Artichoke barigoule and grüner veltliner

So maybe Austria’s signature grape grüner veltliner is the perfect pairing for tricky-to-match artichokes?

I’ve suggested it as a good option before in this post on matching wine and artichokes and last week’s experience of trying the two together at Bristol restaurant No Man’s Grace has confirmed my view.

The occasion was the fourth dinner in a series organised by local cookbook club Eat Your Words where Bristol chefs cook a menu from one of their favourite cookbooks. John Watson of No Man’s Grace was ambitiously tackling The French Laundry Cookbook and opted to serve the very French barigoule - a dish of braised artichokes with onions, carrots and fennel - with a crisp 2014 Austrian grüner veltliner from Hopler (available at James Nicholson) which really stood up to it surprisingly well.

The restaurant is also noted for its desserts and served two as part of the dinner: a strawberry shortbread with a 2011 I Capetelli, a late harvest Garganega from Soave producer Anselmi (winedirect.co.uk) and a divinely light lemon sabayon pine nut tart with honeyed mascarpone with a 2013 Late Harvest Tokaji Katinka from Patricius (Hic wine merchants). Both were great matches but I actually preferred the fresher, sharper Capetelli with the tart.

Asparagus salad and Grüner Veltliner

I’ve been in Vienna for the past few days so couldn’t really avoid eating asparagus. Not that I wanted to. Austria’s white asparagus is one of the highlights of the spring and early summer so we grabbed any opportunity we could to wolf it.

This was a salad at a very cool café called Meierei which specialises in dairy foods so the asparagus was combined with fresh cheese, tomato and a milky dressing and some puffed up pork crackling a bit like posh Quavers. Really delicious. We drank the restaurant's own Grüner Veltliner with it. I can’t give you any more detail as they don’t put their winelist on their website and infuriatingly I didn’t note it down but it was a crisp, fresh youthful style - a 2013 I seem to recall.

We could have also drunk riesling with it - it’s a toss-up whether you should go for Grüner or Riesling with asparagus depending on your mood and the way it’s prepared. But if you go to Vienna don’t miss it.

Cold sesame noodles and weissbier

Thanks to my friend Signe Johansen of Scandilicious I finally got to Koya in Frith Street the other day - London’s food bloggers most popular noodle haunt and the winner of last year’s Observer Food Monthly’s Best Cheap Eats award.

It was a hot day (unusually for this summer) so cold noodles appealed and I had this amazing dish of Zaru Gomadare, thick udon noodles with a sesame sauce, cucumber salad and turnip pickle. That seemed a big ask for any wine to tackle (although a trusty Grüner Veltliner would probably have coped) so I picked the weissbier that was on offer - which embarrassingly I failed to note at the time. No matter - any similar German or German-style beer would be an equally good pairing

Its citrus and banana notes and slight touch of sweetness were perfect with the sesame sauce which I’m still wondering how to amalgamate with the noodles for my next visit. (Unable to dunk the thick slithery noodles in the sauce like any self-respecting Japanese I ended up pouring it over them and making the most ungodly mess.)

They also have a decent sake list so I’m guessing that sake would have been a good pairing too.

Velouté of asparagus with Grüner Veltliner

It's been a while since I've posted about soup - it's notoriously tricky to match with wine - but this weekend I came across a great combination at a new restaurant in Bath, the oddly named Menu Gordon Jones*

It was a classic velouté - silky smooth and creamy with the delicate flavour of the new season's English asparagus.

It would have been easy to overwhelm it with a fruity white like a Sauvignon Blanc but the 2010 Meinklang Burgenland Grüner Veltliner we'd ordered was perfect crisp counterfoil.

It also paired brilliantly well with a cocotte of sole, red mullet, mussels and spring vegetables that was served as the main course.

The more I drink Grüner Veltliner, the more I think it's one of the most versatile restaurant wines around. And this one was only 11.5% which makes it the perfect lunchtime option.

*A curious place. The chef can certainly cook but I couldn't wholeheartedly recommend it. See my review here.