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Wines to pair with fennel

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.

Wine and pepper

Like salt, pepper has a pronounced effect on wine, often making reds taste softer and lusher than they otherwise would. Unlike salt though, you also find peppery flavours in wines such as Northern Rhône Syrah and Austrian Grüner Veltliner.

The problem about finding the same flavour in a food and a wine is that the more dominant flavour in the food tends to knock out the same characteristic in the wine. (Other examples are orange Muscat which won’t stand up to an orange-flavoured dessert or an evolved Pinot Noir whose mushroomy notes become barely perceptible if partnered with cooked mushrooms.)

So what do you drink when pepper is the point of the dish? Here are my suggestions, paired with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recipes in the Guardian today.

Salt and Pepper Squid
There’s not just black pepper in this dish but Szechuan pepper and chilli as well which makes it hot. Winewise you could go two ways - a zesty unoaked Sauvignon Blanc which would provide a lemony lift to the combination or a crisp, limey Australian Riesling which I think would be my preferred match. (Note the pairing will change if you add a squeeze of lemon. Try the wine first and proceed with caution! ) I’d also like a cold Kölsch or lager with this.

Goats' cheese marinated in seasoned olive oil
Sauvignon Blanc is always the first port of call with goats’ cheese but the flavours in the olive oil - garlic, lemon zest, black and pink peppercorns and chilli again - mean only a super-charged Sauvignon will do. Pick one that has powerful lemon zest notes of its own such as a south Australian Sauvignon Blanc or a Chilean one. (Yes, I know I said don't replicate the flavours of the food in the wine but I just don't think a herbaceous Sauvignon will work here.)

Steak in Green Peppercorn Sauce
Green peppercorns used to be a common basis for steak sauces like this. It also contains cream and brandy, an immensely wine-friendly partnership. I think I’d be looking for a Syrah or Shiraz but one without obvious peppery notes of its own, maybe in combination with its other habitual southern French bedfellows, Grenache and Mourvèdre. So a Languedoc red such as Faugères would be perfect. Or a Western Australian Shiraz. (Note: all this pepper will accentuate the sensation of ‘hotness’ in any accompanying wine so watch the alcohol!)

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