Match of the week
Beef carpaccio and chardonnay
Beef and chardonnay doesn’t sound like an obvious combo at first glance but it depends, as always, how the beef is cooked.
This was in the form of a carpaccio at a Californian Wines tasting and lunch at Smith & Wollensky just off the Strand but the key was not so much the meat as the parmesan, truffle and truffle oil which anointed it all of which are immensely chardonnay-friendly
I tried a couple of different wines with it but particularly liked the Staglin Family’s 2019 Salus estate chardonnay which had a lovely freshness about it that counterbalanced its richness and weight. Sadly at £50 a bottle (at The Champagne Company) or £58 at Oddbins it isn’t cheap - Californian chardonnay, especially from the Napa Valley ,doesn’t tend to be - but you could pull the same trick with a full-bodied chardonnay from elsewhere - and even truffle oil rather than the real thing.
I ate at the restaurant as a guest of California Wines
Chicken vol-au-vents and La Crema chardonnay
I don’t know why a group of us got swept up by a bout of nostalgia for vol-au-vents on Twitter last week but it became so irresistible my friend Kate and her lodger Mike felt compelled to rustle up a batch to accompany an informal wine tasting the other night.
They would have bought them but there were none to be had, NOT EVEN at Waitrose. So Mike made his own, and topped them with the classic creamy chicken filling (with, intriguingly, a hint of carrot ... )
The best pairing was with a rather delicious 2014 La Crema Sonoma Coast Chardonnay which was fresher and creamier than the typical Californian chard and mirrored the creamy sauce perfectly. A light, fruity 2013 Moobuzz pinot also matched pretty well.
You can buy the La Crema, should you be so minded, for £15.99 from Roberts and Speight (or £14.99 if you buy six) and up to £18.45 elsewhere but to be honest there are less expensive chardonnays from South Africa, Chile and even burgundy that will do the job perfectly well.
If you’re bewildered by the appeal of vol-au-vents - or even wondering what they are - just think of them as mini chicken - or seafood - pies. What’s not to love about a pastry case and a creamy filling?
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