John Dory poached in red wine with Daniel Rion Nuits-St-Georges

It was hard to pick just one pairing from the stellar meal I had at Marcus Wareing in London last week but this combination of robustly cooked John Dory and 2005 Nuits-St-Georges from Domaine Daniel Rion was the most interesting, underlining that red wine can be just as good a partner for white fish as for meatier fish like tuna.

The dish also contained other elements that made it more red-wine friendly: two different kinds of mushrooms - scarlet elf cap mushrooms and new season morels - and smoked bacon and the fish skin was very crisp.

The wine, which was still tasting very youthful, provided an elegant contrast and fresh note of acidity to the rich-tasting dish.

The other standout pairings were a 2007 Alban Viognier from California with a starter of seared Scottish scallops, chard, celeriac, sorrel, and lemon curd (a combination that tasted much less bizarre than it sounds - the lemon curd merely provided a zesty lemon top note) and a stunning 2007 Umathum Scheurebe Trockenbeerenauslese from Austria with a dessert of Granny Smith apple crème, spiced brioche crisps, popcorn and salted caramel ice cream

I’ll be reviewing the restaurant shortly.

Chocolate and chilli cheesecake and Merlot

You may be unconvinced about the wisdom of incorporating chilli into achocolate cheesecake, let alone accompanying it with Merlot but bear with me!

This off-the-wall pairing is one I experienced last week at a monthly supper club in Topsham near Exeter run by a friend Marc Millon who owns a small Italian wine importing business called Club Vino. The meal was devised to celebrate his son Guy’s six week road-trip round the States this summer and as Guy also happens to be one of the collaborators on my Ultimate Student Cookbook we wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Guy and his girlfriend Claire recreated the cheesecake from one they ate on their travels. Now, I must confess I’m not a normally a huge fan of cheesecake, let alone chocolate ones but I have to say it was a triumph, the spiciness of the chilli and the tanginess of the lime cutting through the richness of the chocolate and cheese.

It also tasted curiously good with the Californian Merlot I was drinking - an inexpensive label called Wandering Bear. Merlot is a grape variety that is often described as having chocolatey notes itself but these would not normally be in evidence when paired with chocolate. But with this particular cheesecake it tasted great - the chilli and lime zest bringing out all its lush fruitiness.

You can try this trick with other soft full-bodied reds and chocolate for adventurous guests though I don’t promise it will always hit the spot. But it stands to reason when you think of it. Chocolate almost always works with red berries so why not with a drink that incorporates those flavours (port being another example)? Just don't try it with a wine with marked acidity or one that is too tannic.

Lapin au vin and Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir

The other night I went back to one of my favourite restaurants Ransome’s Dock, a friendly neighbourhood restaurant in Battersea that has great food and an even more stellar wine list, put together with detailed and well-written tasting notes by chef/proprietor Martin Lam. (You can download it from the site)

It’s always difficult to decide what to eat there but I knew my husband would go for the rabbit (he always does, if it’s available!) which was cooked French bistro-style in red wine with bacon and mushrooms. I ordered some Welsh lamb cutlets so it wasn’t too difficult to find a wine that would go with both.

What we chose, having already had a half of Macon Igé with our starters, was a half of the ‘La Bauge au-dessus’ Pinot Noir 2005 from Au Bon Climat in the Santa Maria Valley. It was Californian Pinot at its luxuriant best, scented and supple - like sticking your nose in some exotic bath filled with raspberries and rose petals. It was good with my lamb but just went sensationally well with the rabbit. Better even, dare I say, than many similarly priced burgundies . . .

Aubergine (eggplant) and Zinfandel

This coming weekend sees the 16th annual festival of the Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP) in San Francisco. I went one year and it was an absolute blast - two great sheds filled with hundreds of enthusiasts enjoying this great belter of a red.

Zinfandel is believed to come originally from Croatia but is essentially the same variety as southern Italy’s Primitivo. And it does pair very well with the strong flavours of southern Italian food especially cooked tomatoes and aubergine/eggplant. It’s a great wine to drink with an aubergine bake or with pasta dishes like the Rigatoni with Aubergine, Sausage and Zinfandel sauce in Winelovers Kitchen. And I love matching it with a good moussaka or a lamb and aubergine stew

At the time of writing there were still tickets available for Thursday’s Good Eats and Zinfandel Pairing event which takes place from 6-9pm at the Fort Mason Center at the Herbst Pavilion where a selection of the 300 wineries that are exhibiting offer a dish to go with their wines. Click on the name of the event for details - featured dishes include Zinfandel braised wild boar with truffled polenta, mussels with chorizo and black beans, braised buffalo osso buco and BBQ ribs.

Image © Николай Григорьев - Fotolia.com