4 good wines to pair with fish pie

Whether it's topped with mashed potato or pastry fish pie is a relatively straightforward dish to pair with wine but some styles work better than others.

In general smooth dry white wines work best. I would emphasise dry though - I personally don’t want peach, pineapple or tropical fruit flavours with my fish - not with this traditional dish, at least.

Here are some examples:

* Unoaked or lightly oaked Chardonnay - Chablis being the classic example. A very sound, crowd-pleasing pairing. With a richer, more luxurious pie containing salmon, scallops or added cream or with a pie with a pastry lid you could go for a slightly richer style of white burgundy or other cool climate Chardonnay but don’t overdo the oak

* Chenin Blanc - works much in the same way as Chardonnay. Again a more minerally style works better than a fruity one in my opinion

* Blanc de Blancs champagne or sparkling Chardonnay - same reasoning - with a few bubbles. I’d suggest a non-vintage wine rather than a vintage one. Keep it fresh.

* Soave, Gavi and other smooth dry Italian whites - but not Pinot Grigio which is a bit lightweight for a creamy sauce and mash

Photo ©freeskyline at shutterstock.com

Top wine and beer matches for game

We Brits have always had a reputation for liking our wines old and our game high but times have changed. Today the key factor in matching game tends to be not how ‘gamey’ it is but how it’s cooked and what is served with it.

In many restaurants now game is cooked quickly and served rare so can take a younger, more tannic wine than would have once been the case. Accompanying sauces also tend to be robust, and wine-based, bringing more full-bodied reds into play. Nevertheless the reason for serving wild game such as partridge or venison - as opposed to chicken or beef - is that it does have a distinctive flavour for which you generally pay a premium so you want to pick your wine with some care. Here are the sort of wines you might go for.

* Simply roast birds such as partridge, pheasant, or grouse with simple accompaniments (e.g. roast potatoes, bread sauce and a light gravy rather than a heavy wine-based jus)
These remain the ideal opportunity to bring out a serious bottle of burgundy, a mature red Bordeaux or their New World equivalents (see here) If you like your birds underdone a younger wine may be a more flattering accompaniment. A good Chianti is always a reliable match for more everyday occasions.

The best wine pairings for partridge

Belgian sour red ales such as Rodenbach are also delicious with simply roast game.

* more elaborate game roasts with foie gras and/or truffles or a concentrated ‘jus’
Similar wines to the above but from a more recent vintage. The richer accompanying flavours can handle a more tannic wine.

* pheasant casseroled with apples
Apples tend to lead in the direction of a white (a dry Riesling with a couple of years’ bottle age would be perfect) rather than a red, particularly if the sauce has some added cream. You could equally well serve a French cidre bouché (semi-sparkling cider) or a gueuze (a Belgian lambic beer brewed with wild yeasts) especially if you’re serving braised cabbage as an accompaniment.

The best wine pairings for pheasant

* pot-roast pheasant
With any other flavourings or a red wine sauce a robust red should work well, especially reds that contain Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Tempranillo or Malbec. (So good quality Côtes du Rhône Villages, southern French reds and Rioja all make good choices, and a wine like Côte Rôtie a sublime one). I’d avoid very muscular young reds which are likely to overwhelm the flavour of the meat.

* Venison
Generally you can serve similar wines to those you would serve with beef though as the game flavour is more pronounced you might want to choose accompanying wines with a slightly gamey flavour of their own. Good examples would be Hermitage, Bandol and Ribera del Duero (or other examples of mature Syrah or Mourvèdre) though be careful of flavour overload with very concentrated sauces. Sometimes it can be better to serve a slightly lighter (though still well-structured) wine when your sauce is particularly dense and rich.

The best wine pairings for venison

So far as beer is concerned, venison dishes can be an excellent match for porter, a strong Trappist ale like Chimay or a French bière de garde.

* Cold game/game pie
As with simply roast game this is a great opportunity to drink your favourite red burgundy but cold game is also a treat with a full bodied vintage rosé Champagne such as Ruinart (or, of course, Krug). If your game is in a salad (like a warm pigeon salad or a smoked duck or venison one) you could also try a sour cherry beer such as kriek.

Vegetables with game
Vegetables that will flatter fine wines include mashed potatoes and pureed root vegetables such as celeriac (good combined with potato) and parsnips. Carrots and mushrooms also work well. Take care though with braised cabbage particularly red cabbage cooked with sugar and vinegar which can be a wine killer. (Fruity young reds like Shiraz, Barbera or Zinfandel should survive)

What to pair with Camembert: 5 great drink matches

Although it seems similar in style to Brie, Camembert is a trickier cheese to pair with a slightly funky edge that can clash with many wines, particularly reds.

