The best food and wine pairings for Valentine’s Day

If you’re planning a special meal for Valentine’s Day you may be wondering which wine to pair with your menu. I’ve picked some favourite Valentine’s Day foods and suggested some matches that should work well with them.

Asparagus

If served on its own with melted butter or a hollandaise sauce a subtle, creamy white burgundy or chardonnay would be the most seductive choice. If dressed with a vinaigrette or in a salad with seafood I’d go for a crisper white like a Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé or other top quality sauvignon blanc.

Camembert

Camembert baked in its box makes a sexy instant fondue but isn’t the easiest of dishes to pair with wine (even trickier than when it’s served cold). Funnily enough a glass of champagne - or similar style sparkling wine - works surprisingly well or go for a dry white like a Chablis.

What to pair with Camembert

Caviar (or, more likely, a caviar imitation)

Dry champagne. (Vodka is arguably better but not as romantic.)

Chocolate (dark)

There are possibilities with wine (sweet reds like Maury or Quady’s seductive Elysium being good choices - see

www.quadywinery.com) but my own preferred option with dark chocolate is a frozen shot of cherry brandy or other fruit-flavoured spirit or liqueur or a small glass of sloe or damson gin. An orange-flavoured liqueur like Grand Marnier also works well.

Chocolate (white)

An ice-cold raspberry-flavoured wine or liqueur like Southbrook Winery’s Framboise from Canada. Especially if the dessert includes raspberries.

Duck

Pinot Noir. Look to New Zealand and Chile for the best value

Ice cream (vanilla)

Tricky with wine. A toffee or chocolate-flavoured liqueur is your best bet. Very sweet PX sherry can be wonderful poured over it.

Ice cream (chocolate)

Try a coffee-flavoured liqueur like Toussaint or Kahlua.

Lobster

Good white burgundy (or other chardonnay) or vintage champagne.

Wine with lobster: 5 of the best pairings

Oysters

Champagne or Chablis. Not Guinness on Valentine’s Night, I suggest.

Best matches with oysters

Passion fruit

Can be quite sharp so you need a very sweet wine to balance it. A sweet riesling or late harvest semillon or sauvignon blanc will work well. If it’s mixed with a creamy base as in a passion fruit brulée you could drink a sweet (demi-sec) Champagne or other dessert wine. Or a passion fruit flavoured beer. (Yes, such drinks exist! Try Floris from Belgium.)

Prawns/shrimp

If you’re serving a classic prawn cocktail I suggest a dry or off-dry riesling which would also work with an Asian-style stir-fry or salad. A sparkling rosé - including champagne - would be a suitably kitsch all-pink choice.

The best pairings for prawns or shrimp

Smoked salmon

Champagne on this occasion. But see

other possibilities.

Scallops

Made for top white burgundy or other really good chardonnay. Champagne is also spot on if that’s what you’re drinking.

Top wine pairings with scallops

Steak

The best full-bodied red you can afford. Whatever turns your partner on . . .

My 5 top wine and steak pairing tips

Strawberries

If served plain and unadorned, gently sparkling Moscato d’Asti or Asti is lovely or go for the luscious

Fragola liqueur. If they’re served with cream you could serve a classic sweet wine like Sauternes.

My top pairings with strawberries

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6 versatile wine pairings for a Chinese New Year feast

Asking which wine is the best match for Chinese food is a bit like looking for the best match for European food - it in no way reflects the diversity of Chinese cuisine.

That said many of us will probably be enjoying a Chinese meal this week - either in a restaurant or from a takeaway and wonder what to drink with it.

For most westerners who don’t share the Chinese reverence for red wine, white wine is a more appealing option with the sweet-sour flavours of many popular Chinese dishes though as with other meals you may want to change wines when you switch from seafood and chicken to red meat (especially beef).

Here are my six top picks:

Sparkling wine - particularly if you’re eating dim sum or other fried dishes. Not necessarily champagne - an Australian sparkling wine with a touch of sweetness, especially a sparkling rosé will do fine.

Riesling - probably the best all-rounder with the majority of dishes as it usually has a touch of sweetness. Alsace, Austria, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Washington State - it truly doesn’t matter too much where it comes from. This off-dry Clare Valley riesling was a great hit with my Chinese New Year feast last year.

Torrontes - I’ve been struck for a while by how good floral Argentinian Torrontes is with spicy food - a less full-on alternative to gewurztraminer which goes brilliantly with some dishes (like duck) but isn’t such a good all-rounder.

Strong dry fruity rosé - such as the new wave of Portuguese rosés and Bordeaux rosé - not the pale delicate Provençal kind. Surprisingly good with Chinese food.

Pinot noir - obviously a particularly good match with crispy duck pancakes but if you choose one with a touch of sweetness such as those from Chile, New Zealand or California, flexible enough to handle other dishes too.

