“A few glasses of wine and lots of rubbish food”

What to recommend as my match of the week in this astonishing week for British sport, and especially athletics? Well, what else but Jessica Ennis' post-event treat of “a few glasses of wine and lots of rubbish food”!

For many of us, of course, that’s the norm rather than the exception from a highly disciplined training regime - well, maybe we’re healthier than that but I doubt most of you subsist on energy bars and bananas, as Jessica reputedly does

I’ve been unable to find out exactly what JE does drink but I’m guessing as a young wine drinker it’s going to be something like Pinot Grigio, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or rosé - all versatile wines to accompany a spot of hard-core snacking

Or, as she used to work in Pizza Hut, maybe a glass of Sicilian red or a ripe fruity Merlot would hit the spot?

If she fancies a burger she could always crack open a bottle of classed growth claret as recommended in this feature I wrote for Decanter on fine wine and fast food: she should certainly be able to afford it after last weekend but sounds like she’d settle for something a good deal more modest than that.

So perhaps she’s just going to put her feet up in front of the telly and watch the rest of the week’s events with a large tub of popcorn and a glass of prosecco. Or, better still, celebrate with a bottle of English sparkling wine like Nyetimber or Ridgeview Cuvée Merrett (both currently on offer at Waitrose at £22.49 and £17.99 respectively). And also very good with chips ;-)

If you'd just won an Olympic gold medal how would you celebrate?

Spicy tuna pasta and Tuscan red

Some of the best meals - and the best wine pairings - come about without a great deal of forethought. Like the pasta I threw together last week in France from storecupboard ingredients then accompanied with a cracking bottle of inexpensive Tuscan red we’d just bought from a winemaker at a natural wine fair. Yes, Italian wine. In France! Who’d have thought it?

I’m not mad about tuna pasta to be honest but I spiked it with a lot of garlic, some green olives and some pickled Spanish chillies which gave it quite a kick. (The base of the sauce was passata.)

Too much possibly for my wine, I thought, a rustic Sangiovese from youngish (8-10 year old) vines called Il Secondo di Pacina* but it had that wonderful light breezy elegance that Italian wines effortlessly seem to possess. And it was only 6 euros (£4.69 equivalent at the time of writing). Sssssh - don’t tell the French!

At that price we bought six bottles - wouldn’t you? - so I’ll be able to report on other good matches. Pizza seems an obvious candidate, as are other pastas with tomato-based sauces. One English retailer, Swig, no longer apparently stocking the wine, recommends sausages, pasta with meat sauces, grilled meats, wood pigeon and cheese “though it was also excellent with a humble baked potato.”

You can buy it in the UK at Gergovie Wines in Maltby Street

Their own website currently seems to be down but here's a description of the winery from their American importer Indie Wineries.

Cider and Camembert

I know we always think in terms of wine and cheese but sometimes other drinks can be just as good, if not better. Like this week’s pairing of medium-dry cidre traditionnel and Camembert I came across at a simple roadside restaurant just north of Domfront in Normandy.

You could tell it was worth stopping by the number of cars that were lined up outside and the fact that the local postman and dustmen had come in for their lunch.

It was nothing remarkable - just honest, home-cooked food - a plate of salade de museau and céléri rémoulade, hachis parmentier and salad and a generous selection of cheese and fresh fruit with cider thrown in - all for the amazingly cheap price of 11 euros (just over $13 or £8.50)

Camembert is the local cheese in that part of the world and cider the local drink* so it was an obvious ‘terroir’ based match but none the worse for that. It was also excellent with the museau (a kind of sausage made out of pig's snout or muzzle. Nicer than it sounds.)

It’s easy to forget if you live outside an area that produces cider what a good - and incredibly inexpensive - match it is for all kinds of food. Much better to drink good cider than bad wine!

*This one came from Chais Briouzains in Briouze

Lobster burger and Kumeu River Chardonnay

I’m conscious there’s a marked French bias in the pairings on this site so I’m going to go not for the excellent Alsace riesling and choucroute combo I had last week - or the many amazing wine matches at the Szechuan dinner which I’ve written up here but a very flashy lobster ‘burger’ and chardonnay I had at the Soho restaurant Bob Bob Ricard

Lobster rolls are all the rage in London at the moment. My son’s restaurant Hawksmoor was, I believe, the first to kick off the trend, Burger and Lobster (which we couldn’t get into) have built a chain around them and now everyone’s doing them. Being absurdly extravagant they deserve a glass of something posh and aged chardonnay fits the bill perfectly.

BBR always has interesting - if not always cheap - wines by the glass (including Yquem) so I picked a 2007 Hunting Hill Chardonnay from the top New Zealand producer Kumeu River (at £12.50) which added a deliciously smoky note to the lobster tail. Hardly an everyday combination but a perfect one when you feel like splashing out. Vintage champagne would have been good too though more obvious - and considerably more expensive!