Artichokes and Trebbiano

Artichokes are a notoriously tricky match with wine but don’t have to be an insuperable one as last week’s artichoke dinner at Bocca di Lupo proved.

Chef Jacob Kenedy created an amazing menu in which artichokes appeared in all kinds of guises including an American sweet artichoke pie with which he matched a moscato. (If you can’t imagine that it was surprisingly like a pumpkin pie)

The two courses that were paired with trebbiano were a fantastic salad of shaved artichokes with parmesan, anchovy and lemon (the latter ingredients definitely contributing to the match with the 2020 Trebbiano ‘Bio’ from Cantine Tolio and a creamy artichoke risotto with lemon, parsley and parmesan with a 2015 Trebbiano d’Abruzzo from Valentini, both from the Abruzzo. Again the lemon and parmesan were key elements in the success of the pairing, rather bearing out the conclusions I came to in this earlier post.

Pairing wine and artichokes

There was also an initial wine, a crisp 2020 Capolemole Bianco from Marco Carpineti made from a grape variety called Bellone which went brilliantly with the fried artichokes and sweetbreads (an artichokey riff on fritto misto) and grilled spiedini (skewers) of artichokes and langoustines. The only dish that caused it any problems were the fried artichoke alla Giudia (fried artichokes Roman style) which made the wine taste a touch sweet - the usual problem with artichokes which Jacob miraculously avoided with everything else. But not by any means a clash.

Bocca di Lupo is at 12 Archer Street, Soho, London W1D 7BB. I ate there as a guest of the restaurant

Mushroom risotto with spatburgunder

OK, this pairing is not rocket science - I’m sure you know that pinot noir is a great match with mushrooms and so obviously with mushroom risotto too. But you may not have totally taken on board just how good German pinot - or spätburgunder, as they call it in Germany - is nowadays.

The bottle was a half bottle of Mimus Ihringer Winklerberg spätburgunder I was sent by Iris Ellmann of The Wine Barn and was just fabulous with the most gorgeous pure, ripe but not remotely jammy fruit - quite beautifully in balance and amazingly vibrant considering it was from the 2015 vintage. (Under screwcap which was interesting). Sadly it’s not cheap at £33.65 a bottle but pinotphiles will be used to that. And it does fall into the Erste Lage classification - which is equivalent to a premier, if not a grand cru.

The risotto was one that came as part of the excellent takeaway menu I had ordered from Root in Bristol and came with a punchy chive purée which you can see I somewhat clumsily swirled into it. (Interestingly the tasting note on the wine suggests that it’s good with herbs)

I have to confess that I drank a glass of grüner veltliner I had open with a couple of the other dishes which included fried celeriac with Korean Barbecue sauce and hispi cabbage with cheese and crispy onion crumb but the spätburgunder and risotto match was definitely the highlight

You’ll be pleased to hear we’re doing a competition with Iris next month.

See also Which wines and beers pair best with mushrooms.

The wine was a sample from The Wine Barn. I paid for the takeaway.

Smoked haddock and leek risotto and Albarino

If you were thinking of a wine pairing for risotto you’d probably reach for an Italian white such as a Pinot Grigio but Spain’s famous Galician white Albarino works equally well as I discovered the other day.

Mind you it wasn’t a conventional risotto, more like a creamy risotto-like kedgeree with smoked haddock - and fish is almost always a good pairing for Albarino. The saltiness of the fish in this case hit it off perfectly with the bright crisp wine - a 2012 Condes de Albaret. Although you might have thought that the deep fried egg (see the crisp little ball in the centre of the dish) might have affected the wine choice it was the haddock that was the key to the match.

It was a while since I’d been to the restaurant, Les Deux Salons, a modern brasserie just off Trafalgar Square and forgotten what a useful place it is for a quick lunch in that part of town. (They do a very reasonably priced two course prix fixe menu from 12 noon to 6.30pm) I also like the way they serve almost all their wines by the 250ml carafe as they do in their two other restaurants Arbutus and Wild Honey.

Roast lamb with wild garlic risotto, asparagus and feta with a chilled Languedoc red

This match, which I enjoyed at Plateau wine bar in Brighton last week, breaks a couple of wine pairing conventions. Firstly that you match red meat with a full bodied red. And secondly that you don’t drink red wine with asparagus.

But in fact the grassy notes of the asparagus and the accompanying wild garlic risotto were just perfect with this natural, slightly mineral blend of mourvèdre and grenache called Les Fainéants produced by Opi d’Aqui just outside Clermont l’Herault. As they would be with a lightly chilled Loire Cabernet Franc. (The saltiness of the feta helped too.)

I also had a lamb tagine this week with a natural red from the Côtes du Brian in the Minervois which was an equally good match. What natural wine naysayers should at least acknowledge is that fresh-tasting reds without excessive extraction or tannin are great with food.

To read about the other restaurants I visited in Brighton click here and for a longer list of asparagus pairings, here.