Stilton quiche and white burgundy

This week’s match of the week is the perfect illustration that you shouldn’t be led astray by your basic ingredient.

You drink port with Stilton, right? Not when it’s made into a quiche when the fact that it’s combined with onion, bacon and cream is more important when it comes to choosing a wine.

And the fact that you’re likely to be having it as a starter or main course rather than at the end of a meal.

I had a bottle of white burgundy open - Domaine Dampt Chevalier d’Eon Bourgogne Tonnerre 2019 - that I’d been tasting which went perfectly, echoing the creaminess of the filling. In fact it’s a good recommendation on its own account. The vineyards lie just outside the Chablis region which is reflected in the price (£15.49 or £13.89 if you mix 12 or more, from Averys and Laithwaites.

I made a similar quiche a few years back that I paired with a Fleurie and that went really well too.

Incidentally the quiche was part of my self-imposed ‘giveupstockingup’ challenge this month during which I’m trying to live off my fridge, freezer and storecupboard.

For other suggestions as to what to drink with white burgundy see here

Meursault and black truffle crisps

Food is always a secondary consideration when you’re enjoying a really great bottle of wine but you don’t want anything to detract from it either.

So the choice by my neighbour and fellow wine buff Ruth Spivey of these Torres Spanish black truffle crisps with a very special bottle of 2008 Coche-Dury Meursault that we’d managed to persuade my pal and podcast collaborator Liam Steevenson to share with us, was inspired.

It was everything you would hope a mature Meursault would be, sumptuous, creamy, savoury, developing layers and layers of flavour in the glass. You never want to finish a wine like that - and you never forget it.

Given his generosity with the Coche I feel honour bound to mention we had a glass of Liam’s latest release, a deliciously, crisp, saline Alvarinho called Céu na Terra from Vinho Verde as a palate sharpener which would in any other circumstances have stolen the show. Especially, with seafood.

You can buy it from Red & White for £16.95. Which is a bargain compared to the £500-odd you’d pay for a bottle of Coche, if you could even get your hands on one. (And no, Liam didn’t pay anything like that!)

You can buy the crisps - and I would - for around £3.95 a 125g pack in good delis or online from Ocado for £3.49. They would also be very good with a decent bottle of Cava or vintage champagne.

Chaource cheese paired with vermouth

I have to thank my colleague drinks writer, wine guru and good time pal Kate Hawkings for this week's pairing. Once she squealed excitedly about it on Twitter I knew I had to drop by her restaurant (Bellita) and give it a try.

Kate (also author of the excellent new Aperitif) is a big vermouth fan and was sipping a glass of her latest find when she tried it with a slice of Chaource, a creamy, slightly citrussy brie-like cheese from the Aube, the southern part of the champagne region. Maybe it wasn’t *quite* match of the century as she claimed - we have a good few years to go yet - but it was utterly delicious.

The vermouth, or vermut as they call them in Spain, is a delicately honeyed bianco style called Ciento Volando from Diego Fernandez Pons - off-dry but not over-sweet and was almost like eating a luscious ripe pear with the cheese. It's not available in the UK - yet - but do experiment with other dry and off-dry vermouths which are more flexible than you might think with food.

Chaource (pronounced sha-orss) also goes really well with champagne, chablis and other white burgundies should you feel so minded and actually won’t throw a good red burgundy (it’s a less pongy than brie as it matures). You can even buy it in Sainsbury's for the very affordable price of £3 (and almost certainly in Waitrose too).

For more inspiring wine pairings download my ebook 101 Great Ways to Enjoy Cheese and Wine.

Black truffle and fontina pizza and Puligny Montrachet

It’s easy to get into a mindset with food and wine pairing where you automatically revert to a tried and tested combination. Like pizza with Peroni or a Sicilian red

But with the incredible number of variations on pizza toppings these days maybe we need to be a bit more adventurous and my experience at the newly opened Jean-Georges at the Connaught last week suggested just that.

One of his pizzas (for which you pay a princely £29) is topped with fontina cheese and black truffles. Frankly lager would be wasted on that, ditto most run of the mill reds by the glass. A Barolo maybe or a glass of champagne but neither I suspect would compare with the quite stellar 2014 Bachelet-Monnot 1er Cru Puligny Montrachet (Hameau de Blagny) which was picked by sommelier Raffaele Silvestre and was just sublime. White burgundy and pizza - who knew? (Try it at home with a mushroom pizza and a drizzle of truffle oil)

PS Lucky guests at the Connaught can actually order the pizza on room service - it apparently arrives in a box. So if you win the lottery you know what to do …

*Actually you can also order it to take away although that that rather misses the point. Part of the fun (and the price) is to get to eat it at the Connaught - in fact if you're minded to go I'd go just for that. And/or the extraordinarily good crispy sushi!

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The best wine and beer pairings for pizza

I ate at Jean-Georges as a guest of the Connaught.