Asparagus salad and Grüner Veltliner

I’ve been in Vienna for the past few days so couldn’t really avoid eating asparagus. Not that I wanted to. Austria’s white asparagus is one of the highlights of the spring and early summer so we grabbed any opportunity we could to wolf it.

This was a salad at a very cool café called Meierei which specialises in dairy foods so the asparagus was combined with fresh cheese, tomato and a milky dressing and some puffed up pork crackling a bit like posh Quavers. Really delicious. We drank the restaurant's own Grüner Veltliner with it. I can’t give you any more detail as they don’t put their winelist on their website and infuriatingly I didn’t note it down but it was a crisp, fresh youthful style - a 2013 I seem to recall.

We could have also drunk riesling with it - it’s a toss-up whether you should go for Grüner or Riesling with asparagus depending on your mood and the way it’s prepared. But if you go to Vienna don’t miss it.

Cold sesame noodles and weissbier

Thanks to my friend Signe Johansen of Scandilicious I finally got to Koya in Frith Street the other day - London’s food bloggers most popular noodle haunt and the winner of last year’s Observer Food Monthly’s Best Cheap Eats award.

It was a hot day (unusually for this summer) so cold noodles appealed and I had this amazing dish of Zaru Gomadare, thick udon noodles with a sesame sauce, cucumber salad and turnip pickle. That seemed a big ask for any wine to tackle (although a trusty Grüner Veltliner would probably have coped) so I picked the weissbier that was on offer - which embarrassingly I failed to note at the time. No matter - any similar German or German-style beer would be an equally good pairing

Its citrus and banana notes and slight touch of sweetness were perfect with the sesame sauce which I’m still wondering how to amalgamate with the noodles for my next visit. (Unable to dunk the thick slithery noodles in the sauce like any self-respecting Japanese I ended up pouring it over them and making the most ungodly mess.)

They also have a decent sake list so I’m guessing that sake would have been a good pairing too.

Velouté of asparagus with Grüner Veltliner

It's been a while since I've posted about soup - it's notoriously tricky to match with wine - but this weekend I came across a great combination at a new restaurant in Bath, the oddly named Menu Gordon Jones*

It was a classic velouté - silky smooth and creamy with the delicate flavour of the new season's English asparagus.

It would have been easy to overwhelm it with a fruity white like a Sauvignon Blanc but the 2010 Meinklang Burgenland Grüner Veltliner we'd ordered was perfect crisp counterfoil.

It also paired brilliantly well with a cocotte of sole, red mullet, mussels and spring vegetables that was served as the main course.

The more I drink Grüner Veltliner, the more I think it's one of the most versatile restaurant wines around. And this one was only 11.5% which makes it the perfect lunchtime option.

*A curious place. The chef can certainly cook but I couldn't wholeheartedly recommend it. See my review here.

Tuna tartare with wasabi aioli and Prager Grüner Veltliner

Not last week's match, actually but a great one from a couple of weeks' back just before I went to Paris and which got overlooked.

It was at Wolfgang Puck's new London steakhouse 'Cut' at 45 Park Lane. Yes, of course we drank a good wine with the steak (a 2005 Heitz Bella Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon) but you don't have to struggle too hard to find a full-bodied red that goes with rare beef. A challenging starter like the tuna tartar, wasabi aioli, ginger, togarashi crisps and tosa soy - a deliciously hot spicy mouthful of raw fish - is another matter.

Our engaging and feisty sommelier Vanessa Cinti suggested a richly-textured 2008 Prager Grüner Veltliner Hinter der Berg which rode to the rescue as it often does with this register of flavours, retaining its purity and minerality and providing a refreshing contrast to the dish. I think Grüner is probably my favourite default restaurant white at the moment.

The food at Cut is good and the Californian wine selection probably as comprehensive as anywhere in London but, as you'd expect from Park Lane, very, very expensive. Be warned!

I visited Cut as a guest of the restaurant.