Catalan sausage and beans with southern French Syrah/Grenache

Last week’s highlight without a doubt was the meal I had with my Guardian colleagues at Brawn, Ed Wilson’s new restaurant in Columbia Road. As you may know it’s the new City outpost of the hugely popular wine bar Terroirs with a similar natural wine list which you can read about on my natural wine blog here.

Ed suggested wines to go with different stages of the meal which was served tapas-style - we must have tried practically every dish on the menu.

I loved the exuberant La Guillaume Gamay with the charcuterie and the Domaine Matassa Cuvée Alexandria, an extraordinary dry Muscat of Alexandria, with the zander boudin in shellfish sauce but the combination that just pipped the others to the post was Jean-Franois Nicq’s 2007 Domaine Les Foulards Les Glaneurs from the Roussillon, a generous spicy blend of Grenache and Syrah with the mongetes, a ribsticking Catalan dish of sausage and beans.

Although the wine was full-bodied - and funky - enough to need carafing it was still fresh enough to offset the richness of the beans. And just perfect for this freezing cold weather.