Country-style paté with Gamay

This week’s pairing isn’t rocket science, more a reminder of just how good charcuterie and a juicy red like gamay can be.

The paté was a very well seasoned rough country paté from Coombeshead Farm in Cornwall where we spent the weekend.

As we were in their cottage rather than the main buildings we took our own wine including a bottle of the La Madone Côtes du Forez gamay I’d just bought from the Wine Society (for £12.95). It had that particular live quality you often find in biodynamic wines (it’s also organic), particularly young ones. It's from the 2020 vintage and although it will age I love the way it tastes right now. Its fresh acidity which comes from the volcanic soils in which the vines are grown perfectly offset the fatty paté and rough sourdough bread we had with it. It was great with their air-dried sausage too.

It’s also available at Haynes Hanson & Clark (for £16 or £14.25 if you buy an unsplit case) who add a bit of background about the wine.

The Côtes du Fôrez lies on an ancient geological fault line near the source of the Loire Valley, in France`s Massif Central. The Gamay grape thrives in the volcanic soils here, and it is this potential that Gilles Bonnefoy saw in the mid 1990s, when he set up his estate ` Les Vins de la Madone.` He now cultivates 8 hectares, which he converted to organic farming in 2001, and biodynamics in 2009.

See also 10 good wine pairings with paté

Pork and pistachio terrine and old vine Brouilly

This isn’t the first time I’ve remarked how well Beaujolais pairs with a terrine but sometimes it’s worth being reminded what really, really works. And both were particularly good in this case - as indeed you’d expect at one of London’s best wine bars, Noble Rot.

The wine was a 2015 Domaine de la Grand’Cour Brouilly Cuvée Vieilles Vignes from Jean Louis Dutraive that reminded us just how great gamay (the grape from which Beaujolais is produced) can be. Beautiful, pure - but not in the least bubblegummy - fruit, quaffable but elegant and well structured despite quite a hefty level (for Beaujolais) of alcohol (14.5%)

And the terrine was the sort of rustic recipe you used to routinely find in French bistros but now all too seldom do. The only aspect of the presentation I’d quibble with was that it came with a generous dollop of onion marmalade which would have taken the edge off any accompanying wine and did no favours to the Brouilly. But 'chapeau' for the properly good sourdough toast.

For other suggestions see

10 good wine pairings with paté

Toulouse sausage and prawn dumplings with sweet chilli sauce and Thierry Puzelat gamay

A pretty wild combination this week at a lovely wine bar, Magnum, we went to in Toulouse on Saturday night. The owner Jérôme’s wife, who originally came from Réunion, had made Chinese-style dumplings with the local Toulouse sausage and prawns served with a sweet chili sauce. Not the kind of thing I would normally go for but he sold it so persuasively we had to give it a go and it was fantastic.

What on earth would work with that? Surely a white? Well turned out to be a red as it happened - an 11% gamay called Vin Rouge from natural wine producer Thierry Puzelat which was labelled a vin de France. It was fresh, it was light, it had no discernible tannins but plenty of flavour. It showed off all the flavours of the dumplings without losing its own. It also went equally improbably well with another excellent dish of potato pancakes topped with lumpfish roe served with a lemon cream sauce.

I’d forgotten how good gamay was with Chinese and Chinese-inspired food - a useful tip to remember for the Chinese new year next week.

Stichelton and onion quiche and Fleurie

A simple lunch of quiche from leftovers thrown together from the fridge turned into a feast with a glass of Claire and Fabien Chasselay's Fleurie La Chapelle des Bois, an organic Beaujolais from the excellent 2009 vintage.

It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking Stilton or Stichelton (the unpasteurised version I used) is so strong that it needs a sweet wine or a fortified wine like port, but in a creamy quiche, offset by onions, it will easily work with a crisp white wine or a light red like this. You also always need to take any accompanying salad into account - ours was a simple green one with a classic vinaigrette which also pointed to a wine with some acidity. This delightfully fresh and fruity Beaujolais, which you can buy for £13.25 from Vintage Roots, hit the spot just perfectly.

It seems to me there's a bit of a Beaujolais revival at the moment - I'm sure I've seen more about Beaujolais Nouveau this year than I have for a long while. And it's still huge in Paris, even among the natural wine movement, as this evocative post from Bertrand Celce of Wine Terroirs testifies. But with the 2009 vintage still around and some charming 2010s I'd stick to the real McCoy.