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When to pair red wine with fish

When to pair red wine with fish

Few people now throw up their hands in horror at the idea of matching red wine with fish. But how many realise just how often you can pair the two?

Here are six occasions when I think you can:

When the fish is ‘meaty’
If that doesn’t sound a contradiction in terms! Tuna is an obvious example but swordfish, monkfish and, occasionally, salmon fall into that category. That doesn’t mean they should only be drunk with a red (think of salade Niçoise, for example, which is more enjoyable with a rosé) simply that reds - usually light ones like Pinot Noir and Loire Cabernet Franc - generally work.

When it’s seared, grilled or barbecued
Just like any other food, searing, grilling or barbecuing fish creates an intensity of flavour that cries out for a red, especially if the fish is prepared with a spicy marinade or baste. Even oily fish like mackerel and sardines can work with a light, chilled red if they’re treated this way.

When it’s roasted
Similar thinking. The classic example is roast monkfish, especially if wrapped in pancetta and served with a red wine sauce (see below) when it differs very little from a meat roast. You could even drink red with a whole roast turbot or brill (though I generally prefer white). Accompaniments such as lentils or mushrooms will enhance a red wine match.

When it’s served with meat
Surf’n’turf! Once meat is involved one inclines towards a red, certainly if that meat is steak. Spanish-style dishes that combine chorizo and fish like hake are a natural for reds (like crianza Riojas) too.

When it’s served in a Mediterranean-style fish soup or stew
A recent discovery - that a classic French Provençal soup with its punchy accompaniment of rouille (a mayonnaise-type sauce made with garlic, chilli and saffron) is great with a gutsy red (I tried it with a minor Madiran but any traditional southern or south-western red that wasn’t too fruit driven would work). It’s the slightly bitter saffron note that these soups and stews like bouillabaisse contain that seems to be the key. A sauce that had similar ingredients would work too as would this dish of braised squid above.

When it’s served with a red wine sauce
You might not think that you could serve a really powerful red wine sauce with fish but with a full-flavoured fish such as halibut or turbot it works. And the natural pairing is a substantial, but not overwhelmingly alcoholic or tannic red. Like a fleshy Merlot.

Photo © Belokoni Dmitri at shutterstock.com

Chablis at Nobu

Sometimes you go to a wine dinner with some trepidation wondering if the wine will stand up to the food but I was pretty optimistic that Domaine Long-Depaquit’s Chablis would survive at Nobu (the original Metropolitan hotel restaurant in London, not LA, sadly!)

Not that it’s always an easy ride. As habitués of Nobu will know this is powerfully flavoured food with an exotic twist on Japanese staples like sashimi and a lot of richly smokey meat dishes. I have drunk fruitier whites like Sancerre (Jolivet's) and more full-bodied ones like Smith Haut-Lafitte with some success with Nobu’s food before, along with softer styles of red Bordeaux. Would even mature Chablis stand up to the bigger dishes?

We kicked off with three 2009 premier crus, Les Beugnons (a sub-division of Les Vaillons), Les Vaillons itself and Les Vaucopins, an impressive trio and the first vintages for which winemaker Matthieu Mangenot was completely responsible. Apart from the terroirs, the main difference was the oak treatment - les Beugnons had none, Les Vaillons 10% and Les Vaucoupins about 15%. All were brilliant with the oysters, as you’d expect, but I found the structure and minerality of the Vaucoupins made it the best partner for the three sashimi dishes, yellowtail sashimi with jalapeno, new style salmon and scallops and seabass sashimi with dry miso.

We had two grand crus with the next couple of dishes, the Les Blanchots 07 and a Les Clos 08. The latter went particularly well with a lobster salad with spicy lemon dressing but was thrown slightly off-track by a dish of rock shrimp tempura with three quite challenging dips including jalapeno again. The Les Blanchots worked better with that.

Two bottlings of Moutonne next which is part of the Vaudesir and Preuses crus - a magnum of 2006 and an ‘02 which I thought stole the show with an umami-rich dish of poussin with truffle teriyaki (like other aged white burgundy mature chablis has its own umami notes) It also handled a challenging dish of dover sole with red chilli shiso.

The poussin also went really well with a lively, graceful 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru Lavaux Saint-Jacques from Bichot which was wheeled out with the final meat dishes. A good move with a meal of this length, it has to be said (there was an insane amount of food). Both the poussin and a dish of beef toban yaki had markedly smokey notes that were particularly well suited to the wine.

There were puddings at this point which were served with a mystery bottle which turned out to be a 2000 Tokaji Oremus 5 puttonyos but by this point no-one was up to much matching.

