Match of the week
Coffee and maple syrup-brined pork with Saint Joseph
Occasionally a wine pairing comes along that you simply don’t expect. Invited to a barbecue at the weekend, I took along some reds I’d been tasting which I frankly wasn’t sure would go with the sweet marinades you generally encounter at a BBQ.
Eggs, chips, truffles and Cava gran reserva
You might think egg and chips was too humdrum a dish to be paired with wine but not the way the Spanish make it.
Scallop tartare and sauvignon blanc
What on earth do you do when you have a line-up of some of the best wines in the world in front of you? Do you attempt to match them or reflect more the mood, the company and the time of year? Or, given that they're indisputably the hero of the occasion, do you just go with the sort of food the kitchen does well anyway?
Krug Grande Cuvée and brioche
It’s not every week you spend the best part of the day drinking Krug (on and off) so what else could I choose as this week’s match of the week?
Fish curry and Gruner Veltliner
Last week I hosted a tasting for Bristol-based spice company The Spicery in which we explored a number of different wine pairings for different styles of curry - including an Indian Shiraz!
Lobster and Condrieu
The advantage of having chefs and wine merchants as friends is that you don't really need to go to restaurants*.
Maple syrup square with Neige Noir Ambré
I’ve experienced so many terrific wine - and other drink - pairings during the past week in Canada that I think I’m going to have to devote several posts to them, not just this one. And the best - well, I’m struggling but I think it’s got to be this match which was suggested by the sommelier at Le Filet in Montreal - which is a bit ironic as their big thing is fish.
Ribs and rum cocktails
Sweet sticky ribs aren’t the easiest thing to pair with wine so why not look elsewhere? At cocktails, for example?
Roast beef and Bordeaux
OK, this is one of the most classic wine pairings in the world but none the worse for that.
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Milk-fed lamb with Bolgheri Coronato 2011
Last week was a bumper week for wine pairing but setting aside the matches with older vintages of Pazo Senorans albarino at El Celler de Can Roca which were so mind-blowing they deserve a longer post, this is the one that stood out.
Caesar salad with a Godello based Spanish white
A lot of the time when we’re eating out we’re not matching dishes exactly - we simply buy a bottle we like the sound of and hope it will cope with everything we throw at it.
Peas and pinot
Having been flying around the world for the best part of the past month I had a quiet week at home last week which (unusually for me) involved no outstanding drinks pairings.
Spiced whitebait with sriracha and Chinon rosé
As you’d expect many of the usual suspects featured in my pairings this weekend (chocolate, anyone*?) but the match I was most impressed by was nothing to do with Easter
Oysters and Tasmanian fizz
I’m not a big fan of champagne with raw oysters. Most have a level of dosage (added sugar) that tastes even sweeter when you pair them with a briny mollusc but Tasmanian sparkling wine is different
Salmon with shellfish sauce and aged semillon
Last