The best pairings for amontillado and palo cortado sherry

Amontillado sherry has richer, nuttier flavours than a classic fino or manzanilla sherry and calls for different food matches. Think more in terms of cured meat, game and cheese than seafood and richer, meatier tapas.

Which match works best depends on the level of sweetness. An inexpensive medium-dry amontillado will tend to suggest different pairings than an aged dry amontillado which will be much drier and nuttier - arguably best sipped on its own.

Palo cortado which starts life as a fino but finishes it like an oloroso is similar calls for broadly similar pairings

Dry amontillados and palo cortados

Jamon iberico - amontillado can handle the extra richness and depth of flavour of iberico ham - and an extra bit of fat

Cheese - Aged manchego is classic but amontillado is also surprisingly good with cheddar, aged Comté and similar cheeses and parmesan as you can see from this rocket and parmesan salad

Almonds and hazelnuts - try it with the Middle-eastern dip dukkah

Sautéed mushrooms

Kidneys

Albondigas (meatballs)

Patés, especially game patés

Cold game pie

Smoked duck and other smoked meats

Pork scratchings

Salad with sautéed chicken livers

Chestnuts

Jerusalem artichokes

Roast root veg

Braised rabbit

Chicken yakitori

Peach - according to Heston Blumenthal!

Medium-dry sherries work best with cheese, patés and even plain fruit cakes like Dundee cake. The same suggestions would apply to medium-dry montillas

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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

 

 

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What type of wine goes with blue cheese?

There are two wine pairings for blue cheese that are so famous that you may not think beyond them: port and stilton and roquefort and Sauternes. But does that mean that you have to drink sweet wine with blue cheese?

It’s true that wines with a touch of sweetness work well. The veining in blue cheeses has a touch of bitterness that can be deliciously offset by a dessert or fortified wine but there are other occasions on which you eat blue cheese in a savoury dish or with other ingredients when a drier white or a red wine would work better.

For example a blue cheese and fresh fig salad is delicious with a smooth Italian white wine like a Gavi di Gavi, a wine which would also work with pasta or gnocchi with a blue cheese sauce where the cheese is mellowed by the addition of milk or cream. My colleague Victoria Moore suggests Jurancon Sec with roquefort, pear and endive salad in her excellent Wine Dine Dictionary which sounds delicious too.

If you serve a burger or steak with blue cheese you’re going to want a hearty red like a cabernet sauvignon or malbec

While medium-bodied red wines can be tricky with more pungent blue cheeses such as Roquefort or Cabrales they can handle more mellow blue cheeses such as Bleu d’Auvergne or Barkham Blue or a blue cheese-topped pizza. Try a southern Italian red like a negroamaro or nero d’avola or a zinfandel.

And don’t forget that other fortified wines, not just port, go well with blues - try a medium dry amontillado or oloroso sherry or a sweet madeira.

The best wines for Stilton

Traditionally paired with vintage port but tawny port is delicious too as is Hungarian Tokaji

8 great drinks to match with Stilton

The best wines for Roquefort

Sauternes is the classic pairing but there are other sweet wines from within or just outside the Bordeaux region which would work equally well - Monbazillac for example or a late harvest sauvignon or semillon from elsewhere.

The best wine pairings with Roquefort cheese

The best wines for Gorgonzola

It depends if it’s mild (dolce) or stronger (piccante). With a creamy Gorgonzola you could even drink a prosecco or other sparkling wine - though I’ve also successfully paired it with orange wine. With a stronger Gorgonzola try a Vin Santo.

With milder blue cheeses like Cambozola or Cornish Blue

With these cheeses where the blue character is less apparent try a rosé or a light fruity red like a pinot noir.

Top wine matches for Cornish Blue

4 other good drinks to pair with blue cheese

Stouts and porters

Barley wine (which is a strong beer, not a wine)

Sloe or damson gin

Whisky - especially Islay whisky with Roquefort and other salty blues

Pairing wine and cheese: six ways to do it better

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The best wine pairings for peppers

Peppers or bell peppers, as they’re also known, crop up in so many dishes, that you may well have wondered what wine goes best with them - or even if they’re the element of the dish you need to match.

It depends partly on the colour and partly on whether or how you’ve cooked with them or served them raw. In general I tend to think raw peppers pair best with a white or rosé and cooked peppers with a red wine but that’s not a hard and fast rule

Of course there are also hot peppers which I’ve touched on here but which will be the subject of another post.

Wine with red peppers

Red peppers have the most distinctive flavours of the pepper family, developing a rich sweetness as they cook, especially if they’re grilled or roasted

Raw peppers as crudités or in a salad. A crisp dry white or a rosé

Grilled and roasted peppers

Much richer and sweeter. They could also be accompanied by other big flavours such as garlic and anchovies as in the classic Piedmontese peppers or this roasted red pepper and anchovy salad from chef José Pizarro. I’d be inclined to go for a young rioja or mencia or a juicy young grenache but a robust Spanish rosado would also work. If you’re drinking white wine I’d choose something with a bit of weight like a New Zealand sauvignon blanc or Rueda.

Stuffed peppers

Yes, the pepper element is important but it also depends on the stuffing. If it’s some kind of meat I’d go for a medium-bodied Italian red, a young rioja. zinfandel or a Côtes du Roussillon. Or a merlot. If you stuff them with grains like quinoa or fish as in this stuffed peppers with brandade (salt cod) which worked brilliantly well with a hunter valley sémillon, you might be more inclined to drink a crisp fruity white.

Red pepper soup

More likely to be red pepper and tomato soup like this one - it might even have a bit of a spicy kick. Dry whites normally pair well with soup so I’d probably go for something like a picpoul or an albarino but the other suggestions I’ve made for roast red peppers should work too.

Pasta with red pepper sauce

Similar ingredients and flavours to the above (as in this BBC Good Food recipe) but because it’s pasta you might feel inclined to go for a red - pretty well anything Italian and inexpensive (so not top Chianti or amarone) would work

Yellow and orange peppers

Usually milder than red peppers but I suggest following the suggestions above

Mixed peppers

Quite a few dishes such as chicken with peppers involve an assortment of peppers or, in the case of ratatouille other summer vegetables like courgettes and aubergines too. Both are quite robust so I’d go for a hearty southern French, Spanish or Italian red (Sicilian would be good) - the sort I recommend with grilled or roasted peppers.

Wine with green peppers

Green peppers are vegetal rather than sweet and I think generally better suited to a fruity white like a verdejo or a sauvignon blanc but there is also a green or bell pepper component in cabernet sauvignon that may make that work as well particularly if the peppers are stuffed with lamb. If you’re interested, here’s the science.

Wine with hot peppers

I’m not so much talking chillies here as spicy or potentially spicy peppers like the Spanish Pimientos de Padron or pickled guindillas, also Spanish. I think chilled dry fino or manzanilla sherry goes well with both but you could also drink a sharp white wine like a txacoli or a vinho verde with them especially as they’re likely to be part of a tapas line-up. Or a strong dry Spanish rosado.

See also 6 of the best Spanish wines to pair with tapas

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