Mature Marlborough chardonnay with modern Japanese food

I don’t often go to wine lunches or dinners, preferring to experiment with a range of wines from more than one country and producer with the food I’m eating but I couldn’t resist the temptation of trying New Zealand producer Astrolabe’s wine with the food at Sake No Hana in London's St James's.

The restaurant describes its food as 'modern authentic Japanese'. Although the presentation is classic the flavours and saucing are bold which is maybe why the 2014 Astrolabe Province Marlborough chardonnay stood out as the surprise star of the meal.

It was outstandingly good with a dish of aubergine with roasted sesame miso sauce, a tataki of beef with sesame and egg mustard sauce, tuna with truffle and black cod with yuzu and pretty good with the tempura prawn and beef with shiitake mushrooms. The only dishes it didn't work quite so well with were a very simply prepared tuna tartare and the sushi which went better with their lighter pinot gris.

When I came to think about it afterwards I was struck by how many of the ingredients were umami-rich with miso, sesame and truffle playing a key part in the flavour of the dish - which was, of course, the element that made the chardonnay, which was barrel fermented and aged in French oak, shine.

The fact that it wasn’t the most recent vintage helped too - the wine had had almost 4 years in bottle. And was served cool rather than icy cold which tends to numb the flavours in a mature wine like this.

Astrolabe also suggests the more conventional food pairings of poultry, pork and light game, creamy seafood and pasta dishes, mushroom risotto and paella (though I’m not quite so sure about the latter!)

Hic! wine merchants still has the wine for a very reasonable £15.75 if you feel inspired to try it for yourself or £17.80 from Armit Wines.

I ate at Sake no Hana as a guest of Astrolabe.

Panko-fried yellowtail with truffle honey and sparkling sake

I honestly didn't know which dish to pick out of this extraordinary pop-up at The Dead Doll’s House Islington last week, hosted by wine importer Bibendum PLB who now also bring in a wide range of sakes. So I’m going for this one because it was the first and one of the simplest.

The meal was prepared in a corner of the private dining room by Endo Kazutoshi, former head sushi chef at Zuma and was one of the most spectacular Japanese meals I’ve ever had.

The dish was a couple of slices of incredibly fresh yellowtail tuna coated in panko crumbs, deep-fried and served with truffle honey and citrus zest.

Deep fried foods are always good with effervescent drinks and this gently sparkling Atago no Matsu sake from Nizawa Brewery was no exception. I knew umami was the perfect foil for sake but the sweetness of the truffle honey with the slightly sweet sake was a revelation.

The Nizawa brewery which was founded in 1873 was badly affected by the Great East earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and had to relocate but now has a state of the art new brewery with equipment that can apparently polish a rice grain down to 8% of its original size!

Apparently Atago no Matsu means ‘waiting love’ which is rather charming. Turns out it’s available on Amazon though at rather more than the prices you find in the states. Good sake has still to become affordable in the UK.

Apologies for rubbish pic. Very low light and a communal sharing board which made photography particularly difficult. (Excuses, excuses ... )

I was invited to the pop-up as a guest of Bibendum.

Seared tuna with sesame and 2013 Elephant Hill Syrah

My final meal in New Zealand last week was also one of the most impressive of my recent trip: lunch at the award-winning Elephant Hill winery in Hawkes Bay.

It’s a stunning building with a tasting area at the front and a large light restaurant at the back overlooking the vineyards. The food and plating too is spectacular - everything I ordered looked amazing.

I dithered over which course to highlight - the prawns and sauvignon blanc pairing of my first course was spot on too but decided to go for the more unusual match of seared tuna with syrah. I don’t think this means any syrah would work - Hawkes Bay syrah - especially young syrah like the Elephant Hill 2013* which is co-fermented with a small amount of viognier - has a particular spicy, peppery character reminiscent of the northern Rhone but with softer, riper fruit. You could even chill it lightly though they don’t seem to go in for chilling reds much in New Zealand. Frankly I’d expected their pinot (which comes from Central Otago) would be the star match but the syrah eclipsed it - maybe because the tuna was really rare - more like steak than fish.

The other wine I particularly liked from Elephant HIll which I think would make a fantastic match for Indian food is the 2013 Le Phant Blanc - an unusual just under 50/50 blend of pinot gris and viognier with a dash of gewurztraminer. Gymkhana in London is selling it by the glass.

*UK stockists such as 31 Dover which currently has it on offer for £14.99 or Winetrust 100 still seem to be on the 2010

Grilled tuna tart and Camus Ile de Ré Double Matured Cognac

The idea of matching Cognac with any food other than chocolate is still regarded as unconventional - even more so in the case of fish - but I promise you this pairing, the first course at a lunch at Camus, would have blown you away.

The cognac was an unusual one to start with - the Camus Ile de Ré Double Matured Cognac which is produced from grapes grown on this fashionable small island just off France’s western coast, the most westerly region of the Cognac appellation.

Apparently the grapes have a higher than usual iodine content which accounts for the slighty salty, maritime character of the cognac, which was accentuated by being served frozen. (Which sounds like sacrilege but is très à la mode in the region.)

The dish was also unusual: a crisp pastry base topped with (I think) an anchovy paste, braised fennel, crushed olives and seared tuna with a sea urchin dressing and a cascade of beautifully fresh peppery leaves. Hard to describe but absolutely delicious and the most perfect match with the fragrant iced spirit.

If I come across a more clever or imaginative pairing this year I’ll be lucky.

To find out more about the Cognac pairing event I went to read my blog post.