Fortunately, coming from Normandy there is another option and that is cider and other apple based drinks such as Pommeau and Calvados, depending on how well-matured your Camembert is. If you don’t drink and the cheese is mild apple juice is actually a very good pairing.

Here are my top picks:

Cider

The obvious ‘terroir’-based match. The slight bitterness of cider apples suits Camembert perfectly particularly if you’re eating the rind. Sparkling cider is possibly even better . . .

Pommeau

Stronger than cider, this blend of cider and calvados is ideal when your cheese has reached the oozy stage.

Champagne

Maybe that’s a surprise but the bubbles really work with a gooey Camembert, especially if it’s been baked

Chenin Blanc

Has a touch of apple itself and generally the weight and smoothness to partner the cheese provided it’s not got too mature. Loire chenins such as Montlouis and Vouvray are relatively local anyway or try a Chenin Blanc from South Africa

A soft fruity red

If you want to drink red go for one with a good whack of bright berry fruit like a New Zealand Pinot Noir, a Chilean Merlot or a Carmenère. I’d aim for one of 13-13.5% ABV. You don’t want too big and tannic a wine - or one that’s too light, acidic or weedy.

Tip: Camembert is a cheese to eat when it's fully matured. Keep it too long though and it will become bitter

Wine with Turkey: Six Crowd-Pleasing Pairings

You may already have your own favourite wine pairing for turkey but if you’re looking for inspiration here are some wines that I think go with turkey best.

Red or white wine with turkey? It depends.

The challenge with pairing wine with turkey is what else you serve with it - a full-flavoured, fruity, sometimes spicy stuffing, tart cranberry sauce and an array of vegetables (sprouts and carrots at a minimum) that means you probably have about a dozen different flavours on your plate. That doesn’t mean you can’t pick a white or rosé but it does suggest something full and fruity that can cope with the onslaught.

The other consideration should be who you have round the table as both Thanksgiving and Christmas tend to be multi-generational gatherings involving older members of the family who may well be set in their ways! So it’s worth sticking to tried and tested crowd-pleasers:

Six wines that pair really well with turkey

Chateauneuf-du-Pape

Not an inexpensive option, admittedly but the impressively embossed label has a real feel-good factor and the generous alcohol of the wine will hold its own with the stuffing and sides. Don’t try to do it on the cheap though. A decent Chateauneuf costs at least £15 (on special offer) and generally well over £20.

Other southern Rhône reds

More affordable options would be appellations such as Lirac (just next door to Chateauneuf), Gigondas and Côtes du Rhône ‘village’ wines such as Vacqueyras, Séguret and Cairanne. The 2015 and ‘16 vintages were particularly good ones. A magnum would make that choice even more impressive

Other GSM (grenache/syrah/mourvèdre) blends

‘Cos that’s the base of the Chateauneuf/southern Rhône reds. You’ll also find that style of wine in the Languedoc but also in Australia and South Africa. Often with the letters GSM on the bottle.

Merlot

Time we rehabilitated Merlot which is a really delicious, crowd-pleasing wine. Look for a smooth velvety style rather than a heavily oaked one. Chile has some well-priced examples.

Sparkling Shiraz

This is what the Aussies tend to have with Christmas lunch which is of course celebrated in high summer. If you don’t have the nerve to serve it with the meal itself crack open a bottle on Boxing Day. (Straight unfizzy Shiraz is also pretty good with a hot or cold bird)

Oaked chardonnay

If you really want white wine with turkey, I suggest an oaked chardonnay. A surprise, maybe, but at a Christmas tasting I did a couple of years ago for Decanter magazine a white burgundy - a Chassagne-Montrachet - came out tops. (Limoux chardonnay is a good low cost alternative.) You need to keep the gravy relatively light, obviously, but it’s surprising how well it works. Well worth having a bottle on the table for those who prefer white wine to red.

You could obviously serve other classic wines such as red Bordeaux, Burgundy or Rioja but I personally feel they’re better with other festive meats:

Bordeaux or other cabernet blends - better with roast beef

Burgundy or other good pinot noir - better with roast duck or goose

Rioja - better with roast lamb

What I wouldn’t do is pull out some aged and venerable bottle that you’ve been keeping for a special occasion. There’s always a danger that it will disappoint and that the cranberry sauce will just slaughter it.

When it comes to cold turkey think in terms of a slightly lighter red like a pinot noir or (my own favourite) a chilled cru Beaujolais or good Beaujolais Villages. See also my post on what to drink with the turkey leftovers.

Of course, you don’t need to have wine at all. Check out these five great beer pairings for roast turkey.

So what do you drink with your turkey? I’d love to hear about your favourite wine matches in the comments or on Twitter.