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 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.

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)

A surprisingly good pairing for air-dried ham

Think of an air-dried ham such as serrano and you probably think of tapas and therefore fino or manzanilla sherry. But I’ve experienced two recent wine matches which opened my eyes to another option that even those on a diet could enjoy!

One was the other day in a local Bristol wine bar (Coulters) which has about 20 wines by the glass together with some simple plates of cold meats and cheese. We stopped by for a pit-stop towards the end of a long walk and ordered a couple of glasses of Prosecco and a plate of serrano ham and were struck by just how good the combination was.

Then last night I was at the London launch for the new season’s Joselito gran reserva ham and they were rather strangely pouring Ruinart champagne - presumably to underline what a great delicacy it was. It reminded me that I have in fact experienced this combination before: the indefatigable Richard Geoffroy of Dom Perignon decided that Iberico ham was the perfect match for his wine. Italian Culatello too. The yeastiness of champagne picks up on the umami savouriness of the ham and the bubbles play beautifully against the creamy fat.

What’s most interesting though is that in both cases we were eating the ham without any accompanying bread which accentuated its flavours and the texture of the wine. And of course makes it the perfect elegant, low-carb snack!