Match of the week
Oysters with gazpacho and godello
I love oysters but generally find myself ordering the usual suspects with it from a wine list so am also super-pleased to find a new pairing.
This was a godello/treixadura blend from Valdeorras I cam across at a newish Spanish seafood bar called Maresco in Soho. It’s called Louro do Bolo and was made by the masterly Rafael Palacios who always manages to achieve a wonderful precision in his wines. Godello can be and often is rich and buttery, especially when it’s oaked and I don’t think that style would go too well with oysters especially this way of serving them with a light fresh gazpacho-like dressing (which was amazingly delicious) You wouldn’t have wanted too much upfront fruit in it either - albarino or alvarinho are other saline wines that would have worked
If you’d like to try the wine it’s sold by London End Wines, who also have a good description of Palacios’ approach to winemaking at £20.49 and Palmers Wine Store in Bridport in Dorset at £22.
Maresco which is just off Oxford Street on the corner of Berwick Street is a bit of a find. There was a great review of it by Grace Dent in the Guardian the other day.
For other oyster pairings see the best wine - and other - pairings with oysters
Gazpacho, oak-smoked tomatoes and smoked vodka
I love it when a restaurant lays on an imaginative drink pairing and this was a terrific one from Ben Cooke at Little Gloster just outside Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
He had entered the dish - a yellow gazpacho made with Isle of Wight tomatoes, horseradish and crème fraîche topped with a crostino with mozzarella and oak-smoked tomato into a competition run by Chase Vodka - the Chase Smoky Mary - and won it.
The dish was strongly flavoured enough to carry the powerful flavour of the smoked vodka which was served as a frozen shot. It paired particularly well - as you might expect - with the smoked tomato.
It was only because it was such a good pairing that it pushed aside the other combination I might have made my match of the week - also at Little Gloster: a Ciu Ciu Le Merlettaie pecorino* with a starter of skordalia, grilled aubergines and courgettes. Garlicky dips are great with crisp fresh zesty whites. A Greek assyrtiko would have worked too.
*You can buy the 2014 vintage from The Good Wine Shop at £11.50 at the time of writing.
I ate at Little Gloster as a guest of the restaurant.
Gazpacho and Rueda
Just squeaking in in time for this week’s match of the week is a great gazpacho and Rueda combo I had at lunch today at a new London winebar 28-50.
I’ll be reviewing it in a few days time but this was really a stand-out combination. The chef Paul Walsh, who used to be no. 2 at Gordon Ramsay Royal Hospital Road, has created a spicy twist on the Spanish classic with a crostino rather than a crouton, topped with a coarsely chopped fresh tomato purée and with some basil, chilli and olives in the soup. It wasn’t hot but it had quite a kick.
I picked one of the least expensive wines on the list, a crisp minerally 2009 Rueda called Herbis - a blend of Verdejo and Viura from ex-sommelier Franck Massard of Epicure Wines. I’ve had Sauvignon Blanc before with tomato-based soups so I thought it would work but the combination was actually quite perfect.
28-50 which refers to the latitudes between which wine can be successfully grown is the latest enterprise from Xavier Rousset and Agnar Sverrisson of Texture. Cleverly they’re selling wines by the 75ml measure as well as the standard glass and carafe sizes so you can easily try more than one.
Image © Francesco83 - Fotolia.com
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