Chicken musakhan and valpolicella ripasso

Not only did we celebrate the first of our Honey & Co Sunday wine clubs* yesterday but it also produced an outstanding match of the week: this savoury-sweet Palestinian chicken dish and a valpolicella ripasso.

You can find the recipe in their award-winning cookbook with you should definitely acquire if you haven’t already got it. It was my favourite cookbook last year, although I could have sworn yesterday’s version had a touch of cinnamon in it. (You could add half a cinnamon stick but the flavour should be subtle.)

It’s an incredibly moreish recipe with a touch of sweetness from the currants and pomegranate molasses which is what makes the off-dry Valpolicella, which gets its own sweetness from semi-dried grapes, chime in so well. It almost tasted like super-charged pomegranate molasses itself. I think it would work well with other middle-eastern main courses, which often include fresh or dried fruits too.

This particular wine, the Valpolicella Classico Superiore Seccal Ripasso 2013 from a producer called Nicolis comes from restaurant supplier Bibendum who provided the wines for the event. You can find the slightly older 2011 vintage from winedirect.

*Just to remind those of you who didn’t read my blog a few weeks back, I’ve teamed up with Honey & Co to run a series of pop-up wine classes and lunches once a month at their fabulous Marylebone restaurant. The next session is on December 6th and is on sweet and sparkling wines. At the time of writing I think there are a couple of tickets left but they were being snapped up pretty quickly by those who were at yesterday’s event. Call 0207 388 6175 to book.