Lamb biryani and grand cru gewurztraminer

Sometimes it’s worth revisiting your prejudices. I’ve never been a huge fan of gewürztraminer with Indian food although it’s an established pairing. It always seems to me slightly jarring, especially with tomato-based curry sauces. But this week I changed my mind.

I took an open bottle to an Indian restaurant* on Friday night and it actually went incredibly well (as did a Brundlmeyer grüner veltliner brought by my mate Martin).

Two possible reasons struck me - the fact that the food was relatively dry - a biryani with dal and saag paneer on the side - rather than several disparate wet curries and that the gewurztraminer was a really good one, albeit incredibly well priced from Lidl. (The 2012 Grand Cru Seinklotz from J P Muller which comes into store in 10 days time on the 26th and which you should snap up if you’re a gewurztraminer fan.) Tasting a really good example of a wine in a style you don’t normally go for can win you round.

I think it comes down to the fact that gewurz, as it’s known for short, is a bit of a Marmite wine. If you love it, you’ll like it just as much or even more with curry; if you don’t spicy food won’t make it taste any more appealing. But give it another try.

* Actually the restaurant itself is a bit of a find. It's called Vittles Curry Nights and is a cafe during the day, up the Filton end of Gloucester Road in Bristol. Nothing fancy but the food rocks!

Photo © H L Photo at fotolia.com - not, obviously, of our meal but a typical Indian spread.

Smoked duck and blood orange salad with Chilean Gewürztraminer

Gewürztraminer is a tricky wine to match, one that one usually falls back on recommending with oriental food, so it’s always good to come across something that’s outside the Asian register.

This was a salad I rustled up last night based on a smoked duck breast I was given to try by the Somerset smokery Brown & Forrest when I visited the other day. I immediately thought of partnering it with seasonal blood oranges and watercress but as the latter was sold out at my local greengrocer, I ended up using a bag of mixed bitter salad leaves including radicchio and chicory.

But it was the dressing that made the pairing. Having divided one orange into peeled segments I squeezed the juice of half another orange (about 2 tbsp, I’d guess) and whisked in about 2 tsp red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp of sunflower oil and 3 tbsp of olive oil (I didn’t want the olive oil flavour to be too dominant) But what made it was the seasoning - a scant teaspoon of pink peppercorns crushed with a little Maldon sea salt and I think it was that that linked so well to the wine.

That was a 2010 Chilean Gewürztraminer from Torres Santa Digna range which was apparently Fairtrade certified this year although they don’t use the logo on the bottle. It was less aromatic than most Alsace Gewürz with less of those pungent rose petal and lychee aromas that are so typical of this variety but enough to make it distinctively aromatic. A nice refreshing wine for people who generally find Gewürz too full on.

You can apparently buy it for about £7.99 from Charles Steevenson, Denhoffer Wines, Experience Wines, Partridges of Sloane St, Sandhams Wine Merchants, Telford Wines and other independent wine merchants - one way you might do your bit for Fairtrade fortnight which starts today.

Incidentally I tried the salad with an Australian Riesling and Pinot Noir I happened to have open and neither was as good. The Gewürztraminer really stole the show.

Image © opolja - Fotolia.com

Ceviche and Susana Balbo Torrontes

I’m currently away in Priorato in Spain (of which more later this week) but this was a great combination I came across last week at the Gaucho Grill in Swallow Street, London.

They’ve always served ceviches (raw fish marinated in citrus juice) but the selection has recently been refined by their executive chef Fernando Trocca who I met earlier this year in Argentina.

There were three kinds: a salmon tiradito (a layered version of ceviche) with citrus oil, lobster with white gazpacho and grapes and raw scallops with coconut dressing - all quite spicy. (You can order any three as a single course.)

The Susana Balbo Torrontes comes from the cool Salta region to the north of the country and is considered one of Argentina’s best. It has a perfumed floral character, not unlike a Gewürztraminer and took all the exotic and spicy flavours in its stride. I like the fact that being one of the grape varieties Argentina has made its own it’s the obvious local pairing too.

(Obviously it goes without saying we had steak and Malbec too but I probably don't need to point out again what a good combination that is!)