Wine pairings for a chocolate-themed dinner party

Ever tried chocolate with smoked salmon? Or with butternut squash soup for that matter? Unlikely matches, I’ll grant you, but ‘chocolate’ - in its confectionery guise - is actually a misnomer. It’s most likely cacao you’ll be cooking with in future, if the founders of the fashionable chocolate brand ‘Venezuelan Black’ have their way.

Real cacao adds depth of flavour, not to mention a discreet but lengthy aftertaste to savoury dishes, and a recent tasting held at Berry Bros & Rudd’s Pickering Cellar, co-hosted by Tania Harcourt-Cooze of Venezuelan Black and Rebecca Lamont, manager of Berry Bros & Rudd’s wine education school, was an intriguing insight to chocolate and wine pairing that convinced me there’s nothing crazy about savoury chocolate dishes.

The Harcourt-Coozes featured in the whimsically named television series ‘Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory‘ on Channel 4 earlier this year. Their mission was to be the first organic chocolate producers to grow and make 100% cacao from bean to bar, with many adventures and mishaps along the way.

Whilst Tania talked us through the history of the ‘Venezuelan Black’ project, we nursed an aperitif of Mailly’s Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru Champagne. Much like wine, the origin, terroir, and microclimate of cacao trees determines the quality and flavour of the highly sensitive cacao bean, and like grapes, the beans require expert handling. The two most crucial factors influencing the eventual quality of the chocolate, Tania told us, is the stage after the beans are retrieved from their pods (at their plantation El Tesoro they place them in an oak box to lock in flavour) and the method of roasting, a finely calibrated process that can make or break the chocolate’s aroma.

As an ingredient, all one needs to do is grate the cacao into dishes ‘ it melts at low temperatures and fuses seamlessly with other ingredients. The first plate demonstrated two ways of incorporating chocolate into starters. First a delicate, mildly smoked salmon served with cacao bread. Sounds strange but the cacao gave it an appealing dark, treacle colour and a hint of bitterness which made it the ideal alternative to salmon’s traditional partners, Irish soda bread or Germanic rye.

Winewise we had two options to match with the salmon - a food-friendly 2006 Tres Olmos Bodegas, a Spanish Verdejo white from Garciarevalo in Rueda, and a sublime 2005 Clos Blanc de Vougeot, 1er Cru, Domaine de la Vougeraie from Burgundy. The former, with its crisp acidity, made a perfect partner with the salmon I thought, whereas the classic, delicately oaked white Burgundy was a better pairing for our second starter: spiced butternut squash soup with cacao creme fraiche. The slight curried note in the soup could easily have overwhelmed the wine, but Rebecca calibrated the pairing perfectly, with the Burgundy’s length emphasized by the butternut soup. The sprinkling of cacao in the crème fraiche was a deft touch, subtle but enough to alert one to its presence.

The second round offered four wine matches with two main dishes: the first dish a porcini risotto with grated cacao was bursting with umami, a real cracker of a dish that to my mind definitely called for a red Burgundy. Yes, we were offered a 2006 Dog Point Pinot Noir, from New Zealand’s Marlborough region, and a fine example of New Zealand Pinot it was, but this was no contest ‘ it was the 2002 Chambolle-Musigny, Les Plantes, 1er Cru from Domaine Bertagna with its fine earthy aromas, wild strawberry palate and extraordinary length that married the porcini risotto to perfection. The New Zealand Pinot, for all its exuberance, just didn’t have the same nuanced complexity as the Burgundy, nor did it do the risotto any great favours.

The second main course, a roast loin of venison served with a cacao-infused jus, was a superb foil for the venison which was cooked a point, still pink and succulent. The two wines we sampled were like chalk and cheese: a 1998 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape was a spicy jewel of a red Rhone, its gaminess dissipating on the palate to reveal ripe red fruit. A perfectly executed wine for a perfectly executed dish. Our second wine a 1990 Chateau Gruaud Larose tasted surprisingly muted, possibly because it suffered the misfortune of coming after the robust Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The idea of fielding a red Bordeaux was fine, it just didn’t match with the venison, or the risotto for that matter. One perhaps to keep for roast lamb.

