Cheese, pear chutney and Jurançon

This might not have been the best match of the week - that honour goes to the turbot and orange wine pairing I experienced at Ellory which I’ve already written up here - but it’s the one that’s easiest to replicate at home.

It was at a swish new Bristol restaurant called Adelina Yard which does what must be one of the best fixed price lunch deals in the country. Three brilliant courses for just £15.

I went with my friend wine writer Susy Atkins so you’d think we’d have done some damage to the wine list but we virtuously decided to have a alcohol-free lunch. Until, that is, I tried the pear chutney that went with the cheese plate and decided it was crying out for a glass of sweet wine.

It’s one you might be unaware of - a sweet Jurançon* from south-west France called Symphonie de Novembre from Domaine Cauhapé, one of my favourite Jurançon producers. Although it was from the 2010 vintage it was still really fresh with lovely lush apricot and passionfruit flavours. A real treat. You can buy it from James Nicholson for £11.99 a half bottle and around £13 from WoodWinters and various other independents. The Wine Society has full-sized bottles of the 2012 for £19.

And the cheeses? I was afraid you were going to ask me that. I can’t remember to be honest, we were yammering so much. But they included (I think) a goats cheese, an Ubriaco, a Pecorino and a Shropshire Blue. But the chutney was the real inspiration**.

*Sweet Jurancon is just labelled Jurançon. If it’s a dry wine it’s referred to as Jurançon Sec.

** Note, it wasn't a very vinegary chutney which can be a bit brutal for wine. More like a pear compote.

Langoustine cannellonis and citrus with Pacherenc de Vic Bilh

It's always a challenge to pick a single wine with an elaborate tasting menu but the Jardins de Bouscassé 2008 Pacherenc du Vic Bilh sec from Alain Brumont we ordered with our meal at La Renaissance in Argentan last week hit the spot with almost every dish.

My favourite match by a whisker was an intricate dish of 'cannelloni' formed from pieces of squid, wrapped round some beautifully fresh langoustines and served with an intense seafood broth flavoured with pomelo and dots of mandarin and basil (I think) pure. I'm not normally that keen on the French obsession with 'sucré-salé' but the combination of fish and citrus worked perfectly with the light, lush, tropical fruit-scented wine. (There was also a hint of Sichuan pepper in the dish.)

It also went brilliantly well with the next course of John Dory with small, sweet crevettes grises (shrimps) and carpaccio of pigs trotter, an extraordinarily intense surf'n'turf combination.

I'll be writing a bit more about the restaurant in due course but it was an outstanding meal. Bizarrely it doesn't have a Michelin star.

Fresh walnut tart and Jurançon

With two spectacularly high profile meals last week (see my last two posts) it was hard to choose a match this week. Should it be the Crozes-Hermitage and Herdwick mutton, kidney and oyster pie I had at Hix, or the perfect pairing of Sebastian Bobinet’s 2006 Saumur Champigny 'Amateus Bobi' and pig’s trotter at Pierre Koffman’s pop-up restaurant at Selfridges? (There - I’ve told you anyway!)

In the end I’ve gone for my friend's dessert at Koffman - a fresh walnut tart and a Jurançon, Clos Uroulat 2007 from Charles Hours simply because it fulfilled the main ambition of food and wine matching, that the whole should be better than the sum of the parts.

Walnuts, you might think, are nothing to write home about but fresh walnuts are another matter as chef Skye Gyngell pointed out in her column in the Independent on Sunday this weekend. The tart was delicately nutty and crumbly, not bitter as walnuts often are but not oversweet like a pecan pie, despite the accompanying scoop of chestnut honey ice cream. It was a perfect foil for the lush, sweet Jurançon (not to be confused with the dry version, Jurançon Sec), accentuating its apricot fruit and making it open up like a peacock's tail. If you’ve got a booking at the restaurant before it closes on October 31st look out for it. Especially as it's only £5 a glass!

Image © Africa Studio - Fotolia.com

Pear frangipane tart with Pacherenc du Vic Bilh

If you want to show off a fine dessert wine the ideal match is a simple French apple or pear tart, so there should be no surprise then at this pairing of a pear frangipane tart (pears with a spongey almond base) and a Pacherenc de Vic Bilh cuvée 'Octobre'.

The most interesting aspect of the partnership was the wine which was came from one of the region's most celebrated producers Alain Brumont. Pacherenc du Vic Bilh is a tiny appellation in the south-west of France which makes wines similar in style to a Jurançon, both ideal partners for the local foie gras. Despite coming from the 2000 vintage it was still full of life with luscious peachy fruit and perfectly balanced acidity.

The tart was neither home-made (very few French make tarts from scratch, taking the view that that's what boulangeries - and even supermarkets - are for) nor particularly distinguished but paired with the wine and accompanied by a good scoop of crème fraïche d'Isigny the combination took on an extra dimension. Which is what food and wine matching is all about.

Image © Silvano Rebai - Fotolia.com