What to match with the world's best Bordeaux-style reds

The Bordeaux wine region produces a multitude of top class red wines that these days tend to be blends of four main grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

Typically top quality Châteaux in the Médoc are 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc and 15% Merlot whilst in St-Emilion and Pomerol, Merlot and/or Cabernet Franc tend to predominate in the blend. As it happens my favorite Médoc and Pomerol are atypical: Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande often has over 35% Merlot whilst Vieux Château Certan can have as much as 30 % Cabernet Franc/10% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Winemakers in the New World and Tuscany have replicated this formula and created successful blends in their respective areas – in the US often labelled Meritage. Wines like Ridge Monte Bello, Pahlmeyer Napa Valley Proprietary Red in California and Super Tuscans like Sassicaia and Ornellaia are examples of world class “Bordeaux Blends” not made in Bordeaux. I therefore treat the aforementioned wines in the same way as the Bordeaux equivalents.

I tend to side with the view that the top classed growths in Bordeaux and the New World equivalents will on average require 10 years minimum age whilst the best Cru Bourgeois and second wines 5–7 years. Having recently drunk some 1961, 1982 and 1985 First and Super Second growths, what is clear is that you need patience to experience the best of the best.

Because of the variety in blends and effects of bottle ageing matching food to red Bordeaux offers considerable scope, ranging from classic robust beef, game and lamb roasts or stews right through to cheeses like Camembert, Brie and Roquefort. I have also had a very good dish of monkfish both cooked with and accompanied with red Bordeaux.

Some specific great recent matches include Ridge Monte Bello 1999 with a superb Côte de Boeuf cooked by Racine, Chef Patron, Henry Harris and Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 1982 with roast Pauillac Lamb (Blanche du Massif Central) at a private dinner party in Bordeaux.

When entertaining at home, I often follow a main course with cheese as this gives you the possibility of selecting a wine with the main course that will carry you through to the cheese. Stronger cheeses tend to work well with the tannins in these type of wines. A cheese like Roquefort also works well with Sauternes so both cheese and wine can lead you on to dessert. When matching food and wine transitions should in my opinion be factored in, and to this end red Bordeaux can be an excellent solution for the central part of your meal covering at least two courses.

Personally I find that Roquefort works better with a well aged red Bordeaux than say a sweet dessert wine, simply because the dryness and the tannins enhance the taste of this cheese which would probably be the last savoury experience before moving on to dessert. I prefer the linear, savory to sweet eating trajectory especially with European cuisines like French, Italian and Spanish. Therefore I more likely to drink a white Alsatian with foie gras and red Bordeaux with Roquefort than Sauternes.

With this quality of wine and winemaking the key is the assemblage which is more important than the individual grape varieties. The wines are complex and subtle and therefore matching needs to be geared to food that enhances the wine drinking experience and visa versa.

You can read more about Dino's gastronomic adventures on his blog The Epicurean. 

Image credit: Matthew Hintz

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.

Wines - and other drinks - to match recipes from the Ottolenghi Cookbook

The book I’ve been looking forward to most so far this year has just started being serialised in the Guardian today. It’s by Yotam Ottolenghi who founded two exceptional London restaurants and is simply called Ottolenghi: the Cookbook. l love Ottolenghi's food - it’s so generous and big-flavoured, piled high on bright, colourful platters - you can't fail to be tempted by it. It also lends itself perfectly to entertaining for large numbers at home.

Char-grilled asparagus, courgettes and manouri
Manouri, Yotam explains, is a Greek semi-soft cheese - you could substitute goats cheese or halloumi. Normally the asparagus would be the dominant flavour but the vegetables are dressed with a very rich home-made basil oil (which I can't wait to make) that makes me think that a dry Italian white such as a Gavi di Gavi or a Soave would be a better option.

Radish and broad bean salad
Another fresh-tasting salad with a very punchy dressing made from tahini paste, lemon juice and garlic. The salad also has a lot of lemon juice and some preserved lemon in it which makes for a lot of acidity so I’m not sure you need wine on top of all that. Personally I’d be drinking this with sparkling water or fresh fruit juice and water mixed (pomegranate would be nice) but if you’re serving it to friends you will probably want a bottle to pour. The best bet, I think would be a dry French or Spanish rosé.

