Fideos negros con calamaritos with alioli and Rueda

I’ve never been a huge fan of Rueda, a sauvignon-style wine from the north of Spain, but seem to have been drinking it non-stop since I arrived in Malaga.

Maybe because it goes so well with the local seafood but I think they go for a fresher less pungent style here than back in the UK

This was one of the best pairings with one of my favourite dishes of the trip at Taverna Uvedoble: Fideos negros or fried squid ink noodles with baby squid and a good dollop of alioli (garlic mayo). It was SO good we went back for it a second time.

The Rueda acted with the pasta like a sharp squeeze of lemon, balancing the dark saline flavour of the noodles and the punchy alioli. A really good restaurant and a great combination

Layered tomato and egg salad with Verdejo

One of the advantages of BYO is that you can have a stab at matching your wine to the menu. Particularly when you know exactly what each course will be. But sometimes the description is a bit vague as in Saturday’s ‘layered salad’ at the Montpelier Basement supper club in Bristol.*

It turned out to be a delicious French-style ‘verrine’ - a layer of fresh tomato salad, egg mayonnaise and a topping of pea-shoots which perfectly suited the crisp, citrussy 2010 Tresolmos Verdejo we’d brought with us (currently on the 2011 vintage from The Wine Society). A Sauvignon Blanc would have worked equally well - perhaps surprisingly. You wouldn't normally think of Verdejo or Sauvignon with egg.

The Verdejo also sailed through the second course of pan-fried mackerel in oats and piccalilli vegetables - a lightly pickled salad of crunchy veg including cucumber, carrot and cauliflower.

Interestingly the other wine we’d taken along - a really lovely 2008 grand cru riesling from René Muré didn’t match as well with either despite the fact that it was dry by Alsace standards. Though it was unexpectedly good with the warm cheesy biscuits that were served at the beginning of the meal which accentuated its fresh apple notes.

It all goes to show that, just as with cooking, there are always new combinations to be discovered with food and wine pairing.

* Sadly this was the last supper at 'The Basement' as its proprietors Elly and Dan are moving on. But they will be hosting other events in the future.

Gazpacho and Rueda

Just squeaking in in time for this week’s match of the week is a great gazpacho and Rueda combo I had at lunch today at a new London winebar 28-50.

I’ll be reviewing it in a few days time but this was really a stand-out combination. The chef Paul Walsh, who used to be no. 2 at Gordon Ramsay Royal Hospital Road, has created a spicy twist on the Spanish classic with a crostino rather than a crouton, topped with a coarsely chopped fresh tomato purée and with some basil, chilli and olives in the soup. It wasn’t hot but it had quite a kick.

I picked one of the least expensive wines on the list, a crisp minerally 2009 Rueda called Herbis - a blend of Verdejo and Viura from ex-sommelier Franck Massard of Epicure Wines. I’ve had Sauvignon Blanc before with tomato-based soups so I thought it would work but the combination was actually quite perfect.

28-50 which refers to the latitudes between which wine can be successfully grown is the latest enterprise from Xavier Rousset and Agnar Sverrisson of Texture. Cleverly they’re selling wines by the 75ml measure as well as the standard glass and carafe sizes so you can easily try more than one.

Image © Francesco83 - Fotolia.com