Maple syrup square with Neige Noir Ambré

I’ve experienced so many terrific wine - and other drink - pairings during the past week in Canada that I think I’m going to have to devote several posts to them, not just this one. And the best - well, I’m struggling but I think it’s got to be this match which was suggested by the sommelier at Le Filet in Montreal - which is a bit ironic as their big thing is fish.

Anyway it’s a decadently fudgy (but not too sweet) maple syrup square with whipped cream and pecans which apparently they can’t take off the menu. They match it with a well chilled glass of Neige Noir Ambré a gorgeous rich apple-based digestif that almost tastes like maple syrup itself but weaves in caramelised apple, orange peel and spice. Surprisingly it’s only 18% like a pommeau - it tastes more powerful and intense than that but without dominating the dessert.

Incidentally they also have an absolute dream of a wine list majoring in Burgundy. And other dishes I tried were just stunning - but more of them anon. (Indulge me. I’m just back after a flight on the red-eye!)

I ate at Le Filet as a guest of the restaurant.

Ribs and rum cocktails

Sweet sticky ribs aren’t the easiest thing to pair with wine so why not look elsewhere? At cocktails, for example?

The thought was put in my mind by a preview of my son Will’s new restaurant Foxlow Soho (apologies for gratuitous plug) when we ordered a range of dishes and a couple of cocktails to try. The one I took to most was an ‘Old Cuban’ which was based on rum, fresh mint, lime and champagne which managed to be sweet and refreshing at the same time.

It pretty well sailed through everything we had on the table which included pea guacamole, fried chicken and five pepper squid but was particularly good with the rare breed spare ribs with green slaw, a substantial starter you could easily eat as a main (though he probably won’t thank me for saying that!). Order loads of other stuff too, won’t you or you’ll get me into trouble 😉

Roast beef and Bordeaux

OK, this is one of the most classic wine pairings in the world but none the worse for that.

I was treated to lunch at The Wine Society on Friday following a tasting through some of their latest releases. For those of you who aren’t members and haven’t been there it occupies a rather unlovely '70s (I’d guess*) building on the outskirts of one of Britain’s unlovelier towns, Stevenage. In a private dining room which looks like - and probably is - a conference room they provided a totally resplendent roast dinner including perfectly cooked roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, gorgeously crisp roast potatoes and parsnips and carrots, beans and broccoli. (We Brits love a shedload of vegetables on the side)

With that they served two venerable reds - a 1998 Chateau La Mondotte Saint-Emilion and a Penfold’s 707 from the same vintage. Interestingly there was no qualitative difference between the two wines, except perhaps in stayability - the 707 dropped off slightly before the Mondotte which was still astonishingly fresh but both were mellow sweet and delicious. There was no obvious old word/new world contrast - it was more like comparing two wines from the right and left banks of Bordeaux.

Why does beef work so well? Well it’s deeply savoury, not too powerful - the vegetables are by and large neutral. It’s the perfect backdrop to a fine wine - As the Wine Society would know. Both had been decanted a couple of hours beforehand.

Incidentally The Wine Society, which I'd advise anyone to join, is not just about such rarified treasures. One of the best value wines I tasted on the day was their own 2015 Corbières at £7.75 which I encouraged the friends I was staying with to buy and which rapidly got demolished over the weekend. It’s fabulously vibrant blend of carignan and grenache that would make great everyday drinking. And obviously go well with beef too ….

*Turns out it's 'an unlovely 60s building, extended in the 70s, 80s, 90s and 100s' according to the Wine Soc's PR, Ewan. And it IS a private dining room not a conference room ;-)

Milk-fed lamb with Bolgheri Coronato 2011

Last week was a bumper week for wine pairing but setting aside the matches with older vintages of Pazo Senorans albarino at El Celler de Can Roca which were so mind-blowing they deserve a longer post, this is the one that stood out.

Lamb and red wine is admittedly a bit of a no-brainer but when it’s executed as well as this dish at Marianne in Notting Hill and paired as cleverly as it was by wine writer and consultant Douglas Blyde it’s worth calling out.

The lamb which was from the Rhug estate in Wales was served both very rare (the loin) with asparagus and morels and as a shepherds pie on the side (the shoulder) but I think it was the sweet carrot purée that made the match with the lusciously rich wine such a success. Although when you have a wine as sexy as this you have to chose something really inappropriate not to enjoy it.

The wine, a 2011 Bolgheri Coronato, was a blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc - what used to be known as a super-Tuscan though Bolgheri has for several years been recognised as a separate denomination. Apparently Ludovico Antinori has stopped making it which seems a crying shame though I spotted there are a few bottles of the 2010 left on the Lay & Wheeler site at the time of writing (quoted in bond, note, but still only £14.50 which seems a bit of a steal.)

Maybe that was the problem. Too good a wine for the price.