Gosnells mead and honey-smoked chicken

Every so often someone trumpets a mead revival but it never quite seems to happen, probably because there’s not enough of it about yet.

But at The Manor in Clapham you can drink it and I suggest you do.

It sailed right through a brilliant fixed price lunch but I’m highlighting two dishes - the honey-smoked chicken with lettuce and borlotti beans (makes sense given mead is brewed from honey but the honey in the dish didn’t overwhelm it) and a spectacular dish of cauliflower with grue de cacao, medjool dates and kefir. Which was basically different textures of cauliflower - raw, roast and whipped into an light-as-air mousse. (No, I didn’t know what grue de cacao was either. It’s cocoa nibs and there’s an excellent explanation on this US site.) I'm going for the chicken as it's easier to replicate at home.

The mead is brewed by Gosnells in Peckham (‘course it is!) and is much drier than mead traditionally was. Think of it like a dry, slightly honeyed perry. Hugely refreshing. You can find a list of other places that stock it on their website.

Contemporary sushi and Sancerre rouge

The best meal on my whirlwind tour of the Centre Loire* last week - and there was stiff competition - was a Japanese meal prepared by sommelier Juli Nakata-Roumet, the Japanese wife of the local promotional body’s director of communication Benoit Roumet

It was fascinating on so many levels I’ll be writing more about it but I wanted to single out one pairing as my match of the week

Juli had prepared a fabulous range of maki rolls (including some made with goats cheese that were surprisingly delicious) that I expected to pair best with one of the many sauvignon blancs we were tasting but in fact it was a red Sancerre that carried the flavours best.

The key, obviously, is the acidity and delicacy of the pinot noir grape. Although it was quite a full-bodied example (a 2012 from Dominique Roger of Domaine du Carrou) it had a suppleness and grace that didn’t in any way overwhelm the sushi.

I remember years ago a Japanese sommelier telling me that pinot noir was a good match for sushi and I was never entirely convinced. Now I know that - in the case of creative sushi like this, at least - he was right.

See my other pairing suggestions for sushi here.

* which includes Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé, Quincy, Reuilly and Menetou-Salon, Coteaux de Giennois and Chateaumeillant

Potato spread, potato bread and weissburgunder

This may seem a bit of a random pairing but it was the ‘amuse’ at the start of a really delicious meal at Schloss Ottersbach during our trip to Austria’s Südsteiermark (Styria) region last week.

It was held at Schloss Ottersbach, because of the numbers involved (over 50 of us) but cooked by chef Tom Riederer of Vicarage St Andra.

But surely potato spread on bread is a bit of a carb overload? Well maybe but it was utterly delicious: a moist light rye (I’d guess) bread with chunks of potato in it and a light creamy potato purée to spread on it which offset the weissburgunder (pinot blanc) perfectly. It also went well with morillon (the local name for chardonnay)

There was no particular wine that matched better than others - we had access to a whole line up of different wines to try - but I particularly liked the Felberjörgl Ried Kreuzegg 2013 and the rich Gross Nussberg GSTK 2011 which was served in magnum and was also brilliant with a delicious slow-cooked egg served with pumpkin seed oil foam. (And I say this as someone who doesn’t normally like slow-cooked eggs)

Italian cheese and a Provence red from Microcosmos

I don’t often pair red wine with cheese, let alone make it my match of the week but the Italian cheeseboard I had the other day at Bocca di Lupo in Soho proved a great pairing for a highly unusual Provencal red

Well, actually, the grapes (old vine Carignan and Grenache) are grown in Provence but the wine is made in Marseille at Fabienne Vollmy’s quirky urban winery Microcosmos Chai Urbain.

I was actually attracted to the tasting and lunch because she also makes Vermentino about which I have a bit of a thing at the moment but this deliciously wild, ripe, unfined, unoaked red handled both the cheeses - a pecorino and a deeply savoury red wine-washed cheese (a good style of cheese for red wine). I think the candied orange peel also helped.

The wine, which is called Cargo*, also paired well - more predictably - with lamb chops

All Fabienne’s wines are made in tiny quantities - she’s a true garagiste - but the Cargo is available in the UK for £237 a case from The Burgundy Portfolio.

* Named because the winery is only a few hundred metres from the port of Marseille.