Artichoke and sheep cheese salad and Ciello bianco

Much is made of the difficulty of pairing wine with artichokes but this week’s match of the week proves it’s far from impossible with the right accompaniments

Chef Cosmo Sterck of Marmo in Bristol created this great salad of marinated artichokes, spelt, Berkswell sheep cheese and yoghurt with went perfectly with the fresh slightly hazy Ciello Bianco we’d ordered which I always think has something in common with a witbier (which you could obviously drink too).

It’s made from catarratto, comes from Sicily and is unfined and unfiltered but not scary at all for those of you who are natural wine sceptics. It’s also one of those hugely adaptable wines you can drink with all kinds of antipasti (it was also great with the salame and gnocco frito and gorgeous pillowy burrata they brought us*).

The key to the pairing, as I’ve pointed out before, is introducing a citrus note to the dish. The tangy sheep cheese and yoghurt obviously helped too

You can buy the wine from indies such as Buon Vino for £8.95 a bottle.

For more wine suggestions with artichokes see Pairing wine and artichokes

And if you're into artichokes make this delicioius artichoke and preserved lemon dip

*these dishes were complimentary. We paid for the rest of the meal.

Smoked trout and artichoke linguini with a dry Pfalz Riesling

The other day I found myself at a meeting just round the corner from the newly opened Princess Victoria in Shepherds Bush in West London and popped in for lunch. It’s a splendid old building with a wonderfully baroque ceiling, one of the best I’ve ever seen in a pub.

It’s been taken over by Matt Wilkin who used to preside over the wine list at the two-starred Capital in Knightsbridge where he became one of the best sommeliers in London. Now he’s branched out on his own but has taken his two star list with him.

Well not the exact bottles, obviously but this is a wildly ambitious list for a pub - even a gastropub - with wines to suit every taste and pocket. There’s a regular list and a very well-priced fine wine list with mark-ups considerably more modest than those he used to impose at his former employer’s.

I took his advice on which wine to drink with the smoked trout and artichoke linguini with wild rocket and tarragon I had ordered and very much enjoyed the glass of 2007 Bassermann-Jordan, dry Riesling from the Pfalz he recommended. The crisp fruitiness of the wine worked perfectly with the smokiness of the trout, the creaminess of the sauce and the slight bitterness of the artichoke and rocket. It would have been easy to be carried away by the fact that this was pasta but the ingredients it was dressed with made the match. (Smoked fish and Riesling is always a reliable pairing.)

Even though The Princess Victoria is a bit of a trek from Central London and the Central Line is not currently stopping at Shepherds Bush station (though you can use the Hammersmith branch of the Metropolitan Line) I strongly recommend a visit.

The Princess Victoria is at 217 Uxbridge Road, London W12 9DH.
www.princessvictoria.co.uk