The next course of this decadent tasting was a sampling of truffles made from four varieties of Venezuelan Black chocolate with champagne and Maury. All the truffles were made to Tania’s recipes. A tropical Rio Caribe Superior with a lovely smoothness and hints of citrus - and I could have sworn a touch of coconut - was matched with the Mailly Blanc de Noirs, but I thought it went just as well, if not better with the proferred Krug Grande Cuvee with all its rich, toastiness (as did most of the truffles!)

Hacienda El Tesoro, Venezuelan Black’s ‘house brand’ with its flavour of berry fruits was slightly sharper than the Rio Caribe, and worked better with the Mailly Blanc de Noirs, whilst the Carenero Superior, although made from exactly the same ingredients as the other truffles had a noticeably sweeter element to it and a nuttiness which made it rather a good match with Rebecca’s suggested Southern French sweet red, a 2005 Domaine des Schistes Maury. Finally the San Martin, a bar whose characteristics change with each harvest, had a fruitiness which was enhanced by both the Maury and the Mailly.

As if the truffles weren’t indulgent enough, we also had a sliver of Tania’s Cloud Forest chocolate almond cake made with raw cane sugar. This was a rich, dense cake, ideal I imagine with an espresso, but the chocolate aromas, as Tania had correctly warned us, didn’t come through as powerfully as in the truffles. Still, cake is cake and it was delicious.

Finally, a perfect way to send us off on a cold December night - a chocolate hot shot. This was a really invigorating little shot, which Rebecca mischievously enhanced with Berry’s finest Cognac - my neighbour observed it would be the perfect après-ski drink. Y

A Christmas special of ‘Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory’ will be screened on Channel 4 December 17th.

For information about future fine wine and food tastings visit the Berry Brothers website bbr.com

Image credit: NoName_13 from Pixabay

A basic guide to olive oil

How many olive oils do you have in your store cupboard? One? Two? Seven or eight? I ask because we tend to think - or certainly have done so in the past - of olive oil as a commodity rather than as a complex subject of connoisseurship like wine or cheese. But there’s a great deal to learn that would vastly enhance our enjoyment of this culinary essential as I discovered from talking to Charles Carey of London’s best known oil importer The Oil Merchant recently.

The Influence of Olive Variety

Many of the same factors are involved in olive oil appreciation as in wine - the variety of olives, the terroir, the timing of the harvest, the art of blending. Carey’s view is that the variety is the most important. “There are several hundred, some of which are specifically for eating, some for making oil and a few that will do for both but basically making oil with eating olives is like making wine with table grapes.”

Cultivation and Scientific Approach

Traditionally no distinction used to be made between the different types and the olives were all thrown in together “Producers now take a much more scientifc approach, growing specific varieties in separate groves, often employing an agronomist to help them plant the right variety for the soil.”

The Significance of DOP Status

Oils that are awarded a DOP (denomination of origin) are only allowed to be made from specified local varieties. As an example Carey gave me two Colonna oils to taste which were quite distinctive in character - the DOP oil from Molise, which could only be made with varieties grown in the appellation, being the markedly more aromatic of the two.

Regional Differences in Olive Oil

The differences between oils from different countries and regions are due more to these indigenous varieties than to variations in climate in Carey’s opinion. Olives grown in Sicily for example such as Cerasuolo, Biancolilla and Nocellara del Belice are different from the Frantoio, Moraiolo, Leccino and Pendolino grown in Tuscany and all distinct from the varieties which are traditionally grown in Spain such as Arbequina and Picual. “Spanish oils tend to be more mellow and less peppery than Tuscan ones while Provencal oils have a touch of sweetness.”

The Impact of Globalization

As with wine the waters are muddied by the fact that some varieties such as Frantoio ‘the chardonnay of the olive oil world’ have been successfully exported to the New World. This gives rise to a similar debate as that which exists with wine as to whether oils are getting too homogenized. There are equivalents to the flying viticulturalist or winemaking consultant of whom the best known is Professor Giuseppe Fontanazza from Perugia who has been employed by the South African wine and olive oil producer Morgenster to advise on where and what to plant.

Environmental Challenges in Olive Oil Production

Climate has an impact, of course, on the style of an oil but it is increasingly weather that has the greater influence, especially in extreme years such as the winter of 1984-5 when frost wiped out over 80% of the olive trees in central Italy. “A late frost or hailstorm can bruise the olives so they are not harvestable while a hot, muggy summer can place olive trees in danger of fly attack which can rot the olives.” Carey explains.

