So what DO you pair with a blockbuster cabernet?

Talk to chefs and sommeliers about the wines they like to match with food and only rarely will Cabernet Sauvignon crop up. Many are, in fact, quite openly critical of the blockbuster style of many modern cabs.

Even Robert Parker, when I interviewed him a few years ago, expressed a preference for simple unoaked wines from the Rhone for much of his everyday drinking. Presumably though purchasers of the new world’s top cabernets are not just buying them to lie around their cellars. Somebody out there is enjoying them - but with what?

The obvious answer would seem to be large hunks of rare, red meat but not everyone is convinced about that. “I find that simple grilled meats like steaks have insufficient power to keep up with some of these wines” admits South African chef Pete Goff-Wood of Eat in Capetown. “The only way to prevent the wine from taking over completely is to go the slow-braised route with something like oxtail or a good daube of beef.”

Some fattiness in the meat is also a help with younger cabernets. Dishes like braised belly of pork or shoulder of lamb can kick a tannic cab into touch better than a super-lean cut like fillet. That needs to be balanced with a certain amount of acidity in the view of John Campbell, chef of The Vineyard at Stockcross who has many top quality Californian Cabernets on his list. “Sherry vinegar is ideal as it allows the fruit and the tannins in the wine to overlay the dish harmoniously.”

“In general the younger the wine the saltier, sweeter and fatter the food needs to be to go well with it” says former sommelier Larry Stone, now general manager of the Rubicon Estate. Undoubtedly there is a difference between European and American palates when it comes how meat is seasoned and what is served as an accompaniment which makes the American palate more tolerant to intense fruit flavours. “American chefs like to cook with fruit and serve it as an accompaniment to savoury courses probably more than our European counterparts” says Karen Cakebread of Cakebread Cellars. “One example that comes to mind would be venison or other wild game like duck with huckleberry sauce. The wild berry flavours in the sauce act as a natural bridge to the wines picked at these higher sugar levels.”

On the other hand one of the US top experts in food and wine matching Andrea Robinson points out that bitterness can also contribute to a successful match. “Bitter-edged veggies like broccoli rabe, grilled radicchio and roasted brussel sprouts are real winners. I also find the more pungent, piney herbs like rosemary basil and thyme really work well to pull out the cedar/eucalyptus elements in these wines.” (To which I would also add mint)

Australian food writer Lyndey Milan author of ‘Balance: Matching Food and Wine’ reckons the flavours of North African cuisine are particularly sympathetic to Australian cabernets. “Red meats flavoured with sweet aromatic spices like cumin, coriander and cinnamon (not chilli) work well especially with the older ‘two tooth’ type of lamb.” Cakebread backs her up on Moroccan flavours, pointing to the softening effect salty ingredients such as capers, olives and preserved lemons can have on the tannins of more robust wines.

Richly flavoured carbs also build a bridge to big cabs. A luxurious mash with plenty of butter and cream, a rich cheesey polenta or some earthy, mealy beans all have a mouthcoating quality that will mitigate tough tannins.

The way a wine is treated can also make it more food-friendly. “Critics of high alcohol wines are often complaining about temperature” says John Campbell. “If a wine is above 18 degrees C the alcohol volatility is increased and takes over from the true flavour of the cabernet. These wines really need to be drunk between 14 and 16 degrees.” Larry Stone agrees. “Many people who complain about the alcohol in Californian wines are very happy to recommend sake which often pushes to 17% ABV. Part of the reason for its greater acceptability is that it is served cool. I also tend to pay attention to the temperature a big, bold wine is served and may serve it at a cooler temperature if I feel the balance of fruit intensity is being outweighed by the perception of alcohol.”

Economic pressures and consumer demand on scarce wines also result in wines being released earlier than they ideally should be. Once no-one would have dreamt of drinking a top Bordeaux within the first five years of its life yet according to Janet Trefethen of Trefethen Vineyards “over 90% of US consumers age their wine in the back of their car en route from the grocery store to the dinner table. We are drinking our cabernets too young” she admits. Michel Roux of Le Gavroche, author of Matching Food and Wine, agrees. “The minimum should be 5 years - 7 years to be food-friendly. Ten years is better.” (I agree with him up to a point though I’d probably drink my cabernet a couple of years younger than he would.)

