Pork apricot and pistachio terrine with an Old-fashioned cocktail

Since my trip to Mexico where wine was particularly expensive I’ve been drinking rather more cocktails (no comment!) and so have been thinking about the fact that they may still be what you’re sipping when the first course arrives

I thought that was possible at The Corner House in Canterbury who make their own Old Fashioned with Copper Rivet Masthouse whisky which they age for 30 days in their own oak barrels and so consciously ordered a pork, apricot and pistachio terrine which I thought might go with it.

In fact it did - really well. There was a slight orangey note to the drink that worked well with the pork and apricot and the whisky offset perfectly the slight fattiness of the terrine.

It would be easy to replicate at home too. Even if you’re don’t make your own terrine (nor do I!) you can easily pick one from a good deli and you can even buy pre-bottled Old Fashioned these days. Harvey Nichols does a good one which would make a nice Christmas present

If you want to make one from scratch, which is really easy if you have the right ingredients, there’s a good guide to making one on the liquor.com site.

For other pork pairings see Which wines pair best with pork

Sausage rolls and orange chardonnay

I admit orange wine is the last pairing I would have thought of with a sausage roll. Especially a high-end orange wine like Radikon’s.

But credit to Guy Field, the manager of the new Farm Shop wine bar for suggesting it.

Farm Shop is an upmarket food shop in South Audley street with a surprisingly large but cosy wine bar underneath with over 200 wines, many by the glass.

The current list includes the Radikon Slatnik orange chardonnay from the Friuli region of north-east Italy  at £13.50 a glass which is not unreasonable given the average retail price is around £45-48 - rather more from the Farm Shop but we are talking Mayfair.). It’s an intensely rich wine - quite unlike any chardonnay you’ve ever tasted - and utterly delicious. If you’re out of London you can order it online from Buon Vino.

We drank it with the wine bar's take on a ploughman’s (above) which also included ham, cheddar, pickles and a terrific scotch egg and it was a really excellent pairing almost in the way a strong, artisan cider would have been although I hasten to say it didn’t taste remotely cidery. It would work well with other pork dishes too including roast pork

I ate at the bar as a guest of Art Farm.

Pasta with pork, peas and lemon and bardolino

So often a wine takes us through several courses these days (which, of course, is a virtue) but I’m rather arbitrarily spotlighting just one dish on the menu we had at Sonny Stores in Bristol the other night as the ideal match for the Bardolino we were drinking.

It was a pasta called paccheri served with a sauce of pork shoulder (cooked in milk, I would guess), with peas and lemon zest, a light summery combination that went perfectly with the wine

Bardolino is a light fruity red from north-east Italy, made from the same grapes as Valpolicella. (There’s a fuller description of it here)

To be honest it wasn’t the best example - sorry, Sonny’s*, you can do better - but there are more attractive ones out there including this one from Majestic which is very reasonably priced at £7.99 if you buy any six bottles. Which you always should at Majestic as their single bottle prices are generally a bit toppy. Oh, and chill it lightly too

* Their pasta is amazing though which is why I go there so often.

Brined smoked pork and refosco

It’s always a toss-up whether to drink red or white wine with pork. I normally go for white but I really liked this combination of a brined smoked pork chop with a light(ish), slightly smoky refosco at Casa in Bristol the other night.

It was accompanied by yet more pork in the shape of cabbage with pancetta swimming in an indulgently buttery sauce so it could well have been that that fired the pairing too. Anyway, safe to say, refosco and pork.

Refosco is a grape from the Veneto in north east Italy. This bottle which came from Molmenti & Celot, was a 2020 Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso from just outside Venice had a lovely wild hedgerow berry fruit with a hint of bitterness that made it particularly refreshing. It would also be really good with mountain ham and other salumi (charcuterie).

You can buy it for a very reasonable £12.99 from Wanderlust wine which makes it a bit of a bargain

Casa by the way is a more casual relaunch of what used to be Peter Sanchez-Iglesias top end restaurant Casamia and I like it the better for it. It’s pricey but the food is delicious. (I was a guest btw)

Here's another type of pairing with refosco you might enjoy.