Lack of water - or an excess of it - may also make for an unbalanced oil. “If there is too much water content in the olives when the water gets separated from the oil during processing it can take the flavour of the oil with it” Carey points out. This is a danger that has to be guarded against where trees are irrigated, as is becoming more common as summers get hotter and drier.

Harvesting and Timing

Another factor that makes a crucial difference to how an oil tastes is when it is picked. There is an international trend towards earlier harvesting to meet the demand for more fragrant, grassy oils. “The harvest in the northern hemisphere used to take place around the end of October/beginning of November. Now it’s much closer to the beginning of October” says Carey. “Some producers harvest olives when they’re quite green and still have a peppery taste, others leave them on the tree longer so the flavour is softer. You get a greater yield if you harvest them later but if you leave them too long as some more commercial producers do, they start tasting slightly fatty and greasy.

They also tend to lose their individuality, something that worries Carey. “Italy has had too much influence on how oil should be produced in the rest of the world. Some French producers are harvesting their olives much younger than they used to in order to create a peppery oil that is similar in character to Italian oils.

A further problem is that many lesser oils are blended and bottled outside their country of origin so that there is no way of knowing not only where the olives were grown but when they were harvested. Like grapes olives deteriorate and oxidise rapidly once picked and need to go to press within 24 hours of being harvested otherwise they can drop below the level of acidity (0.8g per 100g) that enables them to be classified as extra virgin olive oil. Ideally olive oil should be consumed as soon as possible after pressing but many oils spend extensive time in storage, in less than ideal conditions in transit and end up on a brightly lit supermarket shelf.

Which of course is true of wine too except the level of consciousness about the desirability of freshness in wine is higher. “The olive oil business” says industry expert Judy Ridgeway “is 10-15 years behind wine”. We still, it seems, have a lot to learn before we become connoisseurs.

The Oil Merchant mainly supplies through delis and department stores but can supply by mail order. Essential reading for any olive oil fan is Judy Ridgway’s Best Olive OIl Buys Round the World, available from bookshops or from www.oliveoil.org.uk price £11.99 including p & p.

This article was first published in the November 2008 issue of Decanter magazine

Olive oil tips

• Keep olive oil in a cool, dark place not on show in the kitchen as it is particularly sensitive to heat and light

• When buying olive oil look for the date it was bottled. Some bottles also carry a ‘best before’ date (In general oils should be consumed within 18 months of the harvest.

• Buy a basic blended oil to use for cooking and save your best oils for finishing dishes, dressing leaves or for dipping bread.

• Match the oil to the food and method of preparation. An oil that suits a delicate grilled seabass may not be the best one for a steak.
  

Image credit: Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

Matching sweet wine and Sichuanese food

Can Tokaji – the great dessert wine of Hungary, and one of the sweetest wines in the world – go with Chinese food, asks Margaret Rand? And if it can, would you want it to?

Christian Seely’s answer to both these questions is ‘yes’. He runs the wine division of AXA Millsimes, which owns such properties as Château Suduiraut in Sauternes and Disznk in Tokaj, and one of his big interests is pairing these wines with Asian cuisines.

He’s been hosting occasional dinners of this sort for several years – in London he’s done Suduiraut with Chinese food and Disznk with Indian – and the latest occasion was in Tokaj, where a brace of Chinese chefs, flown out for the occasion, cooked Sichuan dishes to match Disznoko of various vintages and levels of sweetness.

The chefs were Tommy and Andy Shan of Au Bonheur du Palais in Bordeaux. To Seely’s mind this is the best restaurant in Bordeaux and as good as any Chinese restaurant in the world – quite a recommendation. Andy Shan does the cooking; Tommy is front-of-house: gregarious, multilingual and the leader in the pair’s intensive researches into food and wine matching.

He describes their food as Sichuan, with some Cantonese influences. But it’s the strong flavours of Sichuan cooking that make it a possible match for Tokaji. Ask him which other wines he might serve in the restaurant (by the glass, to go with particular dishes rather than all the way through the meal) and he mentions Château de Beaucastel white from the Rhone; white Bandol from Provence; Banyuls; Pouilly-Fumé, especially from the late Didier Dageneau; Loire Chenin Blanc; dry and sweet Alsace from such names as Domaine Weinbach, Ostertag, Marcel Deiss and Hugel; and from outside France, Inniskillen Icewine.

