Match of the week

Ox cheek lasagne and zinfandel

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on April 8 2024 at 09:15

It’s always a treat going round to my friends Stephen and Judy for supper.

Stephen is one of my all-time favourite chefs and his former restaurant Culinaria in Redland was one of the reasons we moved to Bristol when we found the flat we were thinking of renting was just down the road!

Judy lets me know what he’s planning to cook so I can bring along an appropriate wine. In this case it was an ox cheek lasagne so I scanned my wine rack and came up with this single estate bottling of Ridge’s 2019 Pagani Ranch Zinfandel I’d splashed out on from The Wine Society a few months back. (I love Ridge!)

It comes from vines planted before Prohibition and is a field blend of (mainly) zinfandel, petite sirah and alicante bouschet

I’d prematurely opened a bottle not long after I'd bought it which I’d found too sweetly overripe but six months on it was spot on: smooth, rich and sumptuous, just perfect with the deep flavour of the oxtail and cheese.

Great dish. Great match! (Rubbish photo - sorry!)