Grilled aubergine, red pepper and goats cheese baguette and Le Fruit Défendu rosé

It’s been so steamingly hot this past week down in the Languedoc (sorry to rub it in, rain-sodden folks back home) that there isn’t any alternative to rosé for my match of the week. That’s what I’ve been drinking (albeit from different producers) with everything.

The best match though - and I offer you this as much as a great sandwich suggestion as a food pairing - was a sarnie I rustled up for my vegan daughter to eat on the plane and then made one for myself as it looked so delicious. It was grilled aubergine, red peppers (also grilled) and basil stuffed into a baguette and drizzled with olive oil - only as I’m not vegan and there was goats’ cheese in the fridge I slathered some of that on the base of the sandwich too.

With it I had a glass of the nearest bottle that was open, a 2011 Fruit Défendu rosé from Domaine Magellan in the next door village of Magalas - a really nice dry rosé made mainly from old vine Cinsault with a little Syrah. Cinsault can be bubblegummy but I note they say on the website they don’t control the temperature over much “This old grape variety doesn’t appreciate being treated too technologically”.

Linlithgow Wines seems to have it for £6.76 a bottle which is a very fair price. When and if the sun next shines I can strongly recommend it. And the sandwich.

Salmon sashimi and dry Languedoc rosé

Not, I admit, the sort of starter you expect to be served on your first night in France - or the wine you’d expect to go with it - but the pairing, at the Château du Port in Marseillan*, worked perfectly.

Rosé, of course, is the most flexible of wines so one shouldn’t be too surprised but the key thing is that the rosé in question - the 2011 Les Amandiers from Château de la Liquière in Faugères, a blend of Cinsault, Mourvèdre, Grenache and Carignan was really crisp and dry - similar to a Provence rosé in style.

The sashimi was served with thinly sliced cucumber and black radish which provided a contrasting touch of freshness and bitterness which assisted the match without adding any competing flavours.

Good though the dish was though I’m not sure that it wasn’t more about the environment in which we found ourselves: the first night of our holiday, a gorgeous sunny evening and a bottle of one of our favourite local wines. It shows matches are sometimes as much about mood as food.

*Incidentally the Château du Port used to be run by the Pourcel brothers who own Le Jardin des Sens in Montpellier but was sold last year. The new owners seem to be doing a good job though.

Couscous and Languedoc rosé

It's funny how your attitude to food and wine matching changes when you visit a wine-producing area like the Languedoc which is where I've been for the past few days. You tend to drink the local wine because it's what the locals drink. It may not be the best match but it doesn't really matter, particularly at lunchtime when you want something light.

The other day we went for a couscous royale at a local café in Grau d'Agde which does it as the plat du jour every Thursday. It was a pretty substantial but not particularly spicy one including chicken, lamb and merguez sausages. We ordered a carafe of the local rosé which I guess was about 10-11% - not a serious wine obviously but it hit the spot.

I think a local Grenache or Cinsault-based red would have been marginally better but it would probably have been a degree or two more which would have made us feel more soporific. And as we're engaged in the sad and rather taxing task of clearing my late mother-in-law's house, there's no time for a siesta.

So sometimes the occasion is more important than the food. The wine was just fine - that's all you want at times.