The best pairings for fino and manzanilla sherry

Manzanilla, as you probably know, is a fino sherry made in the port of Sanlucar de Barrameda rather than in the cities of Jerez or Puerto de Santa Maria which gives it its characteristic salty tang.

Like fino it needs to be served chilled and drunk fresh so always buy from a shop or online retailer that has a good turnover of bottles

From a food point of view the two are very similar though I would tend to go more for manzanila with seafood and fino with meat and cheese. What both have in common is that they can handle strong flavours like garlic and chilli and tricky to pair ingredients such as asparagus and artichokes.

Both are obviously very good with Spanish cuisine (especially tapas) but lend themselves well to other dishes such as smoked salmon, fish and chips and sushi. Treat the suggestions below as just that - suggestions - and don’t be afraid to swop them around:

Food matches for manzanilla

All kinds of seafood including:

grilled and fried squid

octopus and octopus salad

mussels, especially with chorizo

anchovies

oysters

raw fish such as sashimi or tartares

fried fish (and chips)

fried soft-shell crab

fish soups

feta cheese (such as this dish of beetroot borani from Morito)

pickled fish such as mackerel en escabeche

grilled fish, especially oily fish like sardines

garlicky prawns or shrimp

smoked salmon

smoked mussels

smoked dried beef

Food pairings for fino

nuts, especially almonds

olives and olive pastes like tapenade

jamon/ham

grilled or preserved artichokes

hard sheeps’ cheeses such as Manchego

chorizo

tortilla

grilled asparagus or leeks with romesco sauce

white asparagus

pimientos de padron

clams cooked with sherry

cider-battered onions (from my good friends Dan and Elly of The Basement supper club

croquetas

tandoori salmon and teriyaki salmon

smoked eel

white gazpacho

sushi, sashimi, tempura and any kind of Japanese food where you would drink sake

Food matches for 'en rama' styles

These are unpasteurised versions of either fino or manzanilla which have a limited shelf-life but a more intense flavour and texture

richer, hot or sauced fish dishes

grilled tuna

black rice with cuttlefish arroz negro

deep-fried sweetbreads

hake with allioli (garlic mayonnaise)

Japanese food generally

 

More food and sherry matches:

• The best food pairings for dry oloroso sherry
• The best food pairings for amontillado and palo cortado sherry
• The best food pairings for sweet oloroso and PX sherry

 

 

Top photograph © delarue - Fotolia.com

15 Easter wine pairings to learn by heart

If you're wondering what wines you should buy for Easter weekend here's quick guide to what I think are the best Easter wine pairings.

As with my previous ‘learn by heart’ posts it's a simple way to remember great food and wine matches at a busy time of year. There are of course other possibilities to which the links will guide you.

Colomba Pasquale and extra dry prosecco

Colomba Pasquale is the traditional Italian Easter cake and ‘extra dry’ prosecco perversely a slightly sweeter style that is perfect with sweeter things.

Lamb and rioja

You can drink so many red wines with lamb (Chianti and Cabernet being two other favourites) but rioja is such a crowd-pleaser. I’d go for a reserva myself.

Roast chicken (or turkey) and pinot noir

Hey, it’s spring (or supposed to be) so lighten up with a brighter, fruitier red. Pinot is perfect

Easter ham and Beaujolais

Baked or roast ham or gammon could also take a pinot but I’m rooting for a good Beaujolais like a Morgon

Duck and pinot

And yes, here’s pinot noir again! But you can’t find a better pairing with duck. Especially with peas.

Roast kid and Chianti

Kid would be a traditional Mediterranean choice for the Easter feast so I’d be inclined to go for an Italian, Greek or Portuguese red. Chianti is the easy-to-memorise option.

Salmon and chardonnay

Depends how you cook it but salmon pretty well always works with chardonnay. Especially en croute or in a creamy sauce. (If it’s smoked salmon try sauvignon blanc.)

Fish pie and Chablis

Maybe you’re planning a fish pie for Good Friday? Again chardonnay is a reliable match - I’d go for a Chablis.

Asparagus and Sancerre

There are major arguments over which wine suits asparagus best but Sancerre (or Pouilly Fumé) does it for me. Especially if goats cheese is involved. Other optionshere

Scrambled eggs and champagne (or cheaper fizz)

What else are you going to drink for Easter brunch? Seriously - eggs and bubbles is the way to go. (It works with eggs benedict too)

Torta pasquale (Italian spinach and ricotta pie) and Soave

Or any other smooth dry Italian white come to that. Like Gavi. Here's a lovely recipe from Gennaro Contaldo or, following the recommendation below, from Rachel Roddy. A great option for vegetarians.

Simnel cake and orange pekoe tea

Perfect combination!

Hot cross buns and marsala

I owe this one to the Italian wine buyer at M & S Jeneve Williams. (They have a really well-priced half bottle of marsala you should try which is no doubt why they came up with the suggestion!). Nice recipe here too.

