The best wines to pair with beetroot

Beetroot is one of the few vegetables that pairs better with red wine than with white - not only for the colour though that tends to put the brain on auto-suggest - but its rich, earthy sometimes sweet flavour.

True it’s often partnered with other ingredients that can affect the wine match - it goes well with rare game like pigeon, duck and venison, for example, but that’s still red wine territory (pinot noir in particular for me). Other fruity reds that generally work include dolcetto, blaufrankisch and mencia.

Good pairings for beets

Beetroot risotto

Beetroot and pinot noir risotto

 

Beetroot tarte tatin

Beetroot can also be cooked until it caramelises when it acquires a more intense sweetness that can handle a richer, more full-bodied red from, say, the southern Rhone or the Languedoc (the classic grenache/syrah/mourvedre blend, for instance). But malbec would work too.

Borscht (beetroot soup)

More of a beer dish than a wine one, to be honest. A good pils would be perfect. Or even a shot (or two) of frozen vodka

Beetroot salads

Beetroot salads often include some kind of sharp-flavoured cheese such as goat’s or feta cheese or yoghurt and herbs such as chives or dill. Although a fruity red like pinot would still be fine if that's what you fancy the cheesy element would steer me in the direction of a crisp white wine such as a sauvignon blanc or an albarino, as I discovered a while back in this match of the week. Especially as you might have other white wine-friendly ingredients such as asparagus broad beans, peas or salad leaves in the dish.

And beets, of course, are not always red. With stripey chiogga or yellow beets you might want a richer white like a white Côtes du Rhône.

Beetroot dips, spreads and purées

Often part of a selection of different Middle-eastern-style mezze. Dry rosé is a good all-rounder with this kind of spread.

Beetroot cured salmon

Sometimes beetroot is used to cure salmon in which case it becomes more about the salmon than the beet. A couple of years back I found a very good match in furmint, a versatile dry Hungarian wine that can take a number of dishes in its stride. You can read about the pairing here. On another occasion it was Godello from the north of Spain that scooped the prize. Dry riesling would work well too.

 

What's the best type of wine for a barbecue?

Beer is still seen as a more common pairing than wine with a barbecue but if you’re planning one this weekend - or barbecuing any other weekend this summer - and you prefer drinking wine you may well be wondering which one to choose.

After all the average barbie with its multiple marinades, sauces and salsas is an assault course for any wine. Which is why a lot of people give up and drink beer or pitcher cocktails.

What wine works with BBQ?

* A lot of barbecue marinades are sweet which tends to make lighter wines taste thin and sharp. But they may also be spicy so you don’t want a wine that’s too tannic or oaky. Sharply dressed salads will also accentuate oaky flavours

* Bear in mind that although people love full-bodied reds like malbec and shiraz they may warm up to an uncomfortable extent if it's a hot day (those beers and pitcher drinks are cold for a reason!) So either go for a lighter red or try and keep them somewhere cool.

* Not all barbecues are meaty. Think crisp white wines and rosé or light reds like pinot noir, Beaujolais or mencia if your centrepiece is fish or veggies.

Six top tips for creating a vegan or gluten-free barbecue

* And even if you are having a bit of a meatfest you might well be serving some dips on arrival so again think in terms of having a chilled white or rosé to hand. Magnums of rosé always go down well!

A middle-eastern inspired barbecue for eight

* Price is obviously a factor if you're catering for a crowd. Whites that represent good value are sauvignon blanc, Côtes de Gascogne and Picpoul de Pinet. Good red wine choices are, malbec, pinotage and shiraz.

* Pick up on the theme of the barbecue. If it's all American serve Californian wine, if it's a spicy Thai or Indian food think more in terms of aromatic whites such as riesling

* Rosé is also a surprisingly good option as you get stuck into the barbecue especially the darker, more intensely fruity rosés you find from countries such as Spain and Argentina. Even sparkling rosé (Cava rosado is a particularly good bargain) and there's always pink champagne if you're feeling more extravagant!

*Almost more critical than the colour of the wine, however, is how you serve it. Any wine - even red wine - benefits from being chilled or served cool in hot weather which is why it’s not worth opening a wine of any great age or complexity

Midweek barbecues

Of course now barbecuing is so easy many people grill several times a week and here slightly different guidelines apply.

If the meal is not what most people would regard as a barbecue but merely a conventional meal with the main course cooked over the grill you can serve a similar type of wine to the one you would normally serve though with a greater level of intensity to allow for the heightened flavours.

With a simply grilled fish served with herb butter, for example, you might drink a crisp dry white like a Sancerre. If it was seasoned with a spicy rub and cooked over coals you might prefer a zesty New Zealand, Chilean or South African Sauvignon Blanc.

And some fish taste better on the barbecue - here are my suggestions for wines with sardines for example.

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Six of the best matches for Bacchus and Bacchus-based wine blends

If you've bough a bottle of English wine to celebrate St George's Day or English Wine Week you may be wondering what sort of food suits it best.

Chances are it may be Bacchus, a cross between Müller Thurgau and Silvaner-Riesling that tastes quite similar to a sauvignon blanc. It works well with the sort of food that pairs with sauvignon but is usually a degree or so lighter in alcohol so may not be able to cope with such intense flavours. English whites also have a delicate elderflower character which makes me think of classic summery English food.

Here are six pairings I think work really well.

*fresh goats cheese and goats cheese salads. Just as sauvignon loves goats cheese so do English whites

*spring vegetables such as asparagus, peas and broad beans - such as this dish of asparagus with gnocchi and a wild garlic pesto.

*fresh seafood particularly crab salads or sandwiches and prawns

*other light salads without powerfully flavoured dressings - a seafood or chicken salad for example or even a fresh tomato salad

*poached or grilled salmon without a rich sauce. (Mayonnaise is fine. So is cucumber which is lovely with this style of wine)

*light fish dishes like the celery risotto with Westcombe cheddar and smoked haddock I had at Pump House in Bristol a while back. Simply pan-fried or grilled fish is perfect too.

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The best wine matches with salt cod

Salt cod, a popular Good Friday dish in parts of the Mediterranean, is cooked many different ways which suggest different wine pairings.

Bear in mind that like other salty foods it will have the effect of making wines taste sweeter than they are so drier wines with good acidity work best. In general I’d go for a crisp white like a picpoul or an albarino but there are occasions when a red or rosé will work just as well.

Brandade de morue

This southern French salt cod purée works well with crisp dry whites such as Picpoul de Pinet, slightly earthier whites like a white Côtes du Rhône or a dry southern French rosé

Salt cod croquetas or fish cakes

As you’d expect, very good with chilled fino sherry and albarino but more surprisingly also with savagnin from the Jura

Fried salt cod with garlic-pepper sauce

An ice-cold vinho verde, according to Portuguese-American food writer David Leite who has a particularly good collection of salt cod recipes on his website Leite's Culinaria. It might also work with a grüner veltliner as did this salt cod tartare

Portuguese style baked salt cod with cream (bacalhau com natas)

Also often paired with vinho verde but I’d go for a young Douro white with a lick of oak or - less conventionally - with a white rioja.

A robust dish such as a salt cod stew with tomatoes and peppers (ciambotta) can actually take a full-bodied red, especially if it includes chorizo. See this pairing with a super Tuscan and this match with a Languedoc cabernet/merlot blend.

For more wine pairing ideas with salt cod check out Catavino

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