Sea bass carpaccio and Grüner Veltliner

The other day we went to Il Vino d’Enrico Bernardo, an innovative new restaurant in Paris run by the world’s best sommelier in 2004 which has just won a Michelin star. The unusual aspect is that there is a wine rather than a food menu. You choose what you want to drink and they create a dish or a menu around it.

I’ll be writing about the experience in the July issue of Decanter but in the meantime I’ve picked out one pairing which I found particularly striking for my match of the week which was a carpaccio of sea bass, seasoned with lemon peel and with a few lightly dressed leaves piled on top. it was served with a sensationally good wine, a young (2006) but very rich, opulent waxy Grüner Veltliner Honivogl Smaragd from Franz Hirtzberger, a wine I would have thought was too assertive and characterful for such a light dish but which matched it perfectly. A real treat.

Hirtzberger's wines are stocked in the UK by Noel Young Wines though they unfortunately don't appear to have this particular wine at the time of writing.

Greco di Tufo with grilled seabass

I was reminded just how spectacularly, unexpectedly good southern Italian whites can be by a Slow Food wine dinner the other night at Flâneur to celebrate the publication of the English edition of their restaurant guide Osterie & Locande d’Italia. It was hosted by Feudi di San Gregorio, the iconic winery from Campania whose wines I haven’t tried for a while.

The winery is situated 40 minutes from Naples in the sub-region of Irpinia. It’s not at all what you imagine from Southern Italy: lushly vegetated and hilly - the vineyards are planted 500-700 metres above sea level - it suffers very cold winters and hot summers. The soils are partly volcanic.

The highlight of the evening for me was the recently released 2000 vintage of Feudi's Greco di Tufo which was paired with some little deep fried pastries called panzerotti. Quite delicious but I longed to try it with a simple piece of grilled fish such as seabass which I think would have been its best pairing. It was rich, dry and full but with a pure, crisp acidity that made it a fantastic partner for food.

I also loved the basic wine in their range, the Albente Irpinia Bianco, a blend of local grape varieties including Falanghina, Coda di Volpe and Fiano which makes a fine aperitif.

Incidentally the Osterie guide is a must-buy if you’re visiting Italy with details of all the restaurants that still serve distinctive, regional food.