filling was prawn - I'd have been less inclined to drink it with a pork-stuffed bao.)

Anyway it goes to show that you can always be surprised - in this case pleasantly - by a wine pairing you wouldn’t have predicted. I really liked the food at Ollerod though it’s quite a pricey place to stay, in August at least. Chris Staines, a chef I greatly admired when he was cooking at Allium in Bath, owns the restaurant with his partner Silvana and is in the kitchen.

Furleigh has some other excellent pairing suggestions for Bacchus on their website on which it is unfortunately sold out* “Perfect served chilled with seafood such as ‘moules marinères' or flat fish such as lemon sole, plaice, brill or turbot. Enjoy it with goats cheese, or asparagus drizzled with lemon butter. Also good with Japanese sushi and pickled ginger, but go easy on the wasabi. Try it with Scandinavian pickled fish such as soused herrings or rollmops.”

A model wine pairing note!

See also my six best wine pairings for Bacchus

*although try their sparkling wines too.