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

Caesar salad with a Godello based Spanish white

A lot of the time when we’re eating out we’re not matching dishes exactly - we simply buy a bottle we like the sound of and hope it will cope with everything we throw at it.

That happened last week with a delicious Spanish white called Pazo de Mariñan, a blend of Godello, Teixadura and Albarino from the Monterrei region of north west Spain.

Maybe not the first bottle you would think of ordering in an Italian restaurant but you know what? It sailed through quite a tricky series of dishes including this Caesar salad which was made with fresh anchovies (boquerones) rather than salted ones and a richly-flavoured pasta dish of nduja (spicy Calabrian sausage) and mascarpone which I think might have defeated a lesser wine. You can buy it from Village Wines of Bexley in Kent for a very reasonable £8.98 a bottle.

The restaurant is one of my new favourites in Bristol, Pasta Loco, which does a brilliant set lunch for just £12.50 for two courses. Rude not to order a decent bottle of wine, then.

By the way you’ll need to book. It’s deservedly popular.

For other pairings for Caesar salad see

The best wine pairings with Caesar salad

Beetroot-cured salmon and Godello

Despite the razmatazz surrounding the launch of Dom Perignon 2003 and a serious amount of wine and truffle action to which I’ll devote more space shortly I’m picking a more modest match from last week - the delicious beetroot-cured salmon, capers and egg yolk and 2010 Godelia Godello I had at José Pizarro’s new London restaurant Pizarro.

This is the kind of dish you could easily pull off at home. Beetroot gives a nice note of earthiness and sweetness which counteracts the slight oiliness and smokiness of the salmon. The crisp citrussy Godello, the newly fashionable Spanish white, adds the equivalent of a squeeze of lemon. You’d think the egg would have an impact on the pairing but it simply adds an extra layer of richness.

The Godello would obviously go with other fish and shellfish dishes too such as crab - see the link below.

Godello and seafood

I’m increasingly impressed by the new generation of Spanish wines that are arriving on the shelves. The other day I had a fabulously crisp, zesty white called Godello from the up and coming region of Bierzo, in the region of Castilla y Leon in the north-west of Spain, not far from Galicia.

You won’t of course find it on every restaurant list - I found it at a pub just outside Cambridge called The Three Horseshoes at Madingley (+44 (0)1954 210221) that has always been noted for its excellent by-the-glass list.

The particular bottle we ordered, a 2006 Vega Montan Godello from Bodegas Adria, is similar in style to the fashionable seafood white Albariño though with a fruity character (starfruit) you don’t typically find in that wine. It was really wonderful with a starter of white and brown crab crostini served with samphire and shaved fennel - the white meat served plain, the brown, spiced with chilli and dill - one of a number of enticing-sounding dishes from an Italian-inspired, Jamie Oliver-esque menu that I’d certainly be inclined to go back and explore when we're next in the area. Like Jamie, the chef/owner Richard Stokes worked for the River Café in London.

At the moment Godello is sufficiently obscure to be a bargain so I’d snap up a few bottles if you can lay your hands on some. In the UK it’s imported by Alliance Wine. Like Albariño it would be a versatile and stylish seafood white to have in your cellar.