Match of the week
Brill with oxtail and Domaine Tempier Bandol
About the most unlikely wine match you could imagine - a delicate fish with a 19 year old red wine - but it worked! Which shows you can always be surprised by food and wine pairing.
It was at Bell’s Diner in Bristol and a very bold surf’n’turf dish. The key to the match was the accompanying braised oxtail which was subtle enough not to overwhelm the fish but robust enough to call for a red rather than a white.
You wouldn’t want to drink even a mature wine like this with brill on its own or with much lighter accompaniments, obviously - or at least I wouldn’t. And a younger Bandol or mourvèdre would have certainly overwhelmed the dish, even with the oxtail.
I’ve written about this Domaine Tempier vintage before. It’s a favourite wine and when we had it at The Nobody Inn last summer we bought two extra bottles, one of which we demolished at this dinner. (We had the opportunity to bring our own wine).
A wine that can work with steak and ale pie AND with white fish. Now that is something!
Rabbit ballotine with Domaine Lucci Wildman Pinot Noir
If i'm asked what my favourite wine is I usually say I don't have one as there are always moments when I fancy one wine more than anything else. But Pinot Noir has to be up there, especially a glorious, hedonistic Pinot like this Domaine Lucci Wildman Pinot which is one of the most delicious wines I've tasted all year*.
It doesn't look much admittedly. It's a natural wine so it's unfiltered and slightly cloudy with a pale almost brownish tinge to it that almost looks as if someone's poured a dash of milky tea into the glass. But the aroma and flavour are just sensational - sweet, scented, heady, silky - everything you expect from great red burgundy.
The match was at a natural wine dinner at Bell's Diner which was presented by my husband, a great natural wine aficionado. He suggested rabbit as the ideal match to the chef Chris Wicks and he came up with this delicious ballotine, stuffed with walnut and ginger and served with carrot, wild mushrooms and a pure-tasting not excessively sweet plum pure which provided the link to the dish. (Apologies for the very blurry photo.)
Like duck, rabbit is a pretty sure-fire match for Pinot.
*available for £22.80 a bottle by the case (mixed or unmixed) from Les Caves de Pyrne and £30 from Bottle Apostle.
Sea urchins, beurre blanc and Ruinart Champagne
When luxury foods are discussed there's always an omission. An ingredient that I personally think is one of the most delicious in the world - sea urchins.
I was lucky enough to have some on Friday night at one of our best local restaurants Bell's Diner - one with a light dressing and one with a sumptuous beurre blanc that went stupendously well with the delicate sweet flavour of the sea urchins and with the glass of Ruinart Champagne we'd indulged in to start the meal.
Hopefully I'll be having some more great seafood this week. I'm off to Chile for the Best Sommelier in the World competition and will be reporting back from there over the next few days.
Image © stockcreations - Fotolia
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