The best food pairings for Vermentino

Vermentino is incredibly versatile - a brilliant wine pairing for anything fishy, herby or citrussy and a great wine for spring and summer drinking.

Most comes from Italy - Sardinia being a particularly good source - but it’s also produced in Liguria, Tuscany, Corsica, Provence and the Languedoc where it's also known as Rolle.

With crisp fresh young vermentinos I’d serve:

* Raw and marinated shellfish such as oysters and carpaccios

* Fritto misto or other fried fish - I had a lovely side of fried lemon and sage (below) at Spring recently

* Simply grilled or baked fish such as seabass especially with fresh olive oil or a salsa verde. Grilled squid. Grilled prawns or shrimp - try this recipe for prawn brochettes from Bruce Poole

* Spaghetti alle vongole, linguini with crab and other pasta dishes with seafood

* Spring and early summer vegetables such as asparagus, peas, broad (fava) beans, fennel and even artichokes

* Raw and lightly cooked vegetables such as marinated courgettes and leeks vinaigrette

* Dishes where herbs are predominant such as pasta or gnocchi with pesto

Late harvested or more mature vermentinos pair well with:

* Richer fish dishes such as lobster or lobster rice (a local Sardinian speciality)

* Light meat dishes such as roast veal, baby lamb and suckling pig.

* Vitello tonnato

The best food matches with New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc

The flavours of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc - and this is why it is so popular - are powerful and aromatic: citrus, gooseberry and passionfruit in spades. So you if you're looking for a food match need big flavours on your plate to stand up to it.

Here are my top suggestions:

Asian-style seafood dishes - oysters, scallops, crab, clams, lobster, prawns - any shellfish with zingy flavours or a citrus or garlic marinade or dressing. (Big fat garlicky prawns - mmmm).

Thai food generally. A Thai green chicken curry or a Thai-style chicken salad is ace.

Grilled fish especially squid* or swordfish.

Dishes with herbs and greens - salmon with dill, for instance, but great with recipes that contain basil, coriander, rocket and especially mint.

Salads with goats cheese and feta, asparagus, avocado or grilled red peppers, fresh tomato salads or salads with fennel, mango or papaya. (A great suggestion from Canadian wine pairing expert Francois Chartier: add a tabbouleh to a salad selection to show off a sauvignon blanc.)

Other good matches (though I personally prefer a less assertive style of sauvignon with them) include smoked salmon, fish and chips and oily fish such as mackerel and sardines.

Dishes that don't work so well are ones with creamy sauces or cooked tomato or, more obviously, meaty dishes with gravy or dark savoury sauces

* Basically if you see big flavoured fusion dishes like these (from Peter Gordon’s Kopapa, which has sadly now closed) reach for a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc:

Deep-fried sesame Urfa chilli salted squid, sumac aïoli, caramelised peanuts & cucumber

Fregola, chorizo & lemon stuffed squid, avocado puree, white radicchio, caper & mustard slaw, chervil vinaigrette

Food pairings for wheat beer I: witbiers (bières blanches) and lighter wheat beers

Wheat beers are fabulously flexible when it comes to food matching - the beer world’s equivalent of a crisp white wine.

There are two main styles - the cloudy, citrussy, aromatic Belgian-style witbier (aka bière blanche) and the richer banana-and-clove flavours of German hefeweizen which you can read about here.

In between are a range of wheat beers from different sources which fall somewhere between the two but are basically suited, like witbier, to salads, seafood and dishes flavoured with citrus and herbs

Matches for Northern French and Belgian style witbiers:

Seafood such as crab, mussels, oysters and clams - witbier is great for a beery version of moules marinières

Simply prepared fish like fried or grilled sole or plaice

Fish cakes

Smoked salmon or trout

Dim sum and other light Chinese dishes such as stir fries

Sushi

Raw fish such as ceviche and tartares

Fried fish like fish and chips, calamari or whitebait

Seafood pastas and noodles like crab linguine with chilli and coriander or pad thai

Seafood and light vegetable risottos

White pizza or seafood-topped pizza

Spring vegetables such as peas, beans and asparagus - as you can see from this article

Light fresh cheeses such as young goat cheese, sheep cheese and feta. Beer and food matching guru Garret Oliver recommends an omelette with sharp apple and goats cheese

Salads, especially mozzarella basil and tomato salad, Greek salad and caesar salad

Brunch dishes

Potjevleesch - a chunky jellied terrine of pork, chicken and rabbit you find in north-east France

Lighter Thai and Mexican dishes flavoured with citrus and herbs

Thai green curries

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