Which wine pairs best with tomatoes?

Tomatoes are generally held to be a problem for wine but as Jane McQuitty robustly puts it in The Times today - nonsense!

You do however need a slightly different strategy for dealing with raw tomatoes (where I’d go along with McQuitty’s suggestion of Sauvignon Blanc) and cooked ones which are frequently combined with other ingredients such as meat and cheese and with which I generally prefer a robust not over-fruity red. However there are exceptions - cooked dishes that could equally well be accompanied by white or rosé and two of Ramsay’s recipes fall into this category.

Beef tomatoes stuffed with pinenuts, sultanas and herb couscous
Here the tomatoes are merely served warm rather than cooked down or roasted to a caramelised sweetness and the other flavourings are milder than you might think from the recipe description. A robust dry southern French rosé would hit the spot pretty well.

Roasted tomato soup with goats’ cheese crostini
If you were to serve the soup cold, as Ramsay suggests, I’d definitely go for a white and given the goats cheese crostini, a Sauvignon Blanc would be the obvious choice (even though the crostini are served warm) If you were serving the soup hot or without the crostini I’d go for a vivid young Italian red with good acidity like a Rosso di Montalcino.

Seasonal glut tomato chutney
It’s not tomatoes that are the problem here but the vinegar. All chutneys are tricky with wine. Ramsay suggests using it as an accompaniment to cheese which will offset its sharpness. Three suggestions: a rustic French red like the delicious young Vacquéyras we’ve been drinking for the past couple of days from the co-operative at Beaumes de Venise, a Southern Italian red like a Copertino or Squinzano or an amber ale or French bière ambrée.

What to drink with Turkish food

Turkish food is not traditionally accompanied by wine. And although the Turks do have a wine industry not much of it makes its way over here. But here are some thoughts on possible pairings for Mark Hix's Turkish inspired recipes in the Independent this weekend"

Mackerel in oil with vinegar and shallots
This sort of escabeche dish is tricky to match with wine. Raki - the Turkish equivalent of ouzo - would make a good accompaniment, particularly if there were a whole selection of mezze on the table, but not everyone likes its aniseedy taste. A sharp lemony white like - dare I say - the Greek Assyrtiko from Santorini or a Spanish Rueda would do the job.

Yoghurt with honey, pistachios and pomegranate
Hix suggests this could be a dessert as well as a breakfast dish in which case you could serve a simple fresh sweet wine with it like a New World late harvest Sauvignon or Semillon but what immediately comes to mind is a freshly squeezed orange juice

Pancakes with spinach, spring onions and soft cheese
These are a little like spanakopitta and as such would go with almost any crisp dry white, an inexpensive sparkling wine or a light lager. Personally I'd go for a good Pinot Grigio from the Alto Adige like the one I had yesterday at a Great Western Wine tasting, the biodynamically grown Loacker Isargus 2007, expensive for Pinot Grigio at £12.50 but well worth it.

Duck kebab with spiced bulgar
This would work with almost any fruity red of character: try a Turkish or Georgian wine if you can get hold of one or an inexpensive young Syrah-based southern French red. And of course there's always Pinot Noir - a no-brainer with duck.

The extraordinary food and wine of Georgia

There's no tradition of wine & food pairing in Georgia because, "we're permanently in the process of eating and drinking, so everyone is continuously matching for themselves," firmly declared Georgia's 'wine queen', Tina Kezeli, my host for a week's tour of eastern Georgia's Kakheti wine region. Georgian meals are lavish affairs with tables laden with dishes appearing in regular sequence but without regard for timing or harmonious wine pairing. Some guidance is needed.

Barbecued pork, common in the Kakheti region, is best washed down with briskly crisp and tannic young dry Saperavi, Georgia's premier red grape and one worth seeking out, cleansing the rich fat and its savory quality linking with that of the smoky pork. If your Saperavi is particularly tart or tannic (a not uncommon occurrence), the addition of a bit of sour plum sauce, normally accompanying a Georgian pig-based feast, brings the level of sourness in balance again. However, if the pig has been boiled or slow-roasted you may find a 'clay jar' Rkatsiteli, Georgia's top white grape of quantity (although somewhat less so in quality) enough of an acid/tannin sweep to match the swine. (FYI clay jar, or 'qveri' wines are fermented and aged in ceramic jars buried in the ground. And for similar reasons of thrift and tradition nearly all of Georgia's food and wine are, by default, organically grown/raised/vinified.)

Carp, ubiquitous in this mountain-dominated area interspersed with rivers and lakes, is less fatty and more firm than most I've come across in Europe and North America. It's often served grilled so as to minimize what little fat is left and to ratchet up the rather plain fish's character to something just short of savory. Again, good with qveri whites when grilled, it's more typically marinated in vinegar and spices (especially coriander seeds) and best accompanied by the aromatic white wine Mtsvane or the charmingly-named Kisi in either the modern steel/oak or 'clay jar' style.

Fowl, too, has its place at the Georgian table. Grilled and salted squab and grilled, garlicky chicken are usually served at room temperature, adding to their flexibility of pairing with a blended white from the Tsinandali appellation or a fruitier, slightly chilled Saperavi. Pickled vegetables are regularly served with these type of dishes but they are not so vinegary as to impose themselves upon the wines.

