Currywurst and pils

What on earth do you drink with currywurst? Last week I was in Berlin so had the perfect opportunity to find out.

Currywurst, in case you’re wondering, is basically a large frankfurter-type sausage served with a spicy tomato sauce although many stands and restaurants have their own version. At Curry 66 in Friedrichshain they had a menu of 9 sauces, 3 of which were house sauces and the rest for for hard-core chilli sauce addicts. (I opted for the no. 3 but tried a tiny dab of the comparatively tame no. 5 which practically blew my head off). The wurst was served with an extra sprinkling of curry powder and chips with mayo and more ketchup - much nicer than it sounds, I promise!

The fresh crisp Berliner Pilsner that was on offer in the drinks fridge proved the ideal match for the sweet-spicy-salty combination. Even if I could have chosen a wine (an off-dry riesling, maybe?) I wouldn’t have been tempted - and nor would any self-respecting Berliner I’d guess.

(You can buy Berliner Pilsner in the UK from beersofeurope.co.uk. You might have to go to Berlin for the currywurst ...)

Catalan sausage and beans with southern French Syrah/Grenache

Last week’s highlight without a doubt was the meal I had with my Guardian colleagues at Brawn, Ed Wilson’s new restaurant in Columbia Road. As you may know it’s the new City outpost of the hugely popular wine bar Terroirs with a similar natural wine list which you can read about on my natural wine blog here.

Ed suggested wines to go with different stages of the meal which was served tapas-style - we must have tried practically every dish on the menu.

I loved the exuberant La Guillaume Gamay with the charcuterie and the Domaine Matassa Cuvée Alexandria, an extraordinary dry Muscat of Alexandria, with the zander boudin in shellfish sauce but the combination that just pipped the others to the post was Jean-Franois Nicq’s 2007 Domaine Les Foulards Les Glaneurs from the Roussillon, a generous spicy blend of Grenache and Syrah with the mongetes, a ribsticking Catalan dish of sausage and beans.

Although the wine was full-bodied - and funky - enough to need carafing it was still fresh enough to offset the richness of the beans. And just perfect for this freezing cold weather.

Faggots with onion gravy and Mas Belles Eaux Vieux Carignan

Faggots, which are basically a rather gamey British meatball made with pork belly and offal, are a bit of an acquired taste along the lines of the French sausage andouillette but well made, as they are when supplied by our local butcher, they can be very tasty. They need to be accompanied by onion gravy which normally leads one in the direction of a robust ale but the other night we had them with a bottle of Mas Belles Eaux Vieux Carignan 2006 which actually worked very well.

Carignan, as I’ve mentioned before, is not my favourite grape variety but well-crafted examples like this do have an appeal especially with robust gastropub dishes (braised lamb shanks and steak and kidney pie would be other apt examples).

Mas Belles Eaux is a Languedoc estate just north of Pezenas that was taken over a while ago by insurance giant AXA Millsimes who also own Quinta do Noval and Chateau Pichon-Baron.

The agency is now handled by Gonzalez Byass in the UK (+44 1707 273188) though the wine is currently in limited distribution*. At a retail price of £18-20 it may strike you as a an extravagant partner for offal of any kind but oddly it’s often the simplest dishes that show off good wines to best advantage. And there are of course less expensive Carignans and Carignan blends around to test the combination.

FromVineyardsDirect sells the less expensive Mas Belles Eaux Les Coteaux.

Image © Igor Klimov - Fotolia

Tête de veau and Côtes du Jura rouge

Last week I was travelling back through France again and encountered a number of interesting matches but the one that worked best for me was in a modern bistro by the covered market in Besançon called La Table des Halles.

As we’d already kicked off the evening with quite an extensive tasting of natural wines (about which more later this week) we simply ordered a half bottle of a local red, a Côtes du Jura Rouge Tradition 2002 from Stéphane Tissot.

It’s the kind of wine that doesn’t go down particularly well on the British market, being light and slightly sharp but it was utterly perfect with a decadently fatty dish of tête de veau (calf’s head) served warm on a mound of sliced potato and apple, and pretty good with the equally robust stuffed brioche with mushrooms and saucisse de Morteau that preceded it. A ‘food wine’* if ever there was one.

Incidentally I’d recommend the restaurant, which has recently changed hands, as a good option if you’re ever in Besançon which is a really lovely old town. Not overpriced or stuffy (unlike some of the other restaurants we checked out) and with simple, satisfying food. We stayed in a really splendid modern B & B called La Maison du Verre which was also very good value.

* By a 'food wine' I mean a wine that doesn’t taste particularly exciting on its own but springs to life with food