My own tips would be to avoid vast pools of intense winey reductions which are too similar to cabernet in flavour and consistency. Just serve a couple of spoonfuls of the accompanying jus and let the cabernet help with the job of saucing. Caramelised onions always seem to help matching big wines as does roasted or slow-cooked garlic. My ideal match would be a spice crusted barbecued butterflied leg of lamb which included salt, rosemary and cumin in the spice mix. I’d defy anyone not to enjoy a cabernet - blockbuster or otherwise - with that.

Love it
I don’t see a problem in matching big red wines especially not with such a classic grape variety as cabernet. To take such a position as a sommelier or wine writer seems oddly narrow-minded to me
Larry Stone, Rubicon Estate

Linguine pasta with mushrooms and caramelized onions with a touch of thyme leads me to the Cabernet/Bordeaux section of the cellar.
Janet Trefethen

Loathe it
I hate this fashion for big, extracted wines - the Parkerized wines of high alcohol and low tannins. I find them obvious and vulgar.
Raymond Blanc

They (blockbuster reds) are made to explode in front of the competition at wine tastings but they’re not that food friendly.
Heston Blumenthal

Cutting edge cabernet pairings:
Squab, treacle and rhubarb - John Campbell of The Vineyard at Stockcross

Lievre a la royale - Benoit Allauzen, sommelier at the Greenhouse, London

Well hung loin of wildebeest - Pete Goffe Wood, Eat, Capetown

Pot roast pork shoulder with prunes - Michel Roux, Le Gavroche

A good macaroni and cheese - US food and wine writer Andrea Robinson

Venison with huckleberry sauce - Karen Cakebread, Cakebread Cellars

This article was first published in the November 2006 issue of Decanter

Photo © Davidoff777 - Fotolia.com

An overview of the 2010 Penfolds releases and 2008 Grange

Regular contributor and former sommelier Donald Edwards tastes his way through the latest Penfolds' releases and is blown away by a cabernet.

"In early modern Australia people used to speak of the tyranny of distance; even within the same state two neighbouring cattle stations could be a couple of weeks ride from each other. The distance was unlike anything the settlers had ever known; vast swathes of red dirt, whole oceans of subtly differentiated sand and dust.

I occasionally wonder whether Penfolds' chief wine maker Peter Gago feels something similar, only relating to choice. Oceans of the very best grape juice; plot after plot of ancient vines, legions of the country's best grape growers all lining up to have their best efforts considered for a spot in Penfolds' top blends. The tyranny of choice? I sometimes wonder.

I’d missed out on meeting Gago when I visited the Magill estate that is Penfolds' home base (he was in America giving the Kings of Leon a private masterclass) so I jumped at the chance to join him for a tasting of Penfolds newly released 2010s and 2008s.

If you don’t already know the story of Penfolds' Grange and its origins as Max Schubert's experimental blend, its underground years and eventual ascent to the very pinnacle of Australian wine then it’s well worth a read.

Suffice it to say, Grange is always a multi-region blend of mostly (occasionally 100%) Shiraz with a small blending component of Cabernet Sauvignon. One of the great advantages that Penfolds has is a huge array of choice in blending components.

Take the 2008 for example: it’s 89% Barossa fruit, 9% Clare Valley (for the first time in a while) with 2% of their old vine Magill Estate fruit. For the 2008 wine only 2% Cabernet Sauvignon was used. By way of comparison the 1978 that we tasted alongside boasted 10% (and a noticeable herbal tinge with it too).

Anyway, the afternoon started with a tasting of Penfolds newly released 2010 vintage (followed by the Granges). Penfolds has attracted some criticism recently for their pricing, the new Grange topping £400 a bottle on release. However the more Peter Gago described the issues they face as a company - i.e. not having anywhere near enough stock to satisfy international demand - it became clear that they’re merely reacting to market forces (and in a less manipulative way than the Bordelais).

To put it bluntly, they’ve a lot of exceptional wines, they work hard to ensure that the wines they release are top quality and many of the wines have great track records when it comes to ageing gracefully. To wit: why would they not raise their prices to what they deem is acceptable for what amounts to a slice of Australia’s viticultural history? Oh, and finally, they often don’t release wines if they feel the quality isn’t right in any given year.

The tasting opened with Penfolds Yattarna Chardonnay 2010. Yattarna Chardonnay for me is like a microcosm of Australian white wine making. It was first conceived as being a white Grange, but looking through the blends and the styles that have graced the bottles through the years it is obvious that it’s a mirror for the way that Australian chardonnay has changed as a style.

No longer a byword for obvious cellar techniques and big oak, the 2010 is 96% Tasmanian fruit (Australia’s coolest region) and it’s obvious why. The extra ripening time has allowed great natural acidity to coexist with lean oatmeal leasiness, a nice pebbly minerality and some taut stone fruit characters. I was mildly annoyed I only had a tasting measure.

