Apricot sorbet and moscato di Pantelleria

There were lots of interesting food and wine matches during my trip to Pantelleria and Etna last week with the Sicilian winery Donnafugata but the most surprising one to me was this pairing of an apricot sorbet and a light moscato, the 2022 Kabir.

Surprising because ice-creams and sorbets are hard to match. In the past I’ve found richer more liquorous wines and even liqueurs work best as you can see from this post.

What wine - if any - goes with ice-cream?

Like their famous Ben Ryé passito di Pantelleria, the Kabir is made from zibibbo but unlike Ben Rye the grapes are not sun-dried resulting in a lighter, more fragrant wine that was just 11.5% but one which worked really well with the sorbet.

What would you pair Ben Ryé with then? Depends a bit on its age. When it’s younger it’s rich and orangey, almost marmaladey so you can pair it with relatively light creamy pastries like cannoli or this ‘bacio Pantesco’, a deep-fried pastry filled with ricotta.

More mature ones develop rich treacley notes that work particularly well with a dark chocolate dessert or dried fruits such as raisins and figs, 

You can buy the Kabir in the UK for £32.95 from Vinum and £39.06 from Shelved Wine. 

(Apologies for the photo but I was a couple of spoonfuls in before I realised what a brilliant match it was!) 

Slow roasted seatrout and ‘pet nat’ perry

I’ve been on a cider weekend in Herefordshire this past couple of days so obviously trying lots of different ciders and perries. They included a new one from one of my favourite producers Tom Oliver called Almost a Pet Nat but Still a Tangy Perry (all his perries and ciders have quirky names)

It’s dry, gently fizzy and fresh-tasting.You can pick up the pears but there’s also a touch of citrus - the element that made it such a good match for a dish of slow-roasted sea trout that my mate Elly Curshen (aka Elly Pear) cooked for us. Even the accompanying hollandaise which was made with cider vinegar (by Dan Vaux-Nobes aka @essexeating) didn’t throw it.

Perry is a really useful drink when you’re looking for an alternative to dry white wine, especially with seafood. You can see other pairings here. 

If you want to try Tom’s it costs £12 for a full 75cl bottle from his website.

If you want to have a go at Elly’s recipe you can find a version here although the richer brown shrimp butter would suggest a white burgundy or other creamy chardonnay to me rather than a perry. Or a fuller, richer cider.

Roast chicken and Rioja (but not all riojas!)

Another great chicken pairing following last week’s ‘cos you can never have too many of them.

You might question whether Rioja was the ideal match for roast chicken but there’s rioja and rioja.

This one was admittedly a top notch one, the ‘San Vicente de la Sonsierra,’ from José Gil, from a recent vintage (2022) and made in a much lighter, brighter style than is typical of rioja. (The alcohol was only 13.5%). More like a Burgundy than an old school rioja or Bordeaux. Interestingly Gil trained in Burgundy.

It’s actually one of the most delicious reds I’ve tasted all year - as indeed it should be at a slightly painful £41 from North Norfolk Cellars and £45 from Chesters in Abergavenny. Still, why should one automatically expect Rioja to be cheap?

The chicken was roasted simply with roasties, runner beans, courgettes and bread sauce so it needed a lighter style of red. (Gil also eschews new oak.) And the Rioja very lightly chilled.

Also a reminder that when you have a good red to hand to keep the food simple!

For other roast chicken recipes see here

And for other rioja pairings here 

Tongdak (rice-stuffed chicken) and orange wine

Continuing in the spicy food vein of last week, this time I was eating at a Korean restaurant called Bokman in Bristol.

I started with a Korean lager called Cass and could happily have carried on drinking that but was tempted by the orange wine which was available by the glass.

It was a Vincent Stoeffler, Feu Follet from Alsace, a blend of muscat, gewürztraminer and pinot gris ‘aromatics dialled up to the max’ as the wine list nicely put it.

Aromatic varieties like this that work particularly well in orange wine (which is white wine made by leaving the juice in contact with the skins as you do with a red) and it really was delicious, full of tropical fruit flavours and a touch of sweetness that took the the hot/sweet dipping sauces with our Tongdak (rice stuffed roast chicken) in their stride.

It was, if anything, even better with the sensationally good Bokman salad which consists of Chinese leaves, toasted seaweed, pine nuts and a ‘house dressing’ which I’m guessing was based on kimchi or kimchi brine. Which suggests that orange wine would be good with kimchi provided it wasn’t too hot.

You can find the wine between £22 and £28 in the UK (e.g. £25 at Victor Indigo November which is a great name) though if you’re lucky enough to live in France you can buy it off the producer’s website for €13.60.

For other orange wine pairings see here