Matching wine and tapas

Lucy Bridgers selflessly devotes herself to finding the perfect pairing for tapas on a tapas crawl through some of London's leading tapas bars

"Finding a good wine match for tapas doesn’t sound that difficult. However, last week on a ‘Tapas Safari’ organised by Wines of Rioja, I was reminded just how tricky it can be to find drinks that suit such a broad range of flavours and textures. You need something sufficiently refreshing and versatile to handle all this.

Currently there is a burgeoning tapas scene in London, but unlike Spanish cities, you can’t stroll from bar to bar. We were ferried around in taxis to several exciting new venues and were only able to make it to three of the five on our itinerary. Nevertheless, it gave us a great opportunity to compare dishes and drinks and reach some interesting conclusions.

At our first port of call – Bar Esteban in Crouch End – a Decenio Rioja Crianza was an easy, juicy partner to ham and cheese croquetas and little tiny chorizos cooked in cider. I always find that pimenton augments the spiciness of Garnacha and Tempranillo and this was certainly the case here, giving the wine a zippy lift. One of the specialities of the bar, the Canarian potato dish, papas arrugadas, was another hit with the Rioja, with its peppery sauces, as was the romesco sauce served with grilled chicken.

Following owner Stephen Lironi’s advice, we also tasted a couple of sherries, Gonzales Byass’s 12 year old Palo Cortado Leonor and Fernando Castilla’s 30 year old dry Oloroso. Tangy and nutty, both worked brilliantly with the food and I particularly loved the Palo Cortado with the chicharrones (pork belly cooked with cumin, lemon and salt). The complex savoury Oloroso deftly cut through the rich fattiness of the jamon and chorizo. No wonder sherry is often seen as the default choice for tapas.

From Crouch End we moved the new branch of Camino’s in Blackfriars where we were ushered downstairs to their lively basement cava bar. Here we enjoyed Conde de Haro cava with some very spicy patatas bravas. The elegant refreshing fizz was ideal – very happy with the crunchy fried potatoes and spicy heat.

Back upstairs in the main restaurant, we had another stand out dish, Iberico pig burger with caramelised onions and Idiazabal cheese. This was partnered rather classily with Remelluri Rioja Reserva 2009. Compared with the crianzas we’d been drinking, the reserva had a more defined structure with fresher acidity that tapas cries out for.

Our final destination was the newly opened Bravas Tapas in St Katharine’s Dock. We were tiring by this point (ahem), but genial owner Bal Thind presented us with some distinctive modern tapas from chef Victor Garvey. Highlights here included morcillas de burgos sliders – deliciously charred and crunchy; crispy foie gras stuffed quail with Iberian pork belly and syrupy PX sauce in an egg for dunking; decadent foie gras ‘Crema Catalana’ topped with cherries and Belota ham; patatas brava with whipped-to-order alioli and, most memorably, gazpacho ‘truffles’ – encased in solidified olive oil with cocoa.

With this extravaganza, it was a shame we didn’t have more of the cava handy to keep the palate refreshed. Apparently at El Bulli, cava was often regarded as the safest option to see diners through an evening of Ferran Adrià’s creations.

My conclusions from this long and entertaining evening? If you’re with a group of friends, why not order a bottle of each colour and share them around? Crisp dry whites work well with fried and cheese-based tapas e.g. a personal favourite – the ever-versatile Torres Viña Sol. You won’t go far wrong with Albariño either.

Classic gutsy rosado is at ease with strong garlic, tomato and red pepper, as well as chorizo and prawns (maybe the colour comes into play here).

With reds, as we discovered during our ‘Safari’ Rioja reserva has a firmer, more defined presence than the easier drinking crianzas and is worth trading up to, particularly for grilled meat and smoky pimenton. Alternatively, follow the Spanish examples of sherry and cava.

You can try out different riojas with tapas yourself at the Tapas Fantasticas festival on London’s Southbank on the weekend of June 14th/15th. A number of London’s leading restaurants will also be offering a complimentary tapa with every glass of rioja purchased in the run-up to the festival* including Ametsa, Anise at Cinnamon Club, Bread Street Kitchen, Fino, Merchant’s Tavern, Oxo Tower and Sager & Wilde.

* until June 16th 2014

Lucy Bridgers is a regular contributor to matchingfoodandwine.com and has her own blog Wine, Food & Other Pleasures. She visited Bar Esteban, Camino Restaurant and Bar and Bravas Tapas as a guest of Wines of Rioja.

Top image © pat_hastings - Fotolia.com

What impact does garlic have on wine pairing?

If you’re the kind of person (like me) who puts garlic into practically everything you cook you may regard this question as an irrelevance but some dishes are much more garlicky than others.

The key issue is how long it’s cooked - if at all. Add a clove of garlic to a slow-cooked braise or stew and you’ll hardly notice it. Use it uncooked in a salad dressing or a garlicky mayonnaise (aioli) and you certainly well.

What you need with raw garlic is acidity. Just as lemon and garlic are natural bedfellows so are citrussy white wines like Sauvignon Blanc, other crisp fresh whites like Picpoul de Pinet and Italian whites like Vermentino or Falanghina. Even Chablis works well with dishes like Chicken Kiev.

