Asparagus with poached egg, watercress sabayon and Chateau Doisy-Daene Sec

Asparagus and fine white Bordeaux sounds a bit of a risky wine match but the way the dish was prepared made it a standout pairing.

Mind you, if anyone could get it right it should be wine auction house Bonhams in London who featured it on the menu of their first weekly supper club last week.

The dish included a Burford Brown poached egg and watercress sabayon which both added texture and richness to the dish and there was also some confit lemon which helped build a bridge to the still relatively young, but already lush wine.

Two of the other pairings at the dinner were spot on too: cod tempura and oyster mayonnaise with a crisp 2013 Vermentino di Bolgheri and gariguette strawberries with a delicate sweet red Aleatico Sovana Superiore, also from Tuscany. I was less keen on the powerful Alvaro Palacios Priorat that had been paired with the delicate main course lamb dish but that probably says as much about my personal taste as the match itself.

As I said Bonhams has started this weekly dinner which is a well priced £45 + another £35 for wine pairings which is good value for the central London location (just off Bond Street), the standard of food and the quality of the wines. The restaurant functions as a wine bar during the day so you can dip into their list at other times. Opening hours on their website.

For more asparagus matches see Top Wine Pairings with Asparagus

I ate at Bonhams as a guest of the restaurant.

Veal ravioli with barolo

This wasn’t the most innovative wine pairing I came across in the last 7 days but it was such a classic I couldn’t fail to make it my match of the week.

It was at TV chef Giorgio Locatelli’s Locanda Locatelli which has recently reopened after four months' refurbishment following an explosion in the basement of the Churchill hotel in which it’s located. Pasta has always been one of Giorgio’s strong suits so I’d already picked a plate of home-made ravioli with braised veal, butter and sage as a main.

The sommelier suggested a glass of barolo (the 2010 Barolo Monforte D`Alba from Azienda Agricola Giacomo Fenocchio) to drink with it which it seemed rude to resist. It was, of course, quite perfect with the ravioli though at £17.50 a glass perhaps just a leetle bit more than I should prudently have been spending.

Not all the wines are that pricey. The glass I kicked off with - a fragrant white from the Societa` Agricola Cooperativa Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre (a blend of bosco, albarola and vermentino) was a more affordable £10 and spot on with my delicious antipasto of marinated anchovies, smoked potatoes, radicchio and salsa verde.

It’s good to see Locanda Locatelli back.

Runaway American Brown Ale and chicken poutine

Last week I was in Manchester for lunch at the new Hawksmoor, a restaurant I can hardly review given it’s one of my son Will’s.

However I think I can fairly point out that the outrageously good chicken poutine barm in the bar (which you can also order in the restaurant) is the perfect match for local Runaway Brewery’s American brown ale.

Poutine, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is a Canadian fast food dish of chips with cheese curds and gravy. What the kitchen’s done here is replace the curds with pulled chicken - and crisp shards of chicken skin - add an egg and stuff the lot into a soft bread roll or barm as it’s known locally in Manchester. It comes with a jug of gravy on the side which is the element that makes the brown ale pairing work so well.

Sound filthy? It is but it’s soooo good!

Runaway is a new Manchester brewery and also makes a cracking smoked porter I’m told. There's a list of the other places you can buy or drink it on their website.

Gorgonzola dolce and La Stoppa Ageno 2005

I’m a bit obsessed with orange wine* at the moment. It seems to go with so many things not least blue cheese as this match with gorgonzola at Le Baratin in Paris underlined.

It may of course have been the age of the wine which was nearly 10 years old and from an unusually warm vintage that gave it an extra richness. It’s made from Malvasia, Ortrugo and Trebbiano and comes from the La Stoppa estate in Emilia Romagna (You can read US importer Louis Dressner’s interview with the owner Elena Pantaleoni here. As you can see (right) it was an incredibly deep colour and tasted (most deliciously) of dried apricots and quince.

The Gorgonzola was creamy and not too strong - a surprising cheese, admittedly for a French restaurant to be serving but Le Baratin - one of my favourite Parisian restaurants - is quite unconventional despite describing itself as 'traditionnell'.

The Solent Cellar has the 2007 vintage of the Ageno for £24 and Wine Bear for £25.33. The more recent 2009 vintage is stocked by Ottolenghi at £26.50 with 10% off if you buy a case of six

You can see my review of Le Baratin here.

* for those of you who aren't familiar with the term an orange wine is a white wine that is made by leaving the juice in contact with the skins as you would a red which give the wine its deep orange (or sometimes lighter than orange) colour.