Lobster with lichen and Torello Special Edition Cava

I went to the most extraordinary wine pairing dinner last week at Elena Arzak’s Ametsa in London, sponsored by the Consejo Regulador for Cava

Arzak, if you don’t know her, runs one of Spain’s most avant-garde restaurants in San Sebastian alongside her father and the menu was a roller-coaster ride of dishes that looked nothing like their descriptions.

There was seabass with ‘celery illusion’ for example where the celery was apparently formed from pineapple - an unlikely but delicious combination with this delicate fish. And an extraordinary dish of ‘pigeon with seeds’ (below) where the pigeon had been disconcertingly arranged on the plate to look like a shot bird lying in a pool of blood (actually a rather gorgeous chocolatey, raisiny purée). It was a powerful dish to match with cava but the weighty 2006 Recaredo brut nature reserva held its own remarkably well thanks to the accompanying seeds.

But the most harmonious match was a dish of lobster claw with swiss chard, a lacy corn wafer and a dusting (I think) of lichen. (It’s hard to keep up with exactly what’s going on in dishes like this.) That was paired with a 2010 Torello Special Edition brut reserva, an elegant creamy cava with a lively mousse and a dosage of only 4.3g. As you’d expect from lobster and fizz it was spot on.

You can buy the Torello which, as you can see, comes in a really wacky bottle from Hic for £16.50 and Great Western Wine for £17.50 - great value for a sparkling wine of this quality.

I attended the dinner as a guest of the Cava D.O.

Kibbeh and Domaine des Tourelles red

I agonised over whether this should be the standout pairing from this marvellous Lebanese meal at Arabica last week but it won by just a whisker.

The occasion was the launch of the Lebanese winery Domaine des Tourelles latest vintages including the first release of an upmarket chardonnay, Marquis de By. To be honest I was more excited by the latest vintages of their basic wines which are incredibly delicious, especially with eastern Mediterranean food.

The red, a 2011, is a warm, rustic typically Lebanese blend of syrah, cabernet sauvignon and cinsault. It’s not as extraordinary as the famous Chateau Musar but it has a similar character at half the price. Like Musar the estate is organic and uses natural yeasts but it’s not what is generally perceived as a natural wine.

It was brilliant with the slightly spicy kibbeh, a deep-fried ball of lamb and bulgur (cracked wheat) that can often be slightly dry but Arabica’s were full-flavoured and meaty, the best I can remember eating.

I also thought their basic white - an earthy slightly spicy blend of viognier, chardonnay and muscat was spot on with the starter dishes which included hummus, moutabel (smoked aubergine purée), muhammara (spiced roast peppers with toasted nuts - right), cacik (yoghurt and cucumber) and tabbouleh (parsley salad.) Chardonnay doesn’t taste like this anywhere else which is why the top end white needs time to come round.

Their more upmarket red, the 2009 Marquis de By, a smoother, more elegant blend of syrah and cabernet sauvignon, was also spot on with a dish of slow cooked shin of beef cooked in the basic red and served with nutty, smoky freekeh (green wheat).

You can buy the basic Tourelles range including a very attractive rosé from D. Byrne of Clitheroe for £8.59 a bottle. (They don't have an online shop but will send them mail order) allaboutwine.co.uk has the red at £8.89 a bottle and D & D Wines for £9.50. (See wine-searcher.com for other stockists.). Or drink it - and I’d strongly recommend this - at Arabica by whose food I was hugely impressed.

I was invited to the lunch by Domaine des Tourelles. You can read about my visit to the winery back in 2010 on my (sadly neglected) natural wine blog, Wine Naturally.

Frozen milk chocolate and raspberry cake with Rosa Regale Brachetto d’Acqui

One of the courses at the food and wine workshops I hosted for Irish wine importer Febvre at Drury Buildings in Dublin last week was a frozen milk chocolate and raspberry cake - well, sort of cake. More like a cross between a cake and a mousse.

Chocolate is notoriously tricky with wine, frozen or rather semi-frozen chocolate even more so but I anticipated the raspberries would provide the key to the match.

We tried a rosato frizzante (in effect pink prosecco but we’re not allowed to call it that) but it was too dry. Then for the final workshop we tried a sweeter brachetto d’acqui, the Rosa Regale from Castello Banfi's Vigne Regale which hit the spot perfectly - echoing the raspberry flavour in the dessert in much the same way as a Belgian Frambozen (raspberry beer) would have done. Served in a flute looked very pretty too.

Interestingly the same wine didn’t work nearly as well with the very intense dark chocolate and toasted pistachio cake which was served at the dinner by which it was quite overwhelmed.

A good wine for summer though. Dante Cecchini of Castello Banfi reckons it’s also perfect for Eton mess.

You can buy the Rosa Regale in the UK for £12.89 from allaboutwine.co.uk (by the case) or £13.45 from slurp.co.uk

Blood orange and chocolate with Highland Park 12

It’s not often I come across such a good dessert pairing, let alone one with whisky but here’s a stellar one from L Mulligan Grocer in Dublin which offers whisky pairings with all its desserts

The one we chose was called simply 'blood orange and chocolate'. It was actually quite a complex and sophisticated combination of candied slices of blood orange, a very short, crumbly ‘double’ chocolate shortcake, dark chocolate mousse, bitter orange purée, oatmeal praline and sea salt caramel.

The whisky they paired with it was a rich-tasting, spicy Highland Park 12 which you’d have thought would be way too strong for it but was actually spot on - one of those comparatively rare combinations where each element of the partnership - food and drink - enhances the other. The bitterness of the orange, I think, particularly helped bringing out a fruity, almost orangey element in the whisky.

It goes to show there’s more potential in pairing whisky with food than most imagine.