Red mullet, tapenade and white Saint Joseph

Last week I was in the Northern Rhone where the biggest challenge, from a food and wine matching perspective, is what you eat with its distinctive whites which are made from Marsanne and Roussanne

The confusing thing is that they’re all different. Some producers favour 100% Marsanne, others add up to 50% of Roussanne and a few focus on Roussanne exclusively.

It’s the Marsanne and Marsanne-dominated ones which are tricky. They’re rich but quite low in acidity and have a touch of bitterness on the finish which doesn’t make them an obvious match for normal white wine go-to’s such as salad and seafood. Red mullet, however, is a distinctive slightly earthy fish which, accompanied by tapenade (both black and a very garlicky green), made for a really good pairing. There were even preserved artichokes and sundried tomatoes on the plate which didn’t throw the wine off its stride.

The wine was Joel Durand’s 2013 white Saint Joseph which is 70% Marsanne, 30% of which is aged in wood. Unfortunately although Berry Bros has his reds it doesn’t appear to be available in the UK. In France you can buy it from Les Caves du Roy for 19€ or from the cellar door in Chateaubourg.

Salmon Uri with spicy ginger beer

It’s always good to find a restaurant that takes non-alcoholic drinks as seriously as it does boozy ones so it was an easy decision to order a spicy ginger beer cocktail at The Palomar the other day.

It’s a new modern Israeli restaurant in Rupert Street just off Piccadilly Circus which serves really original brightly flavoured Mediterranean food with a few Asian touches. The ‘Uri’ was a bit like a sashimi but with a cured onion and ginger vinaigrette - too much ginger you might have thought but there was also citrus peel (orange, lemon and lime) in the drink and salmon is so good with both citrus and ginger that it just worked brilliantly.

The drink also matched well with the other dishes we ordered including an excellent fattoush and kubania, their middle-eastern style take on a steak tartare.

Desserts, including basboussa - a semolina cake with whipped yogurt, orange syrup and ground walnut brittle and malabi (a rose-scented milk pudding with raspberry sauce, coconut meringue pistachio crunch, fresh raspberries & kataifi were delicious too.

The restaurant is tiny but they take walk-ins at the bar.

Endive, Stilton and walnut salad with blanc de blancs champagne

Champagne two weeks running? I know - it is a bit indulgent but I just couldn’t ignore last night’s extraordinary dinner at the Savoy to celebrate the trophy winners and launch of the first Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships. Besides it is our 400th Match of the Week - equally something to celebrate.

I’ll be writing more about the champagnes, the food and the interaction between the two but the most unexpected match was a starter salad of endive and baby gem salad with Stilton, celery, salted walnuts and honey dressing which was paired with three blanc de blancs.

Admittedly the Stilton was mild and buttery and the dressing quite light but I was still surprised by how well the match worked, particularly with two Ruinart blanc de blancs - the non-vintage which won the award for Word Champion Non-vintage Blanc de Blancs and the 2002 vintage which was nominated World Champion Deluxe Blanc de Blancs.

Interestingly in the tasting that had preceded the pairing I had been more charmed by the 2002 Champagne de Castelnau Blanc de Blancs which was still extraordinarily fresh and fragrant for a 12 year old wine but which didn’t quite stand up to the salad as well as the Ruinarts did. They were more demanding to drink on their own but revealed all their persistence and complexity with food.

Sausage rolls and champagne

The idea of drinking champagne with fast food might seem outrageous but you have to believe me it works!

In the past I’ve paired champagne successfully with popcorn, hot dogs, fried chicken and fish fingers - the discovery that it also matches with spicy pork and chorizo sausage rolls was a logical follow-on.

The eureka moment occurred at the Bon Vivant wine bar in Edinburgh last week when we ordered a (very well priced*) half bottle of Billecart Salmon NV to celebrate my birthday and some bar food to nibble with it. (We were eating out later on**.)

As well as the sausage rolls which also, I suspect, contained wine-loving fennel seeds, we had some anchovy beignets (fried food, like pastry, is always good with bubbly) and some venison salami on oatcakes which were less of a hit. I don’t think charcuterie has a particular affinity with champagne. You need something with more acidity.

It’s worth bearing in mind as a general rule that if a food pairs with a light beer or lager it’ll match with champagne. Salty, fatty, crispy foods are a good foil for fizz!

*£21 which is not much more than the retail price and far better value than buying 2 £9 glasses.

** At one of my favourite restaurants, Timberyard. You can read my review here.