Match of the week
Languedoc rosé and Rick Stein’s chicken burrito
I generally go for a crisp, citrussy white wine with light Mexican dishes like this one - but I happened to have a bottle of chilled rosé in the fridge and it proved the perfect pairing.
The recipe, from Rick Stein’s excellent book The Road to Mexico is probably not what you would think of as a classic burrito - for which read more Mexican than Tex Mex.
It was much lighter, based on chicken in a limey marinade and topped with pico de gallo (fresh tomato) salsa, guacamole, chipotle crema and soured cream.
What made it go so well with the rosé - the 2024 Alaina rosé from Laurent Miquel - was the lime juice in the salsa. Lime is great with rosé
You can buy the Alaina from Waitrose - it’s currently £13.50 but quite often on offer. (His cheaper rosé, Vendanges Nocturnes, which is also good, is down from £10 to £8 at the time of writing though quite possibly not by the time you read this.
But that would work too as would the typical Provence rosé though that would most likely be more expensive.
For other rosé pairings see the best food pairings for rosé.
And for other Mexican food matches see Wine, Beer and Other Pairings with Mexican Food
Beetroot and goat cheese macarons with a pet nat rosé
In a week of pretty amazing wine pairings (it’s not every day you get to taste five different vintages of Harlan Estate* over dinner) there was one really interesting match I wouldn’t have predicted - and that’s what this weekly slot is all about.
It was at a new(ish) restaurant called Osip in Bruton I’ll be writing about shortly and was with one of the initial snacks of the set price menu: beetroot and goat cheese macarons. Not having a particularly sweet tooth I’m not generally big fan of macarons but these were satisfyingly savoury with a really good beetroot flavour which chimed in perfectly with the Les Quatre Pétillant rosé brut nature we’d ordered as an aperitif.
Although it’s made from southern grapes - grenache, syrah and carignan - it’s produced in the Loire and is available from Uncharted Wines for £18.89. I particularly like the explanation on the label: “The Les Quatre philosophy is to make the best wines possible with a style they like to call ‘Paris Wine Bar’. We take that to mean totally drinkable, accessible and fun, all whilst being brilliantly made.”
That’s totally true.
See also The best wines to pair with beetroot
* It only didn't make Match of the Week because it was paired, fairly conventionally with a fillet steak!
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