Easter eggs and Brachetto d’Aqui

If you’re scoffing the remains of the kids’ Easter eggs this sweet, gently sparkling Italian red is hard to beat. But also hard to find, unfortunately. If you’re stumped try a rosato frizzante (pink prosecco by another name though they’re not allowed to call it that)

Lemon tart and late harvest riesling

Lemon tart can be tricky with wine - the more intensely lemony the tougher it is. The trick if you want to serve a dessert wine with it? Add cream either to the tart or a good splodge over the top. Late harvest riesling has the acidity to cope

You may also find these posts useful:

What sort of food to pair with prosecco

20 food and wine pairings to learn by heart

The best wine matches with salt cod (traditional Good Friday fare in Mediterranean countries such as Spain and Portugal.)

Photo by Elena Veselova at shutterstock.com

Wine with lobster: 6 of the best pairings

There’s such an obvious wine match for lobster (great chardonnay) that you might wonder if it was worth considering anything else but there are other interesting alternatives.

Most of them are admittedly similarly weighty whites - white Rhône, oaked white Rioja, white Bordeaux and Viognier but you could if you were feeling adventurous consider a red, especially with a powerful sauce like a thermidor. A full-bodied red burgundy like Volnay should be able to cope.

Despite the fact that lobster has become a lot cheaper in recent years it’s still a luxury ingredient which makes a good excuse to splash out. Here are my top 5 choices:

Premier or grand cru Chablis

The best match with cold lobster with mayo on the evidence of this pairing I enjoyed in Ireland a few years ago with a just-caught fresh lobster from Ballycotton. No reason why you shouldn’t drink such shellfish favourites as Albarino, Sancerre or Pouilly Fumé of course

Meursault, other serious white burgundy or world class chardonnay

The ideal match for grilled lobster. Also works brilliantly with a lobster burger as you can see I discovered here.

Vintage - or good non-vintage - champagne

Great for a splash-out occasion. Particularly good with lobster and chips

Condrieu

A recent discovery as you can see from this Match of the Week. (A rare, glorious and expensive appellation for viognier, if you haven't come across it before.)

Gewurztraminer

One of the best lobster pairings ever was at a restaurant called Everest in Chicago run by an Alsace-born chef called Jean Joho. It was a dish of lobster cooked with ginger and gewurztraminer (the two have a great affinity) and served with the same wine. Ever since I’ve thought gewurz the perfect match for spicy lobster dishes.

Bandol rosé or other top-of-the-range Provençal rosé

An unusual pairing but one I think works with lobster dishes with an intense shellfish sauce like lobster thermidor or even a lobster bisque (though those will go with chardonnay too). Tavel would be another good pairing.

In the unlikely event you have any leftover lobster you may enjoy this recipe for Lobster thermidor baked potatoes from Mark Hix and there’s a ‘cheat’s’ way of jazzing up a cooked lobster here.

Image © Olga Lyubkin - Fotolia.com

The best wine pairings for anchovies

If you're an anchovy lover you'll probably go ahead and eat them whatever wine you're drinking but being both salty and fishy they certainly go with some better than others.

Whether it's a major factor depends how much of an influence they have on a dish: not much in the case of a pizza, far more in the case of anchovies served in oil or with bread and butter which is obviously all about the anchovies. Or a dish like the warm anchovy dip bagna cauda though oddly you can drink a red such as barbera or dolcetto with that. At least the locals do as you can see from this piece by Marc Millon.

It also depends if there’s meat involved. Anchovies are often used to stud roast lamb or as an accompanying sauce for rare steak as with Nigella’s anchovy elixir. I’d still be inclined though to be led by the meat rather than the anchovies though Italian reds like Chianti do seem to be particularly sympathetic to them.

And if cream is involved as it often is, for example in this celeriac and anchovy gratin, try a Chablis or a similarly mineral white burgundy such as a Saint-Aubin.

It also makes a difference whether the anchovies are salted or cured like Spanish boquerones which tend to work with a fruitier white (e.g. verdejo or sauvignon blanc) than their saltier counterparts. Often they’re part of a spread of tapas which makes sherry a good option too.

Wines to pair with salted anchovies

Manzanilla or fino sherry

If you’re a sherry fan this is a match made in heaven. From a well-chilled, freshly opened bottle.

Txakoli

Northern Spain's quirky spritzy white - if you go to San Sebastian this is what to order as you can see from this post I wrote a couple of years ago.

Other ultra-crisp, dry whites such as assyrtiko, Greco di Tufo and albarino (and Portugal’s alvarinho) work well too - the latter particularly with cured anchovies as you can see here

Dry southern French rosé, particularly from Provence

Anchovies are popular along the Mediterranean coast especially in dips like anchoiade and dry rosé is the perfect accompaniment. It’s also a good match for salade niçoise which is generally topped with an anchovy or three though I personally think caesar salad, particularly chicken caesar salad, is better with a light chardonnay (maybe because of the parmesan).

Dry vermouth

We don’t drink vermouth on its own as much as we should or perhaps I’m just speaking for myself. But with its slight herby bitterness it’s a really good pairing for anchovies. Served neat over ice with a slice of lemon.

Victoria Moore also suggests a dirty martini in her Wine Dine Dictionary which I can imagine working really well.

If you feel in the mood to eat some anchovies after reading this try this roasted red pepper and anchovy salad from José Pizarro.