On to the reds; old Shiraz and Grenache vines are to my mind one of Australia’s greatest treasures. Penfolds are lucky in that they have the Magill estate, ancient ungrafted vines right in the outskirts of Adelaide, St Henri and a number of other choice plots to call upon. This means that along with their flagship Grange and RWT (red winemaking trial, basically Grange with French oak) wines, they can offer several single vineyard wines. These are collectors’ items in their own right. St Henri Shiraz from a good vintage can often outpace the same year's Grange at auction.

Marananga Shiraz, a sub-regional blend from the Barossa made with a mixture of French and American oak, was lightly spiced with surprisingly fresh fruit characters and a delightfully smooth and silken set of tannins. The St Henri Shiraz was far less forthcoming; a tight mineral core and an interesting (non oak-related) tannic structure; as always a keeper. The Penfolds home estate Magill Shiraz, textured, slightly dusty, again complex and lengthy.

Bin 707, Penfolds' top Cabernet, is again always a blend (and their quickest wine to sell out every year), however for me the standout cabernet from the tasting was the Bin 169 single plot Coonawarra cabernet. (I’ve been feeling a better vineyard practices-related renaissance coming from Coonawarra cab for a while now, but that’s another matter).

This was just about the finest young Australian cabernet I’ve tasted in a very long time. Subtly perfumed, not just blackcurrant leaf and mint, but a finer, much more delicate floral herbal character, backed up with taut muscular tannins and not a jot of fat in the wrong place.

A four-decade vertical of Grange stretching from the misty past of 1978 (before I was born), through 1988, 1998 and finishing at the hallowed 100-point-garnering 2008 took us neatly to a short lunch.

I mentioned the tyranny of choice earlier. There is simply so much quality in the Penfolds' catalogue that trying to pick a single wine as a favourite from the tasting ends up being almost as trying as making the quality decisions must be for Gago and his team.

Donald Edwards is a former sommelier, barfly and blogger at St Claire and notes from the dregs. He tweets as @donalde

Food and Bordeaux: What they served at the gala dinner at Mouton Rothschild

I make a point of not going to Vinexpo, the biennial wine fair in Bordeaux (too hectic, too noisy) but it does mean you miss out on the occasional treat like the gala dinner that was held at Château Mouton Rothschild to celebrate the opening of their new chai.

A colleague* who went told me about it though and the menu and wines sounded so extraordinary I thought I must share them with you.

Guests were apparently served glasses of Baron Philippe de Rothschild champagne when they arrived then treated to a foie gras trolley that was wheeled around with terrines of foie gras, walnut biscuits and fig jam. (Even though I don’t eat foie gras I must admit that sounded amazing)

The first course was equally show-stopping: soufflés de brochet (pike) served in a copper pans - some feat for 600 - with 2005 Mouton-Rothschild and 2005 Clerc-Milon: an unconventional but apparently successful pairing.

Then blanquette de veau (a creamy veal stew) with imperials of 1975 Mouton-Rothschild (see above). An interesting - and wise - choice for an old wine, avoiding an intense jus that might have fought with the wine - and definitely more flattering than cheese with which I gather the same wine was also paired (correct me if you were at the dinner, and I’m wrong on that)

Finally a cherry clafoutis (batter pudding) which was served with a 1989 Château Coutet, apparently also an admirable match. It sounds like quite some feast.

I gather Bordeaux leading chateaux always vie with each other to put on the best spread during Vinexpo, even if not normally quite on this scale. My colleague Jane Anson, who reports from Bordeaux for Decanter, told me about this meal at Chateau Pavie (excuse the rather loose translations):

Saumon Mariné, avocat pilé, perles d'oeufs de saumon avec Champagne Egly Ouriet 2003 en magnum (marinated salmon, crushed avocado and salmon roe)

Homard en cote de Romaine, petits légumes juste croquant, vinaigrette au piment d'Esplette avec Monbousquet Blanc 2010 (lobster in lettuce, possibly? with just-cooked vegetables and a spicy hot pepper dressing)

Agneau en file rôtie, frotté aux herbes, carotes fane et marmelade d'aubergines fumées, jus d'agneau tandoori with Pavie 1998 in Imperiale (this sounds pretty wild: Herb-crusted roast lamb with a smoked aubergine compote and tandoori lamb jus)

Food for thought here: the Bordelais don't necessarily stick to conventional accompaniments and seasoning with their best wines.