Seafood, fennel and lime salad
An exotic seafood and fennel salad, seasoned with garlic lime and chilli. I think I’d go for a classic seafood white such as a Picpoul de Pinet or Albariño with this. Or even a Greek Assyrtiko.

Kosheri
An Egyptian dish of rice and lentils topped with fried onions and a spicy, sharp tomato sauce. Lentils normally lead to red wine but there’s quite a lot of chilli heat and vinegar in the sauce that makes it a slightly tricky dish to match. If you do go for red I’d make it a rustic one without too much obvious oak, something like a Côtes du Rhône Villages. But I actually think you’d enjoy a beer better. A good pilsner, I’d suggest.

Harissa-marinated chicken with red grapefruit salad
Wow! Here you have everything. Hot chilli, bitter/acid grapefruit and a sweet and sour dressing of grapefruit, lemon juice and maple syrup. The only thing I can think of that would work wine-wise is a big fruity ros - something like Charlie Melton’s Rosé of Virginia from southern Australia or an Argentinian or Californian Syrah rosé. Whatever you do you don’t want tannin. Otherwise I think you’d be looking at something like a pitcher cocktail - something like a Seabreeze (vodka, cranberry juice and grapefruit juice).

Macadamia and white chocolate brownies
Interesting that Yotam has put coffee in these brownies. I’d be looking at coffee too - an espresso or black Americano - to counteract the intense sweetness but that’s probably because I haven’t got a sweet tooth. Cold milk is great with brownies too.

What to eat with old Côte Rôtie

An irresistible dinner invitation came my way a few weeks ago, to attend a game dinner and tasting of René Rostaing’s Côte Rôties at Emanuel College, Cambridge. Cambridge colleges are famous for their wine cellars but these wines came from the personal wine cellar of its ‘wine steward’ Dr Jonathan Aldred, the fortunate fellow (in both senses of the word) who buys all the wine for the college.

Rostaing is regarded as a modernist in Côte Rôtie but most of these wines dated from the 1990’s before he was using such cutting edge equipment as rotary fermenters. The tasting was based on the outstanding ‘91’s with younger or, in the case of the La Landonnes, an older vintage for comparison. The outstanding wines in my view were his 1991 Côte Rôtie and the 1990 La Landonne which marginally shaded it over the ‘91. The Côte Blondes were a slight disappointment, the first ‘91 being slightly dirty. (The second was much better but not in the class of the La Landonnes)

Dinner was served in the ante-room to the gallery, a splendid crimson-painted room overlooking the courtayard of this 400+ year old college (founded in 1584) It was not a meal for the faint-hearted. It started conventionally enough with a large slab of rich game pat (very good with the ‘91 Côte Rôtie) then went on to an innocuous sounding venison ‘duo’, an exotically dark dish of venison liver and what tasted like braised haunch but which the chef later revealed had been heart. I didn’t have a chance to quiz the chef but I think the sauce was almost certainly made with blood lièvre à la royale style. The Blondes survived intact.

The main course was woodcook, served the traditional way with its entrails, another intensely gamey note that really set off the La Landonnes to perfection. They also matched well with the cheese - sensibly limited by Dr Aldred to three plain hard cheeses, a Beaufort, a Comté and a Gruyère.

The dessert wine was Austrian rather than French: a really lovely Beerenauslese, the 2003 Samling 88 from Helmut Lang, which Aldred had picked to go with a dessert of crêpes suzette (fortunately neither too orangey nor too syrupy otherwise it might well have overwhelmed the wine).

Dinner certainly highlighted even mature Côte Rôtie’s power in being able to stand up to such strong-flavoured game dishes - and also its longevity. The colour on all the wines had remained amazingly intense.

Dinner was jointly organised by Cambridge Wine Merchants who have three shops in the city and organise regular events and tastings.

Image by BlueBreezeWiki - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0