Yorkshire curd tart with builders’ tea ice-cream and Shire Highland Black Tea from Malawi

There are some dishes you just know you’re going to order when you spot them on a menu and the builders’ tea ice-cream that came with a Yorkshire curd tart at newly opened Lorne in London's Pimlico last week had my name all over it.

It was ironic because the USP of the restaurant is the fact that it’s run by ex River Café sommelier Katie Exton so it should have been the wine that stole the limelight.

Actually the main course dish of guineafowl and black pudding very nearly made my top spot with a really fabulous 2014 Moric Blaufränkisch but that was only to be expected.

The idea of pairing of a Yorkshire curd tart with one of the teas on the drinks list - a hand rolled Shire Highland black tea from the Satemwa estate in Malawi - sounded too intriguing to resist and proved absolutely spot on.

The builders tea ice-cream wasn’t as strong as it sounded - more like a caramel ice-cream and went really well with classic English flavours of the tart. Both offset the fragrance of the tea (which I drank without milk) beautifully.

Henrietta Lovell of the Rare Tea Co who supplies the tea (which you can buy from her website for £10 a 40g tin) describes it as ‘remarkably sweet’ and 'tasting of milk chocolate, maple syrup and peaches.' Can’t say I picked up all those flavours but it was deliciously fruity and I just love the idea of drinking tea with dessert. (And buttered crumpets - also a great match according to Henrietta!)

Pulled pork and pinot

The problem about discovering your match of the week at someone’s else's house is that you can’t really take a photo of the food if you don’t know them that well.

Unless they’re on Instagram themselves and busily snapping away.

So you’ll have to take my word for it that this was an absolutely first rate dish of pulled pork with an excellent barbecue sauce and accompanying cornbread and slaw. Not the sort of food you’d think would go with an elegant Sonoma pinot but surprisingly it held its own.

The wine was a 2010 Marimar Estate Mas Cavalls pinot noir from the Dona Margarita vineyard I'd somehow forgotten about and discovered in my wine store but which was showing absolutely beautifully and was surprisingly not at all thrown off its stride by the punchy sides. You might think you shouldn’t serve a fine wine like this with such a rustic barbecue dish but this proves you don’t necessarily have to tiptoe round it.

The current 2013 vintage is available in the UK from Winedirect for £27.95.

The picture is from © exclusive-design at fotolia.com

Vinsobres with wild boar stew and chestnut polenta

You’d expect a Southern Rhône red to go with wild boar but in fact it was the chestnut polenta that made the match with this former Côtes du Rhône ‘cru’ so successful

The dish was cooked as part of a five course tasting menu by Matt Williamson formerly of Flinty Red in Bristol at an inaugural event for wefifo in Bristol. (Wefifo is like a foodie equivalent of Airbnb where hosts cook for paying guests.)

The wines were chosen by local wine importer Nick Brookes of Vine Trail and the dish was paired with a 2012 Vinsobres ‘Emile’ from a biodynamic estate called Domaine de la Pequelette. It was a typically southern Rhone blend of 75% Grenache, 10% Mourvèdre, 10% Syrah and 5% Carignan from low-yielding old vines - full-bodied, deep and savoury.

I think it was the grenache in particular that chimed in with the rich meat and sweet, chestnutty polenta. I’d definitely thinking about pairing grenache with chestnut again.

Chocolate and almond cake with auslese riesling

I’ve never been wholly convinced that sweet white wines go with dark chocolate but have had to modify that view after a surprisingly successful pairing at my friends' this weekend.

The wine was a Prinz von Hessen Johannisberger Klaus Auslese Riesling from the warm 2005 vintage but still only 9% - far too light you’d think to go with a rich dark flourless chocolate and almond cake. But strangely it worked due mainly, I think, to the exotic passionfruit and dried mango notes in the 11 year old wine.

Passionfruit, of course, goes pretty well with white chocolate, I just hadn’t expected it to work as well with a dark chocolate dessert though the fact it contained 4 tbsp of rum (yes, four!) may have given it a tropical fruit character for the wine to latch onto.

I still think a lighter, less intense late harvest riesling would have struggled but it’s certainly worth experimenting with ones from a hot vintage.

Unfortunately I can’t find the wine currently on sale in the UK but you can obviously try similar wines.

The recipe - which is not difficult and absolutely delicious - is Claudia Roden’s and is available here.

Three things you need to think about when pairing wine with chocolate