Alcester Gold cheese and truffle honey and Sainte-Croix-du-Mont

Despite the fact that white and sweet wines go just as well with cheese as red wine the idea persists that red is the better pairing

Not when it’s served with honey it isn’t as this delicious match the other day at Wilsons restaurant in Bristol demonstrated.

The cheese was a Vacherin-type cheese called Alcester Gold which is apparently 'made in Hampshire and finished in Oxford'! It was served with truffle honey which both added sweetness and an exotic umami note to the combination

The wine was a sweet wine from one of the lesser known Bordeaux appellations Sainte-Croix-du-Mont: a 2016 from Chateau Le Pin Sacriste. I can’t find it online in the UK but suspect it will be available through RS Wines who supply Wilsons with their wine. If you can’t track it down you could easily substitute Sauternes - and Vacherin for the hard to find Alcester Gold - though I suspect the Sainte Croix is better value.

The combination of the two was really delicious - a reminder of how well sweet wine goes with washed rind as well as blue cheeses

Apricot soufflé and Coteaux du Layon

Why don’t more people make souffls these days? I include myself in that. They’re not that difficult, look so impressive and are such a lovely match for a dessert wine.

This was a pairing we enjoyed at the Auberge de Chassignolles in the Auvergne on our trip back through France last week. A final taste of summer before returning to what is turning out to be a premature, dreary, wet autumn.

The soufflés had a thin layer of fresh apricot purée at the bottom which echoed the rich apricotty tones of the wine, a Domaine des Sablonettes Fleurs d’Erables Coteaux du Layon 2008, a biodynamic wine from the Loire which was more evolved than you'd expect from a conventionally made wine.

To be honest I think any light to medium bodied dessert wine would work reasonably well, especially a Muscat or sweet Bordeaux. It’s a great way to show off a modest wine.

Roquefort and Loupiac

With just over three weeks to Christmas - and even less time to order the Christmas wine if you haven’t already done so - it’s time for us laggards to focus on what we’re going to be drinking and that’s what I’m going to be doing this week.

First off, a sublime sweet wine I tasted the other day at a tasting organised by a Bristol-based company called Vine Trail which supplies a number of top London restaurants including Rowley Leigh’s Le Café Anglais - a 2002 Loupiac 2002 Cuvée d’Or from Château Dauphin-Rondillon, the property’s top cuvée. I’d defy anyone to tell it from its neighbour Sauternes, so opulent and seductive is the fruit with that wonderful touch of hazelnut you find in aged sweet Bordeaux. And at £15.75 a bottle (£9.75 a half bottle) it’s a snip.

I didn’t try it with food but it would go with all the usual Sauternes suspects. Roquefort (and Stilton, plus washed rind cheeses such as Epoisses), foie gras (if you eat foie gras, duck liver parfait if you don’t), French-style apple, pear and apricot tarts and even Christmas pudding provided you added a good dollop of cream (cream always shows off Sauternes to perfection, so would showcase Loupiac too). Or simply sip it on its own. A lovely, lovely treat.