The best wine pairings for turbot (updated)

Turbot is a luxurious fish you might well be serving over the holiday period, most probably roast or seared. But what sort of wine should you pair with it?

Personally I prefer a white to a red - a serious white burgundy or other equally lush full-bodied white.

It’s often served with a deeply savoury sauce, sometimes with mushrooms that suits a white with some bottle age.

Here are some whites to choose from

*oaked white Rioja - consistently undervalued, rich savoury fish dishes like this are where white rioja comes into its own.

*top quality Douro whites

*white Hermitage or white Saint Joseph - depending on your budget (in other words a Roussanne or Marsanne or blend of the two). And, by similar logic, a white Chateauneuf-du-Pape which is what we drank for my last big birthday as you can see here. 

*white Roussillon wines based on Grenache Gris and/or Grenache Blanc - or white Minervois as in this post

*white burgundy or other serious chardonnay - particularly if you’re serving your turbot with a buttery sauce such as beurre blanc. That includes aged Grand Cru Chablis

*aged dry white Bordeaux

*good quality Soave

*top quality vintage champagne is always a winner with rich fish. Here are 3 pairings from a Leclerc Briant lunch that made my Match of the Week slot.

*sake (I haven’t tried this I must confess but it strikes me it would work really well)

If you do want to drink red I’d suggest a mature red burgundy or other good quality pinot noir though there’s no reason why you shouldn’t drink a more robust red like a Bordeaux if the sauce includes red wine.

Image ©Jacek Chabraszewski at shutterstock.com

Eight great drink pairings for sushi

You might think sushi would be tricky to pair with wine but surprisingly that’s not the case. And there are other drinks that work too.

There are of course different toppings and fillings for sushi, some mild, some, like eel, quite strongly flavoured but I don’t think you can be chopping and changing with each bite you eat.

What you do have to bear in mind is that you’re not only dealing with raw fish: sushi has a touch of sweetness to take account of too. And it also depends how much soy and wasabi you add.

Here are eight drinks I think make good pairings:

Koshu and other crisp whites. If you haven’t come across koshu you will soon. It’s a crisp clean white wine that’s made in Japan from the koshu grape. Marks & Spencer even stocks one. Other crisp whites like Muscadet, Chablis, Gruner Veltliner, Gavi and even Pinot Grigio work well too.

Low dosage champagne and other dry sparkling wines such as drier styles of prosecco and Crémant d’Alsace. Delicious.

Sake Not traditional in Japan (you don’t drink sake with rice) but it’s a brilliant combo, as is fino sherry. Chilled rather than warm.

Dry riesling - very dry - so think Alsace, Austria and southern Germany rather than the Mosel or more fruity rieslings from Australia or New Zealand.

Oaked Portuguese white - can’t explain exactly why but it works especially with the more full-on flavours of modern sushi (especially if it involves sesame) See this post about a meal I had in Foz.

Young red burgundy - now this may come as a surprise. It was recommended to me by a Japanese sommelier. I still prefer a white or sparkling wine with sushi but if you prefer a red this is the type to go for. (And see this very successful pairing with red Sancerre.)

Japanese beer - not the most flavourful but it feels right. Or other light lagers. A big sweet hoppy craft beer would be too overpowering.

Genmaicha (roasted rice) tea - refreshingly nutty. Served warm rather than piping hot. Green tea (though not matcha) is nice too.

image by Natalia Lisovskaya at shutterstock.com

8 foods you might be surprised to find pair brilliantly with sake

If you drink sake already you probably have your favourite pairings - sashimi, sushi, and yakitori among them -but it goes with more than just Japanese food albeit dishes that may be prepared with Japanese techniques or seasonings

What makes sake unique? As I discovered on a recent trip with the Akashi-based brewery Akashi Tai it’s low in acidity, but relatively high in alcohol which enables it to partner foods as intensely flavoured as grilled meat. There’s often a touch of sweetness too that works well with other Asian dishes and sweet flavoured root veg and, of course, dishes that are rich in umami.