Dry champagne, especially blanc de blancs champagne is pretty good too. I remember on a champagne trip once have garlicky snails with Taittinger and it was brilliant. There are cheaper sparkling wines that would do the same trick.

Strong dry rosé - with the emphasis on dry - works well with aioli or the Spanish allioli. I’d personally go for a southern French rosé from an appellation like Costières de Nîmes or, if you’re willing to spend a bit more a Bandol rosé or a Tavel. Dry Spanish rosados are great too.

Reds are less successful, in my opinion, with raw garlic but great with garlicky dishes that have been slow-cooked. Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre - or a blend of all three work particularly well as do Italian reds although the Italians don’t tend to use a huge amount of garlic in their cooking. Full-bodied Shiraz and Malbec will also take a good whack of garlic in their stride.

And finally sherry - good old sherry - which somehow crops up in every list of wine matches. Manzanilla or fino sherry is great with garlicky tapas. It’s that acidity again.

Top tip: if garlic is included in a spicy dish like a curry the spices are usually more important than the garlic in terms of a wine match.

Christmas fizz under £15 (updated)

If you're looking for a sparkling wine or champagne for a party here's my pick of what's available under £15 in ascending order of price. I've deliberately picked that figure rather than £10 as I haven't found a champagne I really rate under the £10 mark.

To repeat my usual caveat take ‘half price' and 'better than half price' offers with a pinch of salt and remember, in the case of champagne, even a £10 discount can still leave a bottle overpriced.

Asda Extra Special Vintage Cava on ‘rollback’ at £5 until January 3rd

Probably the cheapest drinkable fizz around this Christmas

Cava Brut Heretat El Padruell on offer at Marks & Spencer at £5.99 until December 25th

Much more personality than most cheap cava - attractively fruity rather than yeasty. A good party wine

Aldi Cremant de Jura £6.99

Very decent light, fragrant fizz in a super-smart bottle. A bargain.

Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Prosecco Conegliano on offer at £7.32 a bottle until 1/1/13.

Not amazing but a perfectly pleasant, clean-tasting prosecco that would be great for making cocktails.

Tesco Finest Vintage Cava Brut Nature 2010 565 stores (currently on offer at £7.49 until 1/1/13)

Unusual in that it’s almost totally dry (most fizz has an added sugar solution) so fresher and fruitier than most cavas

Cordoniu Seleccion Raventos (on offer at £7.99 at Majestic)

I much prefer Cordoniu's wines to fellow industry giant Freixenet's and this handsomely bottled smooth creamy cava is a great deal at the price. The only problem possibly being fitting the large unusually shaped bottles in the fridge if you're chilling several down. The basic Cordoniu brut (widely available at £6.99) is also good value.

La Corte del Pozzo Prosecco Brut 2010, Fasoli Gino £9.50 Adnams, £8.55 if you buy a case

Hurrah! A prosecco with personality. gently sparkling but with a deliciously honeyed flavour. (It's made from organic grapes) And I like the rather sexy-looking black bottle.

Jacob's Creek Trilogy Cuvée Brut on a 3 for the price of 2 offer at Ocado at £12.99 a bottle (which makes 3 bottles £8.66 each) Until 11/12. £9.99 Majestic

A surprisingly classy sparkler from Aussie giant Jacob’s Creek made from the classic champagne grape varieties. Better than many cheap champagnes.

Jansz rosé currently on offer at slurp.co.uk (£10.95), Fraziers Solihull (£11.99) and Hennings, Sussex (£12.25) and others - see wine-searcher.com

A delicious Tasmanian rosé which I rediscovered at the recent Dartmouth Food Festival where it was/is the house fizz at Brown's hotel. Really drinkable.

Heidsieck Blue Top Dry Monopole (£14.49 Tesco, £15 Asda)

This handsome looking bottle is one of the best big names you'll find round about this price. Full, toasty and rich - you know you're drinking the real thing.

Sainsbury’s Blanc de Noirs in magnum (down to £29.99 until 1/1/13 = £14.99 a bottle. Note the offer isn't as good on the 75cl size bottle)

A consistently good own-label champagne that totally over-delivers at this price - a richer, more full-bodied cousin of the supermarket’s lighter, more elegant but slightly pricier Blanc de Blancs (though this is now also on offer at £14.98 until 1/1/13) You could happily drink it with a meal.

Tesco Finest Premier Cru Champagne (on offer at £14.99 until 1/1/14).

Another reliable stalwart that keeps picking up awards. A lighter, more elegant style than the Blanc de Noirs - a good party champagne

Nicolas Feuillatte brut Grande Reserve (£14.99 Sainsbury's)

I must confess this hasn't been my favourite champagne house in the past but I haven't tasted this cuvée and you can't argue at the price. Tesco has a similar bottling at £14.99.

And for £15 . . .

Just topping the £15 mark, Piper Heidsieck Brut is currently on promotion at £15 at Asda, Sainsbury's has the perfectly decent Etienne Dumont brut for £15 and Duval Leroy's Fleur de Champagne, from the same house which makes Sainsbury's own label fizz is £15.99 at Waitrose.

