Bacon cheeseburger with Pinea 17 Ribera del Duero

I’m not normally someone who craves a ‘dirty burger’ but when I was sent a couple in a meat delivery from my mate Northern Irish butcher Pete Hannan I thought I’d go the full hog with it.

It was pretty spectacular in itself - a thick patty of salt-aged Glenarm shorthorn beef which I then proceeded to load with Pitchfork cheddar (from cheesemaker friends Trethowan Brothers), crisp-fried streaky bacon (from Brown & Forrest) and some addictive deep fried onion rings from the previous weekend’s Indian cooking experiment from Roopa Gulati’s new book, India from the World Vegetarian series. Plus a brioche-style bun from my local offie, amazingly. How burger buns have moved on.

It was quite a challenge for any wine to stand up to and I would normally have gone for a new world cabernet sauvignon or Bordeaux blend but happened to have a bottle of the Pinea 17 Ribera del Duero open, an impressive wine which normally retails at £52 but is on promotion currently at winebuyers.com for £35 (still expensive, I know).

You might think it was way too serious a wine but I have previously found that expensive, structured full-bodied reds show surprisingly well with burgers. This was a modern style of Ribera del Duero, already mature for a 2017, and deliciously smooth and velvety.

For other ideas check out Six of the best pairings for a burger

Disclosure. The burgers, cheese and bacon were gifts and the wine a sample. Yes, I *know*. I know I’m lucky to be in this business and apologies if it comes across as smug or entitled 🙄

Milk fed lamb and aged Vega Sicilia

One of the questions I get asked most often is what to drink with a treasured bottle and this week’s match of the week provides the answer it it’s a red.

It won’t be to everyone’s taste but it’s the baby or milk fed lamb much beloved of inhabitants of the Ribera del Duero region in the north of Spain.

I feel slightly embarrassed to admit this but I had it twice in one day last week - with venerable vintages of Vega Sicilia ‘Unico’ - at lunchtime with the 1996, then in the evening with the 1981 and the 1991 and have to admit it was sublime.

Why does it work so well? Well, the flavour of the meat, as you might imagine is delicate and sweet and it’s served on the rare side on its own with just the cooking juices. No heavy charring, no sauce, no gravy. No competing ingredients on the plate - though in the first instance it was served with the classic side salad of lettuce tomato and onion - the raw onion is possibly a bit brutal.

You may well feel uncomfortable about eating lamb at that age (21 days in the case of the evening meal) but you could take the idea and serve a similar wine with rosé veal or older lamb cooked the same sort of way. For some reason aged Ribera - and rioja for that matter - does go particularly well with lamb.

And if you're vegetarian and have read this far? I'm thinking a whole roast celeriac would be a good option.

Needless to say I was a guest of Vega Sicilia.