10 year old Bonnes-Mares grand cru burgundy and confit duck

Rooting round the cellar (well, cupboard under the stairs) in France last week I stumbled across a bottle of 2003 Bonnes-Mares, a Grand Cru burgundy from Jean-Luc Aegerter I’d been sent as a sample about eight years ago and furtively stashed away until it was ready to drink.

The sensible thing would have been to put it to one side - it still had plenty of life in it but sometimes you just think ‘what the heck?’. We decided to crack it open.

I can’t claim the food we had - confit duck and hasselback potatoes - totally did it justice but it was fine. With great bottles like this you don’t necessarily want the food to eclipse the wine.

I might have cooked a roast duck, had I had time to find a good one locally which would have been less aggressively salty. A simply roast chicken, guineafowl or partridge would also have been a good match as would a roast rack of lamb or even a fillet steak. But no heavy extracted sauces.

And definitely not a pungent Epoisses - a pairing of which the French seem inordinately fond but which IMHO would have killed it stone dead.

And the wine? Bright, fine, delicate with a lovely waft of raspberries and redcurrants and a beautiful silky finish - pinot noir at its delectable best.

For more information about Bonnes-Mares, a 15ha vineyard which spans the communes of Chambolle-Musigny and Morey-Saint-Denis see Clive Coates' website here.

Sea bass rillettes and Joseph Burrier Mâcon-Vergisson 2007

One of the most reliable wine matches is white fish with white wine and cream and/or butter and white burgundy - one of those blissful combinations that actually makes the wine taste better than it otherwise would.

We unearthed the Mâcon-Vergisson in a bit of a post-Christmas cellar sort-out and thought it needed drinking up. On its own it was pleasant enough with a soft honeyed edge, but it was transformed into a dazzlingly elegant drink by a jar of La Paimpolaise wild sea bass rillettes, a rather pricey but delicious French fish pâté we bought from our local deli. Not an economic purchase for a crowd - you'd be better to make your own - but an indulgent pre-dinner treat for two. The French really are very good at posh food in tins and jars.

The wine came from The Wine Society - the current vintage is 2009. Chablis would also hit the spot.

Gorwydd Caerphilly and white burgundy

Cheese and wine is always a bit of a minefield so it’s good to find a partnership that works really well. This was one of six pairings laid on for the launch of the Bristol Wine and Food Fair which takes place next month (and at which I’m holding a number of Cheese and Wine Masterclasses, so do come along).

I’ve been a fan of Gorwydd (pronounced gor-with) Caerphilly for a while. It's made at Gorwydd Farm, Llanddewi Brefi, near Cardigan and is delicious: delicate, lactic, slightly creamy and crumbly - wonderful in spring and early summer salads with vegetables such as peas, broad beans and asparagus. (Celebrity chef Mark Hix is a big fan.)

It wouldn’t clash with a red wine but would be overwhelmed by most so the creamy Avery’s Fine White Burgundy with which it was partnered was pitch perfect - a textbook example of where the similarity in texture between food and wine makes a match work.

The Trethowans also have a shop in St Nicholas market in Bristol where they sell other classic modern British cheeses (as well as some fantastic toasties and Raclette). You can read about the other pairings on my blog The Cheeselover.

Mushroom 'caviar' and Californian sparkling wine

Every so often you come across a great little recipe than does wonders for almost any wine you pair with it. And so it is with mushroom ‘caviar’, a regular offering from the takeaway section of my favourite local restaurant Culinaria. Basically it’s a mushroom pâté but so reduced and wickedly intense it’s like pure essence of mushroom. Except for the perfect counterpoint - a tiny touch of tarragon.

I asked the chef, Stephen Markwick, how he made it and he said (airily, as chefs do) - “Oh, you just chop up mushrooms in a robot-coupe and cook them with butter, tarragon, crème fraîche and a squeeze of lemon” Nothing else? Well, yes, onion it transpired. And I suspect, having attempted to follow his instructions, a fair amount of olive oil which accounts for the silky spreadable texture. I’ve sent my version of the recipe off to Stephen to check against his version and as soon as I have his comments back I’ll post it on the site.

But in the meantime I can tell you that it - or any similarly mushroomy spread - is a cracking match for a quality sparkling wine like the Roederer Quartet* from the Anderson Valley in California we were drinking over the weekend which is currently on sale at Majestic for £13.33 if you buy 2 or more bottles. Or for a ripe, forward Pinot Noir. Or for a subtly oaked Chardonnay. Or a French Syrah. Or a Languedoc red. I can see I’m going to be making a lot of it this summer. If I can get the recipe . . .

* On sale in the US as Roederer Estate brut.

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