Not all these wines are sweet, but some are very sweet indeed. The sugar is the attraction: it neutralizes the chilli in the food, and he plays with the balance of the two until he reaches a point of harmony.

This is anathema to the old British idea of choosing a wine to cut through the richness of a dish. Why, asks Tommy rhetorically, would you want to do that? What you want is complementarity, he says: it’s a response to the global experience of flavours. Red Bordeaux, he reckons, can be good with Cantonese cooking, with its low levels of spice and simple ingredients, but Sichuan flavours are complex and spicy and need something more challenging.

The dishes for this dinner are all classic ones. The Shans have adjusted the levels of chilli, but that’s all; otherwise the recipes are unchanged. And drinking Tokaji with them does at first seem rather odd.

There are two appetizers, beef straw potatoes with sesame seeds, and shrimps with ‘daily’ Jia-chang flavours. Neither seems particularly successful with the Late Harvest 2007, which seems to swamp them with its sweetness; and for the first course we move on to Asz 4 puttonyos 2004; a light year, but one, paradoxically, with a lot of botrytis: the wine is relatively light, with truffley, creamy notes and good acidity.

For us, drinking this Tokaji with beef tongue, and with Pang-Pang chicken with sesame creamed sauce, the sweetness is the dominant factor. For the Shans the sweetness is only part of the picture. Texture is just as vital, and the finely-sliced tongue has a silky firmness that chimes with the wine.

Yes, the sweetness stands out, but it sort of works, in an unexpected way. The chicken is delicate, though, and while the earthy note of the sesame is interesting with the wine the flavours don’t quite meet. The chilli needs to build up in the mouth a bit more; as it does, the wine begins to make more sense.Two sweeter wines follow: 5 puttonyos 2000 and 2001. With these are paired crispy, spicy sweet-and-sour Yuxiang chicken; King prawns fried in the ‘Halook’ wok; and leg of pork braised Dong-Po style (caramelized version). The two wines are totally different, the 2000 full of apricot and pineapple flavours, fresh, clean and focused, the 2001 leaner, smokier and more pungent. One might have backed the 2001 to match the food better, but in fact it’s the 2000 that is superb with the pork.

Texturally the slow-cooked pork is soft and richly fatty; the flavours are complex, with star anise to the fore. It’s a hit. The chicken is also pretty good with the 2000; perhaps it’s the higher acidity of the 2001 that gets in the way? But the dense flavour of the prawns works better with the 2001.

Then even sweeter wines, the 2000 and 1999 6 puttonyos. These are to go with veal with Chinese anise and tangerine peel, and Tsasui caramelized roast pork. The 2000 is pungent, creamy and approachable, the 1999 more linear, with higher acidity; and the veal is dark and caramelized, with a note of star anise. Neither is perfect, but the complexity of the 1999 is quite successful both with the veal and with the hot, pungent pork, and a faint tingle on the tongue from Sichuan pepper helps them to come together.

And finally, the biggest surprise of all: 1993 6 puttonyos with what is described as smoked salmon in red pepper oil. Well, it’s not smoked salmon in the Scottish sense; it is a cube of salmon that has been smoked and caramelised on one side. The texture is soft and melting; and the match is sensationally good. It’s the star of the evening: adventurous, imaginative and spot-on.

All of which raises the question: how do the Shans arrive at these matches? The answer is, via the 23 families into which they divide spices. They taste a wine, and they’re able, pretty easily now, to pinpoint the particular family of spices with which it will go. After that it’s a question of texture and heat.

And it works. I wouldn’t want to drink Tokaji all through a Chinese meal, even one as good as this; but that is not the intention of the Shans, or of Christian Seely. It’s a glass with a particular course that is the idea.

It might be a bit of a problem then switching to something drier – or even something red – for the course that follows, but it would certainly keep one on one’s toes. And it makes Chinese food freshly exotic, so that one can discover it anew – which is rather fun.

