Condrieu and Cornish Brill salan

The idea still persists that wine doesn’t go with Indian food but when the flavours are subtle and the dishes presented individually you can pair some of the best wines in the world with it.

This was a dish at an amazing Indian restaurant in London called Bibi whose chef Chet Sharma has a fine dining background so it was really only the sauce they needed to take account of in their accompanying wine flight.

It was what’s called a salan which, according to Wikipedia, is “a mix of green chilli peppers, peanuts, sesame seeds, dry coconut, cumin seeds, ginger and garlic paste, turmeric powder, bay leaf, and thick tamarind juice”. I don’t know how chef Sharma made his but the peanuts and the coconut were the dominant notes. It wasn’t hot but was quite punchy.

With it we drank a glass of 2023 Condrieu Les Vallins from Christophe Blanc. A young wine but already richly expressive with a full, fruity (mainly apricot) flavour. (Condrieu is made from Viognier so if you were trying this type of dish at home and couldn’t run to Condrieu you could try other viogniers.)

You can buy it for £57 from Hedonism

For other viognier pairings see My favourite pairings for Viognier 

And for less usual ideas of what to pair with Indian food see here.

I ate at Bibi as a guest of the restaurant.

Radicchio, almond and pecorino salad with Soave

Soave, as I’ve pointed out before, is an incredibly versatile food wine but it rarely goes as well with anything as it did with this salad at one of my favourite Bristol locals Sonny Stores the other day

It was based on a selection of radicchio leaves and almonds both of which echoed the nutty tones of the 2022 Pieropan Soave we were drinking by the glass. The other ingredients were pecorino and balsamic vinegar which offset the characteristic bitterness of the leaves.

But it also went very well with the farinata (chickpea pancake) and speck we’d also ordered and with the ravioli stuffed with La Tur (an Italian triple creme cheese) and hazelnuts that followed it.

The wine is quite widely available although the current 2023 vintage is considerably more expensive than it was last year although Abingdon Fine Wine has the ‘22 on offer for £13 which is a bargain considering it’s generally selling for £19-20 now. And Hennings has half bottles for £10.63. 

Own label Soave is still good value though. Tesco has a good one in its finest* range for £8.50.

For other salad pairings see Which Wine Pairs best with Salad?

Cacio e pepe and Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi

That Italian white wine goes with pasta is not news I know but it was such a good pairing I’m going to make it my match of the week anyway.

Normally I prefer a light red wine with cacio e Pepe - I’ve previously enjoyed it with Frappato but there wasn’t anything particularly tempting on the list (at Prego, one of my local Italian restaurants in Bristol.)

It wasn’t a classic cacio e Pepe either - thoroughly enjoyable but a bit too cheesy (made with parmesan rather than the traditional pecorino) and not quite peppery enough. However it was topped with winter truffle, so I’m definitely not complaining.

The verdicchio, a 2022 Pallio di San Floriano from Monte Schiavo looked more tempting - and so it proved. Much more complex and flavourful than the average sub £10 Italian white. (It was organic.)

Verdicchio is a wine that goes with so many things, including artichokes - which means that you can happily drink it throughout a typical Italian meal especially if it’s based on vegetables or seafood. You can buy the 22 vintage online from N.D.John for £13.49. 

For other pasta pairings see Wines to Match different Pasta Sauces

Ceviche and Friulano

My visit to Santo Remedio whose third branch recently opened in Marylebone reminded me how much I’ve missed Mexican food since I got back from CDMX and Oaxaca in November.

Of course you can find ceviche all over the place - it’s Peruvian rather than Mexican but it’s popular in Mexico too.

This was a dish of seabass with guanoabana juice and habanero - not as hot as it sounds from the description but still with a bit of a kick. Guanabana is the Latin American name for soursop, a fruit with - as the name suggests - a slightly sour citrussy flavour.

For that reason I generally steer clear of similarly sharp wines with ceviche and go instead for an aromatic white - in this case a fragrant Antonutti Friulano from north-east Italy which actually went extraordinarily well though not quite as well with the fish tacos that followed it.

Still, in a Mexican meal like this which involves a succession of different small plates you can’t be constantly chopping and changing. I’d move on to a red with dishes like birria and pork pibil though.

You can buy the Friulano from Albion Wine Shippers for £13.96. Their website doesn’t specify the vintage but the label is a different colour which suggests it’s not the same one I had in the restaurant. Check if you’re interested in following up.

I ate at the restaurant as a guest of Santo Remedio