Spicy spam and Mosel riesling

I can’t say spam is high up on my list of things to eat let alone pair with wine but in New York last week I discovered a brilliant match for it at a quirky Hawaiian Lower East Side restaurant called Noreetuh

Mind you it’s hard not to find a good riesling pairing there as the list features one of the best selections I’ve seen along with a terrific range of burgundies thanks to the obsessive interest of its engaging GM and co-owner Jin Ahn.

The combination that particularly stood out was one of the musubi or sushi-like Hawaiian snacks just described as ‘spicy spam’ with pickled jalapeno and soy mayo with the simple but delicious 2021 Julian Heart 1000l Mosel riesling that was on by the glass that day and which I could have happily carried on drinking with the rest of my meal had there not been so many other tempting glasses to choose from.

You can buy it for £27.50 from Natty Boy in the UK or from Princeton Corkscrew if you’re in the US for $22. They (Princetown) also provide a bit of background about the producer, who I shall look out for from now on, on their website

See also The best food pairings for dry - and off-dry - riesling

Courgette, seed and curry leaf cake and dry German riesling

The more I taste authentic Indian food the less I think it causes problems for wine. A group of us cooked up a whole load of recipes on Saturday night including this savoury cake called handvo from Anjum Anand’s I love India.

It was based on semolina and gram flour and was flavoured with courgette, peas, curry leaves and pumpkin seeds. Despite also containing ginger and green chilli it was fragrant rather than hot and the most brilliant match for a lovely dry German riesling

The wine came from a producer I very much admire - Peter Jakob Kuhn from the Rheingau who works biodynamically. The wine is beautifully pure and fruity but not the slightest bit affected by the spice. In fact I think it was even enhanced by it. It makes the perfect aperitif.

You can buy the wine from Tanners shops and online and find the recipe - if you feel inspired to make it - on the Australian SBS site or, of course in Anjum's book.

Dry German riesling and cured salmon

Cured - or marinated - salmon is something you’ll find on a lot of menus these days but what’s the best wine to drink with it?

I hit on a great match at an excellent new pop-up wine bar called Corkage in Bath last week with a bottle of 2013 Weingut Winter Riesling from the Rheinhessen. At 12.5% it’s higher in alcohol than many German rieslings so dry and powerful enough to handle the cure without losing its own crisp citrus and passionfruit character. (It also went well with another starter of crab and egg on toast.)

I liked Corkage which is up the far end of Walcot Street if you’re wondering. It’s got a small but well-chosen selection of wines, some of which they import directly, a short menu of well-priced food, and it's really cosy and friendly. They’re there at the moment for 3 months - hopefully they’ll stay longer.

You can also buy the riesling to take away from Corkage. It's also stocked by Bottle Apostle at £12.60, £13 from the Good Wine Shop and £13.99 from the Oxford Wine Company.

Fruit and flower tart with German auslese riesling

I've struggled to come up with a single pairing from last week as all the matches I was offered at the two-Michelin-starred The Ledbury were spot on but this, I think, is the most spectacular.

It was a new dessert they had just put on - the prettiest imaginable tart topped with a violet (I think) crème patissière, wild strawberries and pansies and two shining scoops of rose and violet sorbet.

A tricky match for any wine but the head sommelier Anya produced a bottle of Keller Dalsheimer Hubacker Riesling Auslese 2004 from the Rheinhessen in Germany which was light, sweet and floral itself. Just perfect.

Other good matches she devised were an Argyros Assyrtiko with a ‘royale’ of squid with cauliflower, pinenuts and sherry, a Mon Vieux Aquifer semillon from the Swartland with a dish of quail’s egg with asparagus, wild garlic, morels and Arbois and a robust Reinisch St Laurent with an amazing dish of pig’s cheek with a crunchy crumble-like topping. (I’d told her I didn’t want to drink any French wine as I drink predominantly French at home.)

This is not, of course, the cheapest way of drinking at The Ledbury - or any top end restaurant. As they know me and knew of my interest in food and wine pairing they treated me to several of the glasses but they would normally come to at least £50 if you’d had had one with each course*. There are bottles available on the list though for as little as £25 (though the best value is in the £30-50 price bracket) and an excellent list of half bottles. And the £45 lunch, which is what I went for, is incredible value for money for that quality of food and service.

* The current 2010 vintage of the auslese is on sale at Hedonism for £63.10 a half bottle so the £13 a glass the Ledbury is charging for the 2004 is not unreasonable.