Roast monkfish with girolles and Kalimna cabernet/shiraz

If an Australian cabernet-shiraz is the last wine you’d think of pairing with fish here’s why it worked at a recent lunch that Penfolds hosted at Trivet in London

First of all the fish was monkfish, a meaty fish that can generally stand up to red wine

Secondly it was roasted - a more robust way of cooking fish than poaching or steaming

Thirdly it was accompanied by wine-friendly girolle mushrooms

And fourthly it was accompanied by a very skilfully made red wine sauce (the most impressive thing about the whole meal was the way chef Jonny Lake who used to head up the kitchen at The Fat Duck, crafted the sauces to suit each wine.)

But maybe the most important factor of all was that the wine was 60 years old. Given it wasn’t a massively expensive wine in the first place - we’re not talking Grange - it was still extraordinarily bright. Not with its primary fruit obviously but not in any way over the hill. And it was its lovely mellowness that made it such a good match.

You can buy the most recent vintages for £32.99 a bottle from Majestic or £28.99 on their mix six deal - not bad for a wine that might last 60 years!

For other monkfish matches see The Best Wine Pairings for Monkfish

Camembert-style cheese and amphora-aged Bacchus

I’ve long felt that white wine is as good, if not a better match for cheese than red but it takes chutzpah to serve it at the end of a wine dinner as Mark Hix and Rob Corbett of Castlewood Vineyard did at an event I took part in last week at The Fox Inn at Corscombe

The cheeses, which came from Hollis Mead organic dairy included Benville, a triple-cream brie-style cheese, Corscombe which is like a camembert and a washed rind camembert-style cheese called Marvel.

None was particularly pungent so caused no problems for this really interesting white, borderline orange wine from Castlewood called Artefact which is aged in amphorae. It’s made from the English grape variety Bacchus but tastes smoother and creamier than Bacchus typically does with more of a pear, quince and sage character than a typically elderflower one.

The bottle and label too are unusual, depicting the events of the 2020 vintage in which it was made (you can find the story of how it came about on Castlewood’s website) Sadly it’s sold out but you might be able to find the odd bottle at the Fox or at The Pig hotels as their sommelier at The Pig in the South Downs, Luke Harbor, was involved in the project. (You could create a similar match though with other skin contact wines and camembert-style cheeses)

You can buy the cheeses online from a site called Harvest Bundle.

For other matches for Camembert-style cheese see What to Pair with Camembert

Gratinated onion and sercial madeira

If you eat in a 3 Michelin-starred restaurant, as I did last week at Le Cinq at the George V in Paris, you’d expect the sommelier to come up with some pretty fantastic pairings with the food.

Which of course they did although most of them, including the stellar glass of 2017 Michel Niellon Les Chaumées Chassagne Montrachet that accompanied both the Dublin Bay prawn with warm mayonnaise and seabass with caviar and buttermilk from the Signature menu, were ones you might have expected

But the standout match for me was a ‘gratinated onion’ with a glass of 1999 Sercial madeira which is one of the best pairings I’ve had this year.

It was a dish that was utterly trashed back in 2017 in a review by the Observer’s restaurant critic Jay Rayner but both it and the chef have survived and I have to say I found it absolutely delicious. The gorgeously sticky onions were I think filled with a creamy onion purée which made it taste like a fabulously rich French onion soup, as indeed it should at 75€ (though that pales into insignificance beside the 150€ you pay for the Dublin Bay prawn) Still, whoever went to Le Cinq expecting knockdown prices? At 530€ for the tasting menu which has been put on to celebrate the 20 years that the restaurant has held its 3 Michelin stars, it’s a once in a lifetime experience.

By comparison the ’99 D’Oliveiras Sercial which you can pick up for £82 at L’Assemblage is a comparative bargain and would make a great present for any madeira - and French onion soup - lover.

Dry oloroso sherry would work well too, I reckon

You won’t be surprised to learn I ate at Le Cinq as a guest!

Smoked eel and alcohol-free lager

If you go to a Michelin-starred restaurant you probably don’t expect to drink alcohol-free beer but my meal at The Ninth last week which was hosted by the best-selling alcohol-free lager Lucky Saint demonstrated that it’s a surprisingly good option for anyone who’s not drinking

Alcohol-free wines still have a good way to go before they hit the mark and I for one wouldn’t really want to drink a fruity cocktail or even an AF ‘gin’ and tonic throughout a meal so a good lager, that tastes like a full-strength version is very welcome. Amazingly 55 Michelin starred restaurants now stock it so I’m obviously not alone.

We tried it with a range of dishes and it was particularly good with these smoked eel canapés and also a deliciously saline squid ink pasta dish (cuttlefish malloreddus with crispy squid and bottaraga). Like most lagers it would be good with smoked, preserved and pickled foods, and of course fried food like fish and chips.

How to pair beer and food

I’d tasted it before but had forgotten how good it was. It’s actually made in Germany and fermented and conditioned for six weeks - longer than most commercial lagers - and left unfiltered for flavour. You can buy it in most big supermarkets now or direct from their website.

I ate at The Ninth as a guest of Lucky Saint