Brill with oxtail and Domaine Tempier Bandol

About the most unlikely wine match you could imagine - a delicate fish with a 19 year old red wine - but it worked! Which shows you can always be surprised by food and wine pairing.

It was at Bell’s Diner in Bristol and a very bold surf’n’turf dish. The key to the match was the accompanying braised oxtail which was subtle enough not to overwhelm the fish but robust enough to call for a red rather than a white.

You wouldn’t want to drink even a mature wine like this with brill on its own or with much lighter accompaniments, obviously - or at least I wouldn’t. And a younger Bandol or mourvèdre would have certainly overwhelmed the dish, even with the oxtail.

I’ve written about this Domaine Tempier vintage before. It’s a favourite wine and when we had it at The Nobody Inn last summer we bought two extra bottles, one of which we demolished at this dinner. (We had the opportunity to bring our own wine).

A wine that can work with steak and ale pie AND with white fish. Now that is something!

Braised brill with truffles and La Rocca Soave

I’ve already mentioned this wine pairing as part of my write-up of the Action Against Hunger pop-up with Rick Stein but it was the outstanding match of last week.

It was an unusual dish which you can just about see from the rather blurry picture to the right. The brill - which was fabulously fresh - was braised rather than grilled and adorned with mushrooms and truffles which gave it a powerful umami hit.

Old white burgundy would have been the obvious choice but they had already run out of the Meursault on the wine list so we opted instead for the 2007 vintage of this highly unusual single vineyard Soave from Pieropan which we were lucky enough to get at the normal retail price.

It was an incredibly lush, voluptuous wine - just perfect with such a rich fish dish. A real treat.