Garlic and fresh coriander find their way into many dishes, sometimes even in combination, in a way that strongly reminded me of Mexican food. Over lunch at a restaurant in Kakheti's main town of Telavi which brews its own lager we were served a plate of boiled tongue with loads of each topping it. The beer did the trick with it but I thought a chilled Mtsvane would have worked just as well.

A unique harvest dish is 'tatara', a sweet made by continuously stirring a pot full of grape must and flour under a rapid boil until it reduces into thick paste. Walnut kernels, held in place by a string forced through their center, are then dipped into the paste then left to hang and dry for a few days until stiff and ready to slice. It somewhat resembles a sausage and sliced makes a nice pairing with a semi-sweet Saperavi.

'Hashi' is a morning-after cure. As with Mexico's 'birria', this is littered with strips of tripe but here the addition of garlic is left to the individual and the amount of salt is less than the south-of-the-border cure. Inevitably you'll be be served your hashi with a chilled, local grape distillate called 'chacha' which is usually surprisingly smooth and pure, a gentle 'hair of the dog'.

The wines of Georgia's Tbilvino winery are available to sample at London's Vinopolis and for purchase at the Majestic shop adjacent to it.

Stuffed aubergines with walnuts

A typical Georgian recipe from Tina Kezeli

1 kg small aubergines
300g walnuts, finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
A pinch of saffron, ground and soaked in a teaspoon of warm water
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp wine vinegar
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander + extra for garnish
Chilli or cayenne pepper and salt to taste
Pomegranate seeds for garnish

Cut the aubergines lengthwise, sprinkle with salt and leave for 30-40 minutes. Than squeeze them to extract the excess juice and fry in sunflower oil on both sides until browned. Allow the aubergines to cool.

To prepare the stuffing mix the finely chopped walnuts with the crushed garlic, saffron and ground coriander, season with hot pepper and wine vinegar and mix into a paste. Add the fresh coriander.

Spread the stuffing on each half of the aubergines and fold them in two. Aubergines are usually served at room temperature garnished with fresh coriander and pomegranate seeds.

Wine suggestion: a young, unoaked Saperavi

Californian David Furer is the author of Wine Places (Mitchell Beazley, 2005), a contributing editor to the US restaurant magazines Sante and Sommmelier Journal and a contributor to Tom Stevenson's annual Wine Report (Dorling Kindersley)

Wines to pair with fennel

Fennel is one of the handful of vegetables that can influence a main course pairing - almost always for the better. Its aniseed flavour seems to have a pronounced affinity with many wines, especially whites. Here are some suggested matches with recipes that two British chefs have published this weekend - Gordon Ramsay in the Times and Skye Gyngell in the Independent on Sunday.

Skye Gyngell’s recipes

Roast pork belly with roasted fennel
Fennel is a brilliant foil for the fattiness of pork and here it’s used both as a spice to season the meat and roast alongside the meat with more fennel seeds, chilli and lemon juice and peel. The latter, particularly, are punchy flavours that need an assertive wine as an accompaniment. I’d be inclined to turn to Italy for an intensely flavoured contemporary dry white such as a Greco di Tufo from Feudi di San Gregorio or, if you prefer red, a Chianti Classico.

Salad of rocket, cooked spinach and shaved fennel
Here a couple of other ingredients vie with the fennel for attention, the cooked spinach and the lemon zest and juice used to dress it. There’s also wine-friendly parmesan (though 100g, I have to say, sounds an awful lot). I think I’d recommend a dry white again here, probably Italian again (Italian whites and fennel seem to have a real affinity) and something quite straightforward like a Verdicchio or even a good Soave (I was drinking a Pieropan Soave last night with an intensely lemony dressing and it worked really well)

Sea bass with fennel pure
A dream dish for white burgundy lovers. There’s butter and cream in the pure as well as fennel which are the perfect foil for a classy Chardonnay. Oaked white Bordeaux would work too.

Gordon Ramsay’s recipes

Pan-roasted trout and caramelised fennel with a watercress and hazelnut salad
Quite a complex dish. The fennel is given a sweet-sour treatment with sugar and sherry vinegar and the salad is dressed with a dressing that includes hazelnut oil which adds to the nuttiness of the salad. I’d actually enjoy a lightly chilled dry amontillado or palo cortado with this but realise that wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste. A oaked (but not over-oaky) Chardonnay would also be an enjoyable match. The oak should pick up on the nuts.

Paprika pork chops with fennel and apple coleslaw
Actually the pork chops are not just seasoned with paprika but chilli powder, dark muscovado sugar, star anise, cinnamon and rosemary and the salad has a hot dressing that includes sugar and cider vinegar so the fennel plays second fiddle really. Winewise I’d probably go for a robust Côtes du Rhône Villages like a Vacquéyras but actually this is more a beer dish than a wine one. An amber ale or lager would hit the spot perfectly, I think.

Chilled fennel and melon soup with crab garnish
A dressy cold soup that will also have sweet and savoury notes. The fennel and melon will probably cancel each other out as a dominant influence so I’d take the crab as the ingredient to match. Spanish Albariño is a pretty safe bet with soups and should go well with both the crab and the soup.