John Dory poached in red wine with Daniel Rion Nuits-St-Georges

It was hard to pick just one pairing from the stellar meal I had at Marcus Wareing in London last week but this combination of robustly cooked John Dory and 2005 Nuits-St-Georges from Domaine Daniel Rion was the most interesting, underlining that red wine can be just as good a partner for white fish as for meatier fish like tuna.

The dish also contained other elements that made it more red-wine friendly: two different kinds of mushrooms - scarlet elf cap mushrooms and new season morels - and smoked bacon and the fish skin was very crisp.

The wine, which was still tasting very youthful, provided an elegant contrast and fresh note of acidity to the rich-tasting dish.

The other standout pairings were a 2007 Alban Viognier from California with a starter of seared Scottish scallops, chard, celeriac, sorrel, and lemon curd (a combination that tasted much less bizarre than it sounds - the lemon curd merely provided a zesty lemon top note) and a stunning 2007 Umathum Scheurebe Trockenbeerenauslese from Austria with a dessert of Granny Smith apple crème, spiced brioche crisps, popcorn and salted caramel ice cream

I’ll be reviewing the restaurant shortly.