Cold roast beef and a light Loire red

If you see the words roast beef you might automatically think of a full-bodied red - a Bordeaux or cabernet sauvignon, for instance - but there are times, as last week, when a light red will work just as well.

We were in a modern bistro in Paris called Collier de la Reine which serves small plates, as almost all restaurants do these days, one of which was a dish they described as ‘roast beef, potatoes, horseradish’.

It seemed a bit bizarre to order such a very English dish in the French capital but I was intrigued and in fact it was served in a very Parisian way - rare, bordering on raw and tiède as the French put it. Meaning at ambient temperature. Not quite cold but not exactly warm either.

With it I ordered a glass of A Contre Courant a natural wine from the Loire made from Pinot Meunier, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Cot - interestingly a 2020 vintage although it still tasted remarkably fresh and was perfect with the rare meat.

Unfortunately that vintage only seems to be available in Japan although you can buy the 2018 vintage for £28 from Dynamic Vines whose website carries a good description of the background to the wine.

Other similar light Loire reds should work too.

See also Which Wine - or Beer - to Pair with Roast Beef 

The Best Food Pairings for Cabernet Franc

Roast lamb and unoaked grenache

Roast lamb goes with practically any red wine you care to drink with it but grenache is a less common pairing than, say, cabernet sauvignon or tempranillo.

It might also strike you as unusual that this dish was from a dinner at Tillingham winery in Sussex who you might have thought would have had their own red but it had sold out so they’d listed this intriguing organic grenache from Domaine Julien d’Abrigeon called Coquelicot (meaning poppy)

According to Vin-Clairs, the online retailer that sells it in the UK it’s made from fruit that used to go to the great Rhône producer J Chave for whom d’Abrigeon used to work.

It’s a beautifully balanced vibrant red that wears its alcohol lightly but had the richness and structure to stand up to the red wine and rosemary jus that accompanied the lamb along with some seared wild garlic, morels and crispy potato skins (as well as mash, which delighted this potato lover!)

It was made with indigenous yeasts and very little added sulphur so basically classifies as a natural wine though it was gloriously clean and pure.

With that back story though it should come as no surprise that it costs £30.40 a bottle although interestingly it’s under £20 in the US (at K & L). Taxes on wine in the UK are brutal.

For other lamb pairings see my Top Wine Pairings for Lamb 

And for other grenache pairings, The best food pairings for grenache 

Lamb, artichoke and Gevrey-Chambertin

Since lamb goes with practically every type of red wine you can think of you might wonder why I’m singling it out as this week’s match of the week.

Two reasons - one being the time of the year. Lighter dishes like this one at the 3 Michelin-starred Hélène Darroze at the Connaught call for a lighter wine than you might drink in the autumn or winter or with more robust accompaniments. The flavour of the lamb was really delicate and sweet, perfect with the wine head sommelier Lucas Reynaud Paligot had chosen, a youthful 2021 from David Duband, one of the Connaught’s own selections.

The other is the artichokes which you might think would make it a no-no with a fine red wine but the flavour wasn’t intrusive. I suspect they were cooked right down, almost confited. It’s really only an old-school artichoke vinaigrette that is problematic for wine. And how often do we eat that these days?

For other pairings see top wine pairings for lamb. And for another great Gevrey-Chambertin match see here. (No, I don't spend all my time drinking Gevrey-Chambertin. Unfortunately!)

I ate at Hélène Darroze at the Connaught as a guest of the restaurant

Steak tartare and Provence rosé

It’s back to the usual drizzly grey grot this Monday morning but the past week has been glorious.

Definitely rosé weather which prompted my friend Andy Clarke* and I to crack open a bottle of Provence rosé at one of my favourite Bristol restaurants, Little French, the other day.

You might think that was odd as we’d both opted for steak. Andy, an onglet, in my case a steak tartare. But actually the wine - the By.Ott from Domaine Ott worked with both

In my previous post on steak tartare I wrote “Not the very pale Provence type but a Bandol rosé would be lovely.” I take that back - a good quality pale Provence rose is spot on too, especially with a fresh crunchy salad on the side. (And chips, obviously!)

You can buy By.Ott from various Indies in the UK, normally for around £25 but a wine merchant called De Burgh has the 2022 for £19.99 though I'm guessing they'll move on to the 2023 if that sells through quickly

* BTW Andy has a new book on gin coming out if you’re keen on cocktails and although I’m not much of a mixologist myself I’ve had great success with his recipes.