Hot ham, kumquat relish and saperavi

Given the intense contagioiusness of Omicron it seemed a good idea to have a low key New Year’s Eve celebration this year which took the form of a really lovely kitchen supper with my friend Jenny Chandler and her family.

(Jenny wrote the great book Green Kids Cook: you can find her recipe for Smacked Cucumber and Crispy Green Salad with Zingy Ginger Dressing - which is EXACTLY what I feel like eating after 10 days of stuffing myself - here.)

On the night though she cooked a simple, delicious dish of ham poached in ginger ale with lentils (for luck in the new year), cavolo nero and a fresh zingy kumquat relish. I’d taken along two bottles to compare, a 2014 Cousino Macul Finis Terrae a mature blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah from Chile and, on impulse, a rich Georgian red, a 2018 Orgo Saperavi which went brilliantly well with the dish, especially the kumquat relish. Orangey flavours, it appears, need that kind of vibrant brambly fruit. Dolcetto, I suspect, would also work as would Bonarda.

Incidentally I’d tried the wine a year or so ago and found it slightly disappointing but it absolutely sang on the night.

Other good matches for Saperavi are slow cooked Wagyu beef and, you may be surprised to hear, roast grouse.

What else to match with Christmas ham

Roast grouse and saperavi

I’m not sure how many of you actually eat grouse - I’m not sure I would if I didn’t have a chef friend who loves to cook it. As a result I get to have a grouse dinner every year and this year’s was last week.

It came accompanied by an avalanche of veggies (I counted five including beetroot, red cabbage, runner beans, new potatoes and watercress) as well as bread sauce and crab apple jelly. Usually gravy too although Stephen (Markwick) had decided that might be overdoing things in terms of richness. We also had crisps rather than the traditional game chips which is a useful shortcut and entirely justified given how good crisps are these days.

We’ve worked through all the usual suspects winewise (Bandol being a particular favourite) so I thought I’d take along a bottle of the Orgo saperavi I’d just bid for in the Bid for Beirut fundraiser following the horrific explosion there a few weeks ago.

Saperavi is Georgia's main red grape and the wine was fermented in qvevri, the clay amphoras which is the traditional way of making wine in the country.

Given it was from the 2018 vintage it was still a little young but the dark, damsony fruit was spot on with the grouse and the intense flavours of the beetroot and cabbage. An older vintage - and it does age well - would have been perfect. You can buy it in the UK from Roberson Wine and NY Wines for about £20 a bottle.

I’m thinking orange wine would work too. Shall have to try that next year!

For other grouse pairings see Must grouse pairings be classic? and how to cook it, following Stephen's method, here.

Saperavi with slow cooked wagyu beef

Continuing the exotic vibe of last week’s pairing the standout combination this week was a Georgian Saperavi with Welsh Wagyu beef!

The beef, which is raised in Montgomeryshire, is part of the tasting menu at Ynyshir, a Michelin-starred restaurant on the edge of Snowdonia national park I enthusiastically reviewed for Decanter a couple of months ago.

It’s a regular feature on their tasting menu - on this occasion brined for 4 days and cooked for 3 (I seem to remember the chef who presented it telling us) and finished on the barbecue which gave it a slightly smoky edge which was reflected in the wine.

Saperavi is one of Georgia’s indigenous and most widely planted red grape varieties and - for the geeks among you - a ‘teinturier’, a variety which gains its colour from the flesh of the grape not just the skin.

This particular example was a 2015 from Ibereli and is imported by Les Caves de Pyrène. It’s relatively light but has sufficient character to stand up to the intensely flavoured meat.

Although Ynyshir doesn’t do pairings as such, the sommelier Amelia has a knack of picking wines that will go well with her partner Gareth’s food. Another standout - and surprising - pairing was a dish of pork belly with pickled cherries and a richly flavoured ‘natural’ chardonnay called Wind Gap from Mahle in Sonoma. (That's stocked by Roberson)

Pickled cherries, pork and chardonnay? Hard to replicate but believe me it works!

The picture of of Wagyu beef was taken by HL photo. It wasn’t the beef in the restaurant which was cooked for considerably longer. (The light was too low to take a good shot)

© HL photo at fotolia.com