Top wine pairings with goat cheese (chèvre)

Since goats cheese and Sauvignon Blanc is such a great match it might seem redundant to think of anything else but despite its reputation for being . . . well . . . goaty, goats cheese is easy to pair with other wines.

Unless you’re slathering it on a cracker as a sneaky snack the chances are you’re going to be eating it with something else - in a salad with asparagus, say, with roast red peppers or beetroot or on a cheeseboard with other cheeses - unless you’re in Provence where they don’t seem to serve any other kind.

With all those dishes it helps to have a wine with some fresh acidity of its own so here are my suggestions:

Sauvignon Blanc - you know that already. Doesn’t matter hugely where it’s from though I personally think the white wines of the Loire like Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé and even Sauvignon de Touraine work especially well. (The classic pairing is a Sancerre and a Crottin de Chavignol.)

Wines that taste like Sauvignon Blanc so other citrussy whites such as Bacchus, Côtes de Gascogne, Rueda and other crisp whites such as Albarino, Alvarinho, Chablis, Picpoul de Pinet, Pinot Grigio and other unoaked Italian whites, dry Riesling, Gruner Veltliner . . . (See what I mean about it being versatile?)

Crisp dry rosé especially Provençal rosé. Provence-style rosé and goats cheese is a great pairing (think summer picnics!)

Fresh, fruity reds such as Beaujolais and other gamays, inexpensive red burgundy and Loire cabernet francs like Chinon, Saumur and Saumur-Champigny

So basically any wine - white, red or rosé - that’s young, fresh, unoaked and lightly chilled will go with goats cheese. Which makes it the perfect summer cheese.

PS If you’re a cheese aficionado you may be a fan of more mature goats’ cheeses in which case I would go for an aged white like a Chablis or a mature Alsace riesling too as you can see from this post.

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What type of wine pairs best with Vietnamese food? (updated)

Wednesday marked not only the start of the Chinese New Year but the Vietnamese New Year celebrations too - known as Tet.

As in China there are certain foods which are traditional to the occasion such as pickled vegetables and candied fruits, none of which are particularly wine-friendly but in general I find Vietnamese food, with its milder heat and fragrant herbal flavours easier to match than Thai.

Given that quite a lot of the dishes are food you’d pick up on the street you might not have a glass of wine conveniently to hand but wine, particularly dry white wine, works surprisingly well. 

Which grape varieties though?

The grape variety I’ve generally found goes best overall with Vietnamese food where several dishes are generally served at the same time is Austrian grüner veltliner, a combination I discovered a good few years ago now at The Slanted Door in San Francisco.

Its own slightly herbal, green pepper character seems to complement the herbal notes in many Vietnamese dishes perfectly.

Other good options are dry riesling - you need slightly less sweetness than for the hot/sweet/sour flavours of Thai food and dry whites such as albarino, muscadet and assyrtiko especially with lighter dishes like summer rolls and Vietnamese chicken salad such as this one from Uyen Luu.

I’d avoid rich chardonnays although young unoaked Chablis would work perfectly well

Sparkling wine would also be an easy drinking option - an occasion when a good prosecco could come into its own but other fizz such as crémant would work too 

Provence - or similar Languedoc - rosé would also go well with the lighter fresher dishes that are typical of the Vietnamese kitchen.

If you fancy a red I’d go for a light cabernet-franc-based Loire red such as a Saumur or Bourgueil, a Beaujolais Villages or other gamay or a pinot noir

Soft drinks or cocktails with an element of sharpness or sourness also hit the spot as you can see from this ginger and lemongrass cordial (Bottlegreen does a ready made one in the UK) 

I also remember having a delicious tamarind whisky sour with some Vietnamese fish sauce chicken wings at a restaurant called Pok Pok in Portland, Oregon. Here’s a similar recipe for the cocktail and the wings.

With pho - as with most noodle dishes with broth - I find a light lager a better pairing but again grüner veltliner or dry riesling would work perfectly well. Ditto the famous Vietnamese sandwich banh mi although Uyen Luu also suggests green tea.

Top photo © Nunung Noor Aisyah at shutterstock.com

The best wine pairings with cheese fondue, raclette and tartiflette

Even if you’re not currently on the slopes you might want to take your chance to make one of the great ski-food classics, fondue, raclette or tartiflette. 

This post dives into my choice wine pairings - and favourite recipes - for these indulgent Alpine dishes. 

All, of course, involve melted cheese which isn’t the easiest thing to pair with wine, especially reds. In general (but not always) I’d go for crisp or aromatic white wines of the kind that are popular in the regions from which these dishes originate and avoid full-bodied, tannic reds.

Here are a few wine suggestions that I think work best with fondue, raclette and tartiflette:

Cheese fondue

The best wine I’ve found for fondue is a crisp dry white such as Swiss Chasselas or a Chignin or Roussette from Savoie. These wines are relatively hard to come by, however, but other crisp dry whites can work.

Muscadet, Chablis, dry Alsace or Austrian riesling or a young grüner veltliner would all be fine. If you fancy a red make it a fresh, light-bodied one like a young red burgundy, gamay or Dole. Or a poulsard from the Jura.

And here’s my favourite fondue recipe!

Raclette

Here potatoes and sometimes cold meats are involved which mitigates the intense cheesiness. I’d still go for a similar crisp white as the above but it could take a slightly more robust red like a gamay from the Auvergne or even an inexpensive Côtes du Rhône.

Tartiflette

Image by AS Foodstudio at shutterstock.com

Tartiflette is like a super-charged gratin dauphinoise, with added bacon and Reblochon cheese. It originally comes from Savoie so again those wines I recommend with cheese fondue will work well. You could also try a savagnin or a Coteaux du Jura. (There’s a good recipe here in Felicity Cloake’s excellent ‘The Perfect’ series for the Guardian. Or try my slightly less time consuming après-work tartiflette. 

Top image © stockcreations at shutterstock.com

5 wine and drink pairings for roast pork belly (updated)

Pork belly has become a cheap and popular main course so what should you drink with it? It depends how you cook it. but it doesn’t have to be wine . . .

If it’s roasted you can basically go with the same kind of pairings as you would with any roast pork. For example 

*Medium-dry cider. It may not be the flashiest choice but it’s top of my list. Pork and cider go together like - well, pork and cider. Pear cider (perry) works well too, especially sparkling perry

*India Pale Ale, particularly heavily hopped American IPAs with a touch of sweetness. A brilliant match

*German riesling. Pork belly is quite fatty so the delicious sharpness of a Riesling really cuts through especially when the pork is served with apple or spiced as it is in this recipe. Alsace and Austrian Rieslings work well too

*Beaujolais and other Gamay-based reds. Bright and fruity. Just the job.

*Southern French Grenache-based reds such as Côtes du Rhône work well if you fancy a more full-bodied red.

If pork belly is stir-fried and given more of a sweet and sour treatment like this dish with ginger and plums I’d also go for a riesling  though maybe one from New Zealand or Washington State in the US. Or even a gewürztraminer (ginger works well with gewürz.)

With char siu (Chinese BBQ pork) I’d be more inclined to go for a pinot gris or a fruity red like a light grenache or garnacha.

Image credit: Pixabay