Obviously it's going to depend on the type of sake and the temperature at which you serve it but since sake is complicated enough for the novice I'm not going to be too prescriptive about the pairings just give you the odd nudge where I think it would be helpful.

Just find a decent sake - serve it cool rather than warm - and give it a try!

Steak
Especially with soy or miso and garlic chips (rather than with a red wine sauce, say) as you can see from this recent post . just look for one with a slightly higher alcohol content and lower polishing ratio  

Salad 
Particularly with a creamy dressing or parmesan as in a caesar salad. Sparkling sake would be delicious with a creamy burrata

Peanut-based dressings
i.e sauces and dips like gado gado and satay sauces especially if they have a touch of sesame too

Root veg
like carrots, celeriac, parsnips and sweet potato particularly when roasted which brings out their natural sweetness. (It works with a root vegetable soup too.

Other sweet veg
Such as butternut squash and pumpkin. Try a butternut squash risotto.

Pasta
Maybe that’s not so surprising as pasta is basically noodles by another name and many sauces contain ingredients that are sake-friendly but it still might not be the first bottle you reach for. I probably wouldn’t with most tomato based sauces but a daiginjo sake would be great with with a seafood pasta such as spaghetti vongole

Also any pasta sauce that is umami (deeply savoury). With mushrooms, for instance, or Nigella’s famous Marmite spaghetti.

Or with this spaghetti dish with kosho and roasted parmesan rind

Fried chicken 
I know I know, there are so many drinks that work with fried chicken - beer, champagne and cava among them but sparkling sake should be on your list. Especially when the chicken's served plain or with a creamy sauce though I think a katsu sauce can be a bit overwhelming (better with beer).

Apparently fried chicken is the traditional Christmas Eve food in Japan. I could adopt that habit!

Cheese
There’s a lactic element to sake that mirrors that in cheese especially aged hard cheeses like - parmesan and grano padano but it’s also good with alpine cheeses like Gruyère and Comté

More on this in a couple of weeks after I’ve been to a sake and cheese pairing at La Fromagerie in London for which there still seem to be tickets available if you want to experience the combination for yourself.

Oysters
Not maybe a match you’d have thought of but a remarkably successful one as you can see from this report from sake expert Shirley Booth. (It's the glutamates in both sake and oysters that's the key)

For more conventional sake pairings see some of the archive features on the site.

How the world’s best sakes pair with food 

Why sake pairs so well with food

Top photo by Oksana Mizina at shutterstock.com

Six of the best drink pairings for kale

Although there's not quite the feverish frenzy there was about kale a couple of years ago there's still a lot of kale lurve around.

The reason of course is its well-documented health benefits which might suggest you shouldn’t be drinking alcohol with it at all but there are many dishes containing kale with which it would be pleasant to have a drink.

With its slightly bitter taste kale also has an impact on wine when it's served as a vegetable: it’ll tend to make any wine taste sweeter so you may want to serve it with both reds and whites that have a good level of acidity. That effect can be counteracted though if you serve it with something like chorizo that has a stronger flavour. Then you should match the chorizo rather than the kale

* Apple-flavoured drinks especially apple juice and cider work well with salads that include kale such as this one. Or try a grüner veltliner.

* Fresh carrot and beet-based juices

* Italian white wines such as Gavi are good with creamy pasta dishes with cavolo nero

* Fresh-tasting natural reds such as young syrah and mencia from Spain’s Bierzo region are good with hearty stews and soups that are based on kale. If they include a spicy sausage like chorizo you could serve a fuller bodied red like a Rioja crianza or a red from Portugal’s Alentejo region.

*Tuscan reds like Chianti work well when kale is used as an accompaniment for lamb or game with polenta

* Give kale an oriental spin with soy or sesame and you could drink a sake

And of course kale can be served IN a drink rather than paired WITH one. You’ll find some good ideas on my friend Monica Shaw’s blog Smarter Fitter blog.

If you enjoyed this post you may also find my posts on pairing wine and cauliflower and wine and brussels sprouts useful.