Alcester Gold cheese and truffle honey and Sainte-Croix-du-Mont

Despite the fact that white and sweet wines go just as well with cheese as red wine the idea persists that red is the better pairing

Not when it’s served with honey it isn’t as this delicious match the other day at Wilsons restaurant in Bristol demonstrated.

The cheese was a Vacherin-type cheese called Alcester Gold which is apparently 'made in Hampshire and finished in Oxford'! It was served with truffle honey which both added sweetness and an exotic umami note to the combination

The wine was a sweet wine from one of the lesser known Bordeaux appellations Sainte-Croix-du-Mont: a 2016 from Chateau Le Pin Sacriste. I can’t find it online in the UK but suspect it will be available through RS Wines who supply Wilsons with their wine. If you can’t track it down you could easily substitute Sauternes - and Vacherin for the hard to find Alcester Gold - though I suspect the Sainte Croix is better value.

The combination of the two was really delicious - a reminder of how well sweet wine goes with washed rind as well as blue cheeses

Smoked cods roe and Metissage

This week’s pairing is as much about the wine as the dish though the two went exceptionally well together.

Métissage is an unusual white wine from the Entre-Deux-Mers region in Bordeaux that has to be labelled vin de France because it includes riesling as well as sauvignon and a hybrid variety with the unsexy name of CAL 6 04 that has been bred to be resistant to disease. The producer Jonathan Ducourt reckons that it will enable them to reduce the number of treatments they have to give the vines to combat odium or powdery mildew, an endemic problem in the relatively humid climate of the region. (There’s a fuller description here)

Despite also including sauvignon blanc it’s not a typical Bordeaux white by any means - it’s quite floral and aromatic and I wasn’t sure I liked it when I tasted it on its own. But in one of those amazing transformations that can happen when you partner wine with food it was really fabulous with a very pretty dish of whipped cods roe, shallot and chervil that we were served at the Michelin-starred Portland where we later had lunch.

Riesling of course would work well too - better than sauvignon blanc on its own I think, possibly also Sylvaner from Alsace.

The wine isn’t widely available yet though interestingly Vins de Bordeaux, who were hosting the event, had no compunction about showing it - maybe to flag up that there are regulations in the pipeline to allow 10% of other grape varieties in a blend which will be interesting…

I hadn’t been to Portland for a while and the lunch reminded me how very good the food is - as it is at their sister restaurant Clipstone. Both also have excellent wine lists and are well worth a visit in the new year if you’re looking for somewhere central to meet.

I ate at the restaurant as a guest of Vins de Bordeaux.

Louis Roederer Brut with a truffle cheese toastie

This match last week at 45 Jermyn St had EVERYTHING going for it starting with a decadent toasted cheese sandwich lavishly scattered with grated white truffle. What could be better? Well, actually a glass of very decent champagne (Louis Roederer Brut premier) with it - one of those matches made in heaven where the whole is better than the sum of the parts.

The entire experience which I suggest is the ultimate Christmas shopping treat isn’t cheap of course - £26.50 for the sandwich, another £12.50 for the fizz plus service which is likely to take you over the £50 mark for what is basically a snack. But frankly I’d rather pay that to sit in 45’s immensely glamorous dining room for a couple of hours than have a dull Christmas lunch elsewhere.

You could pull off a more affordable version at home by anointing the cheese in your toastie with a drizzle of truffle oil before you grill it and serving it with a glass of cut price fizz. (Sainsbury’s Blanc de Noirs is currently selling for £16 with a further 25% off if you buy 6 bottles in total - not all of which have to be champagne)

(45 Jermyn St is part of Fortnum & Mason btw so you have the added pleasure of looking at their fabulously glittery windows.)

Disclosure. As it happened I was treated but I went fully intending to pay.

Octopus with orange wine

Orange wines - white wines that are made in a similar way to a red, leaving the juice in contact with the skins - have become increasingly popular in the last couple of years, proving impressively versatile with food.

This skin contact ribolla from Slovenia called Movia Rebula we had at Peckham Bazaar, which describes itself as a ‘pan-Balkan grill’, is a case in point. It was particularly good with the grilled octopus which was served with white tarama, capers and red onion but also sailed through the rest of the menu taking the big flavours of feta, skordalia and a pizza-like pide in its stride. (Which is impressive for a 12% wine)

Coming from roughly the same part of the world as the food it was a natural partner for these eastern Mediterranean flavours but perhaps not a wine you might pick out on a list.

The extended skin contact give orange wines red wine-like tannins and grip and an appetising savouriness but they can have an almost floral freshness that makes them a great match for seafood too.