Sticky toffee pudding and 20 year old tawny port

One of the most exciting projects I’ve worked on this year is to collaborate on the wine list at Gridiron, a new restaurant from my pal Richard Turner of Hawksmoor, Meatopia and Pitt Cue fame.

Together with sommelier Lucy Ward I’ve tried to create a list that’s full of delicious rather than daunting wines divided up by style so you can easily recognise the type of wine you like or which will work with the type of food you’ve ordered.

It’s a combination of familiar names like Chablis and Chateauneuf-du-Pape and more adventurous options (such as a Canadian Gamay) but all - we hope - are wines that will make you smile.

Anyway back to this week’s match which was one we enjoyed at our opening dinner last week - the restaurant’s sticky toffee pudding which comes with a salted caramel sauce and with which we paired Quinta de la Rosa 20 year old tawny port. I'm a bit obsessed with this combination as you can see from this post a few weeks ago when I was in the Douro but the salted caramel added another dimension.

You may also find this longer post useful:

Which foods match best with tawny port

Also for other pairings with STP

The best pairings with Sticky Toffee Pudding

Gridiron is at the Como Metropolitan hotel in Mayfair.

Disclosure: Obviously I’ve been working with Gridiron but they haven’t asked me or paid me to write this post!

10 year old tawny with bitter chocolate and malt tart with salted caramel ice cream

I was hoping for an interesting pairing from the last meal of the year and wasn't disappointed. Like last year we went to a New Year's Eve dinner at Montpelier Basement supper club where we were treated to an amazing 8 course feast which lasted into the early hours of the morning.

There were some other good matches (I could have recommended a creamy cauliflower and Stichelton soup with a 2009 Felton Road Chardonnay) but this one struck me as the outstanding pairing of the night.

Truth to tell I'd hoped a beer would do the job (I had a bottle of the Bristol Beer Factory Glenlivet aged Imperial Stout that went so well with my Stichelton the other week) but it proved too bitter with the salted caramel ice cream. The bottle of rich, nutty Tesco Finest 10 year old tawny we'd taken as a back-up worked much better - as I should have known. Tawny port is very good with both chocolate and caramel.

I also tried a sip of my neighbour's PX sherry which also paired really well with the ice cream - as it does with vanilla.

A good way to start the New Year. Happy 2012!

Image © Mariusz Blach - Fotolia.com