Game consommé with a Croatian red

Given that wine dinners are all about combining food and wine it’s not that often that the resulting pairings blow you away but I was hard pushed to pick just one out of the four brilliant matches at last week’s Autumn Delights dinner at Adelina Yard in Bristol.

But I’m going for the first one because it’s unusual to start a meal with a red let alone pair a soup with it.

The dish was slightly more than a soup, mind you - a gorgeous broth with slivers of pigeon, tiny dice of celeriac and some delicious nutty grains accompanied by the MOST HEAVENLY truffle and mushroom brioche.

It was skilfully paired by clever Andy Clarke who was hosting the dinner with a Dimitri Brečević Piquentum Refosk*, an earthy red wine that picked up beautifully on the gamey pigeon but didn’t overpower it. And was impressively followed by a white wine rather than a red, a German Auxerrois from the Pfalz region with an equally gorgeous dish of red ‘carabineros’ prawns with a partridge boudin and heritage carrots.

The next course of Shropshire grouse with Tuscan stuffing and blackberry gel (and accompanying wicked little grouse pies) was back to red again - not the Tuscan red you might expect though but a vivid Samourai Shiraz from Free Run Juice in South Australia. Finally there was a glorious Malvasia called Vigna de Volta from La Stoppa which went perfectly with a dessert of pistachio cake, spiced apple, armagnac and prune ice cream.

So this wine dinner basically broke all the rules - red before white and unconventional natural wines throughout but was an absolute revelation. Great food too from the Adelina Yard team - one of whose founding partners Olivia Barry recently featured on Great British Menu. If you're in Bristol, go!

* You can read more about Brečević and this wine in Doug Wregg's blog on the Caves de Pyrène website.

Caramel-flavoured desserts and tawny port

Last week I was in northern Portugal where I think it's fair to say a fair bit of port was consumed. There was one striking finding from a food and wine pairing point of view: that toffee- or caramel-flavoured desserts are a perfect match for tawny port.

First there was what was described as canary pudding a moulded sponge swimming in a luscious caramel sauce. That went brilliantly with a 30 year old Sandeman tawny.

Then a caramelised almond cheesecake which was a perfect partner for their 10 year old tawny.

We were also reminded that tawny port is a great pairing for Portuguese custard tarts - or indeed anything sugary and eggy. In fact their CEO Manuel da Cunha Guedes whisked up some egg yolks and sugar at the table, poured a dash of 30 year old port into it (the extravagance!) and handed it to me to taste. It was utterly delicious - exactly the kind of treat to get someone to make for you when you're feeling slightly poorly. Consign that to memory and you may have cause to thank me. Or, rather Manuel.

See also Which foods match best with tawny port

I visited Portugal as a guest of Sogrape Vinhos and Liberty Wines

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.

Turbot paired with white Chateauneuf-du-Pape

This week I’ve been celebrating a big birthday with some extravagant feasting including a sublime dinner on the night at my son’s restaurant Hawksmoor Borough. (Well, you might as well keep it in the family!)

There was - of course - some magnificent beef - from my good pal Pete Hannan of the Meat Merchant and some terrific reds to go with it including a beautiful Conti Costanti Brunello, a Barbera from Guasti Clementi and a magnum of Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape (excuse lack of vintage information but it *was* my birthday) but the pairing that really stood out for me was a 2016 white Chateauneuf-du-Pape from Chateau La Nerthe which we drank with the turbot. (You can read about the estate which is farmed organically here.)

Turbot is a meaty fish that suits a rich-full flavoured white but that was accentuated by it being served with crispy chicken skin (yes, as good as it sounds!) and chicken jus which made the match even more sublime.

For other turbot matches see The Best Wine Matches for Turbot