Image credit: Leacky Chen from Pixabay

Matching cold cuts, cheese and chutney

A couple of years ago I went to a chutney-making demonstration and tasting. No, not at the WI - it was held by the family owned company Tracklements at leading London cheesemonger La Fromagerie which has recently expanded its empire into the neighbouring shop and now has a fancy new tasting room.

Guy Tullberg of Tracklements gave a fascinating account of how pickles differed from chutneys and relishes (in essence you cook the former and simply boil boiling liquid over the latter. Pickles are veg-based, chutneys can include fruit) but the highlight of the event was a tasting of different styles of relish with cold meats and cheeses.

It was an interesting reminder of the important role these traditional preserves play in livening up a simple meal but also forcibly reminded me of the problem that pickles and chutneys pose for wine - I could only think of a couple of pairings where I’d wouldn’t have preferred a beer or a cider.

Here were the combinations and my suggested pairings:

Classic English Pork Pie and Piccalilli
English pork pies, for those of you who are not familiar with them are classic pub fare with a hot water crust and faintly peppery filling. The sharp mustardy piccalilli which contains tumeric and other spices cut perfectly through the heavy pastry and fattiness of the meat.
Suggested match: a strong English ale such as Timothy Taylor Landlord

Cold ham and Farmhouse pickle
A sweet, fruity Branston-style pickle made with carrot, courgette, turnip and onion with dark muscovado sugar, tamarind and dates which added a nice edge to some smoky, thick-cut ham.
Suggested match: Maybe because of the smoky note in the ham but I liked the idea of a porter with this.

Curried fruit chutney and chicken
A spicy but not overly hot chutney based on tomatoes, apples and dates spiced with fenugreek, coriander, cumin and cardamom. Sweet and rich. Slightly overwhelmed the accompanying chicken but apparently makes a great Coronation Chicken.
Suggested drink match: With these spices I’d enjoy an Indian Pale Ale. Also quite good with the Breton farmhouse cider that was laid on.

Apricot and ginger chutney with farmhouse Cheshire
A mild crumbly cheese with a mellow, sweet chutney. The chutney enlivens what would otherwise be a slightly bland taste experience
Suggested drink match: one of the only chutneys that wouldn’t have overwhelmed an accompanying wine. A Spanish tempranillo or garnacha, I thought

Apple and Cider Brandy chutney with Camembert
I didn’t think this combination worked. The chutney with its spicy mince-pie like flavours was too powerful for the cheese. It would have been better with a strong cheddar and I’d have preferred the Camembert with some kind of berry compote.
Suggested drink match: The accompanying cider was stripped of flavour by the chutney. You really needed something like an apple aperitif or digestif such as Somerset Pomona or Pommeau

Fig Relish and Goats Cheese
Guy Tullberg said that this combination was well received by people who didn’t like goats cheese. I can see why - with its powerful cinnamon, clove and allspice notes it cancels out the taste. I think it might work in a hot tartlet though using fig relish as a base and a slice of goats cheese on top. Apparently this is their most successful product.
Suggested drink match: Guy suggested Pedro Ximenez but for me that’s too powerful for goats’ cheese. A sweet oloroso maybe.

Montgomery’s cheddar with organic plum chutney
This combination of award-winning artisanal cheese and a sharp, zesty plum chutney with a touch of orange was perfect - but lethal to wine!
Suggested drink match: A strong British ale such as Adnams Broadside

Sausage roll and onion marmalade
Sausages and caramelised onions are a match made in heaven. This was an unusually sweet, concentrated version that would go as well with hot sausages as cold.
Suggested drink match: an English bitter or could possibly take a gutsy southern French red such as a Cotes du Rhone Villages

Wholemeal bread and butter with cucumber pickle
A very mild sweet cucumber pickle - like an old-fashioned sandwich spread. Nice but not spectacular with the bread and butter. Would be better with a burger - it makes a fantastic barbecue relish
Suggested drink match: Again not too powerful to accompany wine - I’d suggested a ripe soft red like a Merlot or, possibly even better, a fruity New World rosé. Cider would be good too.

The important point to bear in mind is that sharp pickles will make an accompanying drink taste sweeter and less bitter and a sweet one will make it sharper. It’s the combination of sweet and sour that’s the problem

Photo by Nicolas Postiglioni