PS Since I flagged up this post on Twitter a number of merchants and others have posted their own favourites. I haven't tasted them so can't recommend them personally but you might want to give them a go:

@winesonlyadrink "Victoria Sunnycliff brut - one of the best cheap party fizzes I've tasted"

@rieslingnut "Mas Macia brut nature cava from fermi bohigas. 24 months on lees, zero dosage. Target price £10-£11"

@The_Haciendas "We love the Mas de Monistrol Vintage Brut and Rose. Both at £13.99"

@Chris_Giles "Undarraga Rose, a bit of a Majestic bargain at £5.99."

@KieronGailliard "How about a Blanquette - classy and refreshingly different! http://bit.ly/TH6xL1"

@staffanahlgren "Camille Braun Crémant d'Alsace"

@gastrolad "lindauer brut nv usually goes down well" (I agree though prefer the rosé)

@m2comms "Sainsburys TTD Pinot Rosé & also their Marques de Montoya Vintage Cava Rosé (but which has the WORST label/bottle ever!)"

@vivinowines "Cava Marrugat is great for parties http://ow.ly/fOz9z Brut, but not overly dry"

@TonyRodgers70 "How about Txakoli? A little unconventional but bone dry is good at this time of year, what with rich foods etc"

@JascotsWine " favourite party sparkler? - @Simonsig_Estate 's Kaapse Vonkel http://bit.ly/QENdAs"

@koyahPR "J&L Charlemagne 1921 http://bit.ly/Vx0k5U is a delicious sparkling wine and great value at £14.50"

@tenacrewines "Ahem - http://ten-acre.com/wines/prosecco-di-valdobbiadene-frizzante-val-mesdi-frozza-nv/ … "

@portovinowines "there's our 2006 Quinta Romiera , Methode Champenoise from Bucelas. £15 a bottle . Stunning value. http://Portovino.co.uk "

Image ©Kesu - Fotolia.com

Pairing rosé champagne and dim sum

Is rosé champagne a good match with dim sum? Our roving correspondent Lucy Bridgers retains admirable control of her critical faculties while being plied with successive vintages of Bollinger's Grande Année . . .

Lucy writes: The idea of pairing rosé Champagne and dim sum sounds encouraging. Dim sum usually involves a range of textures and flavours – some very powerful, such as garlic and chilli. As a table wine (ie without any sparkle), dry rosé can be a versatile choice (think how adaptable it is with tapas) and as a sparkling rosé and Champagne in particular, the effervescence has a refreshing and uplifting effect on the palate and it offers a great sense of occasion.

Recently I had the chance to explore this combination at a lunch organised by Bollinger at Yauatcha restaurant in London’s Soho. We were served a selection of vintage rosés. All delicious on their own, but some more successful with the food than others.

We started with La Grande Année Rosé 1995 (magnum) with Chinese chive and prawn dumpling, crystal dumpling wrap, and scallop shui mai. The 1995 had a brick tinged salmon colour and complex aromas of wild strawberries, honey and cream, finishing with an appetising sweet-sour tang – still surprisingly fresh and youthful, despite its maturity. However, with the food, the complexity was masked. The chive and prawn dumpling worked best, as long as you went easy on the chilli dip.

The second wine was La Grande Année Rosé 2002 – fresh, mineral and more tightly structured than the 1995. This was served with soft shell crab, venison puff, and lobster dumpling. It struggled with the strong flavours, getting a bit lost, although it was a fresh and elegant partner to the lobster dumpling. The more concentrated 1995 was a better match for the sweet meat in the venison puff and the soft shell crab which had a lot of chilli heat.

In contrast, La Grande Année Rosé 2004 had more vibrant youthful fruit that worked better with the food. Like the 1995, it had a tasty tangy quality nicely suited to dim sum, especially the dishes with bigger flavours. The menu continued with steamed wild prawn, Szechuan wonton, baked chicken with aubergine, and egg fried rice with long bean. Steering it away from the spicy sauces, the 2004 was particularly good with the prawn, revealing how well it would go with unadorned crustacea. Lobster would be a deliciously luxurious choice for this wine.

As a curiosity, they also served the 2004 and 2009 vintages of their Pinot-based red, Côte aux Enfants. At Bollinger, about 5 percent of this well-coloured, silky wine is used to create the rosé (theirs is a blended rosé, rather than made using the saignée method). The 2004 was good with the meatier dishes such as baked chicken with aubergine (which had a rich, sticky glaze) and Mongolian style venison, one of the final dishes served. (The 2009 is being released later this year and the 2004 came from their library of back vintages). They were interesting to taste, although for the price, smart red burgundy would be a more tempting candidate.

We finished lunch with strawberry yuzu and Bollinger Rosé (non-vintage). This non-vintage rosé had pretty strawberry and raspberry fruit, but was far too dry for the dessert.

Considering the meal as a whole, as long as you tread carefully with the chilli and garlic, rosé Champagne is an indulgent and versatile choice for dim sum.

Lucy Bridgers attended the lunch as a guest of Bollinger.