If you went to any of the other dinners during Vinexpo this year do let me know what you ate and drank.

*Charlotte Hey who works on the marketing for this website

Photograph © Lucy Shaw of The Drinks Business.

Pairing Indian wine with Indian cheese

Chef Shaun Kenworthy reports on what he believes to be a unique tasting of Indian wine and Indian cheese.

Shaun writes: "There is a rumble of change in almost every facet of life in today’s India. If we go back not too many years the idea of drinking wine as opposed to whisky and any other cheese than the processed stuff that the whole country has a fascination for made by enormous companies such as Amul and Britannia were little known anomalies.

That said, India does have an artisanal tradition of cheese and wine making that goes back a couple of hundred or so years to the Portuguese and British. A scant few traditional cheeses are still made in the mountainous regions of northern India and I’ve personally taken some around the world demonstrating with them and showing them off but how much longer they have left, being made in such small quantities is sadly anyone’s guess.

India’s wines have traditionally been produced along the hilly ridges of southern India, which run through Maharashtra and Karnataka but by the 1950s whatever little interest there was in wine, dwindled once India became independent and it wasn’t until the 90s, that a whole new generation of winemakers started to come through using modern wine making techniques.

There has been much talk about Indian wines in India recently, so much so that sales have been doubling each year, with all the 5 star hotel chains and higher end restaurants in the major Indian cities putting home-grown wines on their lists.

A sommelier friend of mine, Keith Edgar and I were recently asked by the Calcutta Wine Club to do a cheese and wine tasting. It was such a great opportunity that we decided to do a completely blind tasting of four wines and six cheeses so that we could keep secret the fact that they were all Indian.

I’m not quite sure what the members were really expecting but more than likely some domestic and imported wines and imported cheeses?! Of which there are few that find their way into the supermarkets other than the likely suspects such as ricotta, mozzarella, gouda, parmesan, cheddar, Danish blue and brie although as hoteliers with access to wholesale suppliers we do get much more to choose from.

The local cheeses I chose were fresh and smoked Bandel, both a little salty and crumbly in texture, round and small in size, still produced in a small Portuguese settlement town, around 60km from the city, Kalimpong cheese which is still made in 12kg and 1kg wheels by a few different cheesemakers, the texture being like a rustic Caerphilly: white and crumbly in the centre and yellowy inside the rind with a bit of a tang. It’s made in Kalimpong, a small hill station around 200km from Calcutta.

The other three, relatively new cheeses made by La Ferme, Auroville, in the old French city of Pondicherry, close to Chennai (formerly Madras): a good strong tangy Cheddar, their Auroblochon (but don’t let the name seduce you into thinking otherwise - this cheese is similar to an intensely ripe Pecorino) and their delicious semi-soft Gorgonzola.

Thankfully it’s easier to introduce our wines for the evening as you’d know what to expect from the grape varieties but again they were all Indian: a Sula Sauvignon Blanc 2012*, Fratelli Sangiovese 2011, Four Seasons Cabernet Sauvignon 2011and finally, India’s only dessert wine, Sula’s late harvest Chenin Blanc 2012.

We started off, as you would expect, with the milder cheeses and lighter wines, not wanting to make this too challenging a test for the wine club. After much discussion and many ooo’s and aaah’s, we ended up with very few hits but at least we’d conducted what was probably the first completely Indian cheese and wine tasting in the world to date!

Our top Indian wine and cheese pairings:

Sula Sauvignon Blanc 2012

I think we both expected this to go better with the salty fresh Bandel but it wasn’t unpalatable and maybe a little extra fattiness in the cheese would have helped

Fratelli, Sangiovese 2011

A good pairing with the fresh and smoked Bandel and Kalinpong

Four Seasons, Cabernet Sauvignon 2011

The smoked, Kalimpong and the hefty cheddar worked best

Sula late harvest Chenin Blanc 2012

And I don’t think anything could take away from this star of the show with the Auroblochon and the Gorgonzola."

For more information about Indian cheese read this article in the Telegraph, Calcutta.

UK-born and bred, chef Shaun Kenworthy began his career in Yorkshire but worked for some of London’s best known restaurants including Bibendum, The Atlantic Bar, Coast, Air, Mash and Quaglino’s. Since he arrived in India in 2000 he has worked as an executive chef and consultant in Kolkata, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad. In whatever little spare time he has left he writes about his love of good food.

* which seems to be available in the UK if you'd like to try it.