So what might you take from all this? Well if I were eating in Nobu or similar modern Asian restaurants like Zuma or Roka I wouldn’t be worrying overmuch about individual terroirs. The key factors in the success of these matches was minerality, weight and age. With the richness of Nobu’s food I think a little oak helped but in a more conventional Japanese restaurant you could happily do without it. The older vintages, especially the ’02 were lovely with the richer fish and poultry dishes but then they’re not going to be available or affordable on the average restaurant winelist - certainly not Nobu’s.

Personally I’d be more than happy to drink premier cru Chablis through half to two thirds of a meal of this type then switch, as we did, to red burgundy. What you don’t want with this type of food is aggressive tannins.

Incidentally there are some other good suggestions on the Albert Bichot website for food matches for these wines.

I ate at Nobu as a guest of Domaine Long-Depaquit

French food and Australian Wine

French food and Australian Wine

Blogger Denise Medrano of The Wine Sleuth braces herself for a lunch featuring classic French dishes and Australian wine. Was she convinced? Read on . . .

Fine French cuisine made with only the best British seasonal ingredients matched with... vintage Australian wine? Would the Ozzie wines pummel the delicate French food into submission or be a harmonious match? My tastebuds were ready for the test which was hosted by McGuigan Wines at a recent lunch at Roussillon restaurant in Pimlico.

Hopelessly lost near Sloane Square I hailed a black cab only to be told the restaurant was one block behind me. Must buy A-Z, must buy A-Z...

Finally I arrived to find myself seated between the winemakers, Neil McGuigan and Peter Hall. I didn't realize who they were so when Neil asked me why I was there, I tactfully replied, "I'm not a big fan of Ozzie wine so I'm here to be proved wrong." Fortunately, he laughed uproariously and was determined to do just that.

The menu Chef Alexis Gauthier devised was then rolled out. First up, a light Lobster bisque infused with purple basil scallops and confit tomato tortellini matched with the 2004 Earth's Portrait Riesling. The bisque was intense, flavours of the sea, salty and minerally, the tortellini bursting with tomato-y goodness. The Riesling was a great match, the honeysuckle fruitness of the wine slashing through the salty seabreeze, a long, toasty, clean finish with lingering notes of citrus.

The bisque was followed by wild sea bass & razor clams paired with a 2003 Semillon, Bin 900. I was looking forward to the Semillon as I've heard so much about Hunter Valley Semillon, a very distinct style from Australia. French Semillon is usually used to make sweet wine and the dry wines are characterized by their honeyed, floral aromas and flavours. Bin 900 didn't have a very distinctive nose to me: whiffs of lime leaf but on the palate it was dry and very lively, looking and feeling quite frisky with a nice streak of wet rocks running through it. The sea bass was meaty and the Semillon's citrusy lime flavours worked in conjunction with the fish, not overpowering nor overshadowing it. So far, so good.

The fish courses were followed by milk fed lamb & thyme, cooked to a perfect rosy pink. Exquisite, tender, subtly flavoured lamb, it was matched with the 2008 Shortlist Cabernet Sauvignon. Initially, I thought this wine was a bit green, leafy and minty. However, with the lamb, it picked up, there was some sun-dried tomato lurking about and that really brought out a tomato leaf quality along with the black fruits. I enjoyed it but it was a bit young and the following wine would have been a better match.

The Handmade Shiraz 2008 is McGuigan's super-premium red and what a lovely wine. Supple, soft and velvety, a full viscous body, deep almost inky colour, a palate full of cassis and black forest gateau. Intensely fruity but not a one dimensional fruit bomb. Silky tannins, finishing off with coffee and mocha notes. The Shiraz was paired with a Feuilleté of Bleu d'Auvergne but I was disappointed with the pairing as I thought the pastry just didn't have enough blue cheese in it.

A light dessert of quince and yoghurt sorbet with a sesame honey parfait finished off the meal, paired with the McGuigan Personal Reserve Botrytis Semillon 2005. Toasty, fresh and earthy aromas combined with orange blossoms wafting from the glass. The sorbet worked wonderfully with the wine, reminding me of lemon drops, of all things.

Was I converted? Although there were some pairings that didn't quite work for me Neil McGuigan and his wines did a fairly good job of convincing me that Australian wines are much more than supermarket staples with the calibre and character to be matched with fine French food. All in all, I was happy to be proved wrong.

Denise attended the lunch as a guest of McGuigan wines.

Denise Medrano blogs as The Winesleuth. She attended the lunch as a guest of McGuigan Wines.

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