When food and wine matching doesn't matter

Although I make my living writing about how food can enhance wine - and vice versa - I would never want to be dogmatic about it and freely admit that there are occasions when it matters less than others.

Exactly such an occasion occurred earlier this week at a wine dinner at my son’s restaurant Hawksmoor which featured Charles Smith, of K Vintners (right) who I met a couple of months ago in Walla Walla in Washington State. Beyond saying he’s a rock’n’roll winemaker, a description I suspect he’s heard rather too many times, he’s hard to categorise but his ‘wild man’ appearance and demeanour bely the fact that he’s a serious winemaker* and winelover who produces some really top class wines.

So the times to be relaxed about trying to achieve a perfect match are:

When the wines are great.
When the wine is REALLY good you’ll enjoy it anyway pretty much whatever you drink it with. Use common sense here, obviously. I wouldn’t have fancied one of Charles’s high octane Syrahs” with a piece of seabass or a delicate risotto primavera but there would be no point in agonising whether they’d go better with beef, pork or lamb. What makes this easier is that the wines are superbly well-balanced. As Charles aptly put it “I don’t like wines that are pulled like a freight train across your palate”

* the 2008 Northridge Syrah Wahluke Slope and the 2008 Morrison Lane Syrah from the Walla Walla valley

When the food is simple
The more complicated food gets in the way of sauces and accompaniments the more potential there is for a flavour mismatch. Hawksmoor’s USP is impeccably sourced British ingredients served simply so we were served grilled Dorset Blue Lobster with butter (fantastic with the K Vintners 2009 Viognier) and great platters full of steaks, marrow bones and sides (spot on with both the Syrahs and Charles’s immodestly named Creator - a 60/40 Cabernet/Syrah blend. Infanticide really to drink them at this age but there you go. They were still great).

You could have served the lobster with a good Chardonnay with equal pleasure and the steaks with almost any good full-bodied red (that’s the joy of steak) but if I can chip in with one of my geekier observations the voluptuousness of Charles’s wines certainly helped drive through condiments like ketchup which can knock the stuffing out of less substantial wines. You wouldn't want to do that to a Hermitage.

When the food is shared, family style
This of course has always been the case with many ethnic cuisines and is becoming more and more common in modern British and New American restaurants. The bigger the range of dishes and flavours the harder it is to find a precise match.

There’s something about a big table that’s also quite loud and boisterous and doesn’t make for thoughtful contemplation of the finer nuances of food and wine pairing. What one’s looking for are generous, easy-going bottles that will take you through a meal or a section of a meal.

There are moods to be taken account of with food and wine matching just as there are with food or wine on its own. Sometimes you want to strive for a knock-out effect and sometimes you just want to sit back and enjoy the experience . . .

* Charles Smith was Food & Wine’s Winemaker of the Year in 2009. To see for yourself what I mean by rock'n'roll watch this episode of Wine Library TV.

I attended the dinner as a guest of K Vintners and Bibendum Wines.

What wine to drink with cuttlefish

Cuttlefish is a pain to prepare as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall points out in the Guardian today but it is particularly delicious to eat. It’s often partnered with robust flavours so you need to think in terms of equally intense flavoured wines.

Slow-braised cuttlefish with fennel and white wine
A recipe that uses cuttlefish ink which will give it a dramatic black colour but won’t affect the flavour overly much (apart from enhancing its fishiness). More important are the citrus and fennel seeds. I’d be thinking of a crisp unoaked dry white - a good quality Pinot Grigio or a Vermentino - a frugal choice as the recipe contains white wine itself. You could also serve a strong dry rosé like a Bandol.

Cuttlefish with chorizo and rice
Although this recipe also contains fish stock it also includes chorizo and sherry which gives it much more of a Spanish feel - and a meaty one at that. I’d be looking for a young Spanish red to drink with this like a Rioja crianza or other young Tempranillo. But again a dry wine rather than a super-ripe one (some modern Spanish reds come too much in the ‘fruit bomb’ category for this type of dish IMO).

Cuttlefish salad
Again this recipe includes orange together with chilli and cardamom which is going to give it quite a sweet, exotic flavour. I’d be looking for a fruity white or rosé with this - not too dry this time - maybe an Australian Sauvignon-Semillon blend. A ripe fruity rose (not the Provençal stye) would work well too.

Which wine to match with Dover sole?

When you have a fish as fine as Dover sole you don’t want to mask its delicate sweet flavour in any way. Here are my suggestions for Gordon Ramsay’s recipes in the Times today.

Whole Dover Sole with Herb Crust
There’s quite a lot of parmesan as well as the herbs in the crust which made me rethink my first instinct to pair this with a cool climate, crisp Sauvignon Blanc or possibly even a dry German Riesling. They add an element of umami that will probably key in best with a subtly oaked Chardonnay such as a Puligny-Montrachet or a Chablis 1er Cru - my failsafe suggestion for most sole dishes. In fact so long as you don’t choose a white wine that’s too light, has too much residual sugar or is too oaky (a Meursault or similar barrel-fermented Chardonnay would be too powerful) you should be on track.

Dover Sole with Caper, Anchovy and Parsley Brown Butter
A more robust treatment, normally meted out to skate. Obvious fruit would be an unwelcome element here, I think so I’d go for something dry, mineral and comparatively neutral though sufficiently powerful to cope with these strong flavours: Chablis again or an Austrian Grüner Veltliner.

Rolled Dover sole fillets in creamy shallot and white wine sauce
Cream is a natural partner for sole and also for Chardonnay though I’d again go for the restrained sort of style I was recommending with the first recipe (the braised fennel will make this an even more hedonistic match). If you really feel like splashing out crack open a bottle of Champagne or serious new world sparkling wine which will add a nice textural counterpoint to the cream. This would also be a good dish to show off a fine, dry but not too evolved Riesling. (You don't want too much in the way of kerosene flavours to intrude.)

Image credit: Paolo Botio

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.