A generous fruity but not too tannic red - which is of course what many Chinese themselves would drink, particularly red Bordeaux. I’d probably go for a shiraz-cabernet or GSM (grenache/syrah/mourvèdre blend) myself but only with meatier dishes, dishes with aubergine or dishes in black bean sauce. A good cru Beaujolais like Morgon would be another option.

For a more extensive list of Chinese food pairings see Pairing Wine with Chinese Cuisine and The Best Pairings for a Chinese Stir-Fry.

And for some more adventurous pairings check out these sommeliers views on Serious Eats.

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6 of the best wine pairings for spaghetti carbonara

Spaghetti carbonara - spaghetti with a creamy bacon and egg sauce - is one of my all-time favourite pasta dishes but what’s the best wine pairing for it?

Remember, as usual with pasta, it’s the sauce you’re matching not the pasta shape so these suggestions would go equally well with fettucine or tagliatelle treated the same way.

Personally I’d go for a white wine rather than a red or rosé - a crisp dry Italian white at that though I’ve suggested a couple of French wines that I think work well too. Choose from one of these.

* Pinot grigio - there’s so much ropey Pinot Grigio around it’s easy to forget its virtues as a crisp, clean, immensely food-friendly white. Look out for ones from the Alto Adige region. Pinot Bianco (aka Pinot Blanc) would be good too

* Gavi di Gavi - another very popular Italian white for those who like a fuller, slightly smoother white

* Soave - same reasoning. Smooth, dry, brilliantly food-friendly.

* Picpoul de Pinet - a crisp white from the Languedoc coast that would work really well too

* Chablis - also works well with creamy sauces, and with ham

* Teroldego - a light Italian red that would rub along well if you fancied a red.

 

The best food matches for Semillon and Semillon-Sauvignon blends

One of the world’s most underrated grapes yet capable of making some of its most delicious dry whites, Sémillon isn’t on the radar for many. So if you get hold of a bottle what should you pair with it?

Although there’s a marked difference between young unoaked Sémillon and those blended with its habitual stablemate Sauvignon Blanc it helps to look at it as similar to but less pungent than Sauvignon. Without that marked green, grassy edge that can make sauvignon too much of a good thing with foods that have herbaceous note of their own such as asparagus, peas and mangetout.

If I had to sum up the ideal match in a few words think shellfish, fish and spring vegetables. Here are a few more specific suggestions:

Hunter Valley Semillon and other lighter styles

The Hunter Valley in Australia is the place to go for Semillon and has its most distinctive style. Fresh and zippy when it’s young, more complex and oily (in a nice way) as it ages this is the perfect wine for raw and lightly cooked shellfish especially with Asian flavours. (Think the delicious kind of food you get in Sydney.) Remember Hunter Valley wines are light - generally only about 11-12% ABV. Try them with:

Oysters, especially with an Asian dressing - the best match bar none

Fresh crab

Clams

Sashimi

Seafood salads

Spring veg such as asparagus and peas - a pasta primavera would work well with a Hunter Valley Semillon

Dishes with fennel

Dishes with a touch of citrus

Lightly cooked fish dishes such as seabass and razor clams

Fried soft shell crab - I owe this one to my colleague Victoria Moore

Salt and pepper squid

Young goats’ cheese or salads with goats’ cheese

For older vintages try smoked fish such as smoked salmon, smoked trout and - this is surprisingly good - kedgeree

Barossa Valley Semillon and other richer styles

Fuller and riper, often with a lick of oak, Southern Australian Semillons can take richer fish and shellfish dishes and light meats like chicken and pork - again with an Asian accent. Try:

Scallops (probably my number one choice)

Grilled lobster, prawns or Moreton Bay bugs

Salmon and salmon trout

Fish or chicken in a creamy sauce such as this kingklip with prawns and a white wine sauce I had in South Africa

Seafood risotto

Thickly sliced ham off the bone

Roast gammon

Pork or chicken satay

Other spicy but not over-hot pork dishes

Grilled and barbecued fish

Semillon-Sauvignon blends

Found chiefly in the Margaret River region of Western Australia and in the Bordeaux region of France where it’s mainly oaked

For Australian sem-sauv I’d go for much the same sort of dishes as I would for a Hunter Valley Sémillon - perhaps a shade richer or with a little more citrus. This dish of pan-fried scallops with orange braised chicory, celeriac remoulade and lotus crisps was a perfect match or you could go for scallops with a pea purée. It would also stand up to a mild Thai green curry.

With oaked white Bordeaux I’d be looking at more classic French or European-style dishes like this light raviolo of prawns, simply cooked fish in butter like a Dover sole, poached salmon or a posh fish pie.

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