Cold rare fillet of beef and Cinsault

Given that it’s been in the mid-30s in the Cape Winelands recently it’s not surprising the local prefer their beef cold rather than hot but that also requires a change of thinking - from full-bodied to lighter reds.

The wine I’ve been finding hits the spot perfectly is Cinsault (or Cinsaut as it’s sometimes spelt) a traditional Cape grape variety that’s being given a new lease of life producing wines that are more like Beaujolais in style

The one that prompted this post was the 2014 Hinterland Cinsaut from Blackwater - a beautifully pristine, fresh, fragrant young wine that went perfectly with a beef fillet marinated (I would guess) with garlic and herbs, simply seared, cooled and served rare.

Cabernet Franc is another good candidate for cold roast beef as I discovered at Warwick as of course is pinot noir but we haven’t been in pinot country for the last couple of days. Good tip to remember for summer!

Image © koss13 on fotolia.com

Rhubarb cheesecake and 2007 Peller Estates Cabernet Franc Ice Wine

With four days in Edinburgh and three at the Ballymaloe Food & Drink Litfest in Co Cork this weekend I’ve been overwhelmed with good food and drink matches but as I haven’t singled out a dessert for a while I’m making Tom Kitchin’s Rhubarb cheesecake my hero dish this week.

Frankly I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t serve cheesecake with rhubarb. It’s the most perfect combination, especially with a scoop of rhubarb sorbet.

I confess I’d never have thought of pairing it with a red Canadian icewine so full marks to the sommelier at The Kitchin for coming up that one. It was paler than you might imagine for a red wine with more than a hint of strawberries and rhubarb itself which worked really well with the cheesecake. And the intense sweetness and viscosity dealt with the sorbet which can kill lighter dessert wines.

The 2007 doesn’t seem to be available but you can buy the 2008 from Slurp for £15.35 a quarter bottle or the 2010 vintage for £41.99 a bottle from Invinity wines (see wine-searcher.com for other stockists)

Not cheap but a real show-off pairing!

Blesbok loin with root vegetables, num num and 2010 Delaire Graff Botmaskop

Another week of brilliant pairings, another tough decision to make but I’m going for this combination at Delaire restaurant in Stellenbosch because it was such a great dish.

South Africans are rightly proud of their raw ingredients and this combined perfectly a colourful dish of blesbok - an indigenous antelope - with winter root vegetables, poached num num (hard to track down on Google without getting waylaid by references to the National Union of Mineworkers or alternative spellings to nom nom but a fruit belonging to the Apocynaceae family and eugenia berry pickle (a tropical plant belonging to the myrtle family). So, meaty and fruity but not oversweet.

It would have worked well, I think, with a number of reds but was perfect with the vividly, fruity 2010 Delaire Botmaskop, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc with dashes of Merlot, Petit Verdot, Shiraz and Malbec (more so than the much more expensive Lawrence Graff Reserve (which, unusually, showed better with the cheese).

The Shiraz and Malbec played their part in making the wine less austere than a classic Bordeaux blend despite the wine's comparative youth. Rhone varietals like Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre would work well too with these kind of flavours

The 2010 isn’t available in the UK yet but the 2009 is available in bond from Justerini & Brooks for £70 for a six bottle case.

Lamb with coriander and the Garage Wine Company's Cabernet/Carignan

This is possibly the most off-the-wall pairing I encountered on my recent Chilean trip and for that reason the most exciting - both on account of the food and the wine.

The wine is made by the small Garage Wine Company which is part of a group of independent vintners called MOVI about whom I shall be writing more in due course. It’s the 2008 vintage, numbered #18 and is a blend of Cabernet from the Upper Maipo area and some old bush vine Carignan from Maule (I was tremendously impressed by the Carignan I tasted in Chile). It was deliciously supple and aromatic with intense flavours of fresh figs and dark cherries.

The dish, for which I simply have to get the recipe, was a Peruvian dish of slow cooked lamb in a dense coriander sauce which we had at Puerto Peru, the restaurant where we did the tasting. Its herbal character set off the wine to perfection though I suspect it would also have gone well with some of the other wines we tasted especially the Cabernet Francs.

At the moment the Garage Wine Company's wines are not exported to the UK but you can contact the owner Derek J Mossman Knapp direct through their blog or via email to derekATgaragewinecoDOTcl