Sweet herring and mackerel rillettes with an aromatic Greek white

Paris isn’t the obvious place you’d think of drinking Greek wine - in fact it’s a rare sighting in a city whose wine lists are almost 100% French. So when I came across one in a hip little bar called Clamato I was intrigued

I had trouble tracking it down but it’s called Efranor and appears to come from a winery called Sklavos in an appellation called Coteaux d’Alnos on the island of Cephalonia and is a blend of Moscatel, Vostyildi and Zakynthino.

I wouldn’t have actually guessed as the Moscatel character is not that obvious and it tastes really dry but with an exotic, slightly perfumed character (the French tasting note I found says bergamot) and an almost oily texture that was just perfect with the rillettes, an unusual combination of sweet herring and mackerel with a scattering of freshly grated lemon zest. There were some watercress leaves on the side which added a nice touch of bitterness.

Admittedly it slightly overwhelmed the other two dishes we ate - a tartare of mackerel and a dish of white and green asparagus with trout roe which went better with the crisper, more mineral Le Pont Bourceau Anjou blanc 2011 from Les Roches Sèches my husband was drinking (a Chenin Blanc). But eating small plates like this you obviously wouldn’t want to keep switching wines.

I reckon a Portuguese white like a young Douro white or a Vinho Verde would have gone with the rillettes too - or a Spanish Albarino or Godello.

Scallops and Muscat

A clever combination I had last week at a French restaurant called Larcen.

Putting seafood with a sweet wine might sound a bit odd but there’s a touch of sweetness in scallops anyway and they were also accompanied by a brunoise (tiny dice) of Thai-spiced vegetables which offset the sweetness.

Traditionally dry Muscat is served in that part of France (the Languedoc) as an aperitif so it also harked back to that tradition.

I also like the presentation. The Muscat was served in a small Duralex glass and served with a straw. More Paris than Agde (which is where I was) and really quite cute.

Tiramisu and oxidised sweet wines

This doesn’t, I admit, sound a particularly tempting proposition so let me explain. By oxidised sweet wines I mean dessert wines which have been deliberately exposed to air through extended barrel ageing, giving them a complex nutty, treacley flavour.

The perfect example is a Corsican wine called Rappu from Domaine Gentile I tasted at Il Vino d’Enrico Bernardo, the wine bar in Paris I mentioned the other day which provides just the right dried fruit flavours to complement the coffee, cream and chocolate notes of a tiramisu. Other wines that would do a similar job would be a Rivesaltes vieux ambrée or an Italian or Greek Vin Santo.

Tiramisu is in fact a great foil for all kinds of interesting drinks. You could also pair it with an old sweet oloroso sherry, Bual Madeira or Moscatel, a hazelnut flavoured liqueur like Frangelico or a coffee-flavoured one like Kahlua. or simply follow it with an espresso coffee to echo the coffee notes and balance any excess sweetness.

Galette des Rois and Muscat de St-Jean-de-Minervois

As the kids were off home straight after the New Year we jumped the gun by a few days with the last of the seasonal treats, a celebratory galette des rois. Traditionally eaten in France on the 6th of January (Twelfth Night) it celebrates the arrival of the three kings to visit the infant Jesus.

Recipes differ but in our part of the world the galette is a puff pastry pie filled with frangipane, a soft almond filling and always conceals a surprise gift. Traditionally this was a bean, a symbol of fertility, but now can take any shape (ours was a bee!) Whoever finds the gift in their slice becomes king or queen for the day and is entitled to wear the golden paper crown which decorates the outside of the cake.

To drink I picked a bottle of Muscat de St-Jean-de-Minervois not because it’s the perfect match (though it’s a perfectly good one) but because it’s a local one and my new year’s resolution is to buy local whenever possible*. Pastry and almonds is a forgiving combination so almost any other light dessert wine would be good too. Or for a final post-Christmas treat, a glass of demi-sec Champagne.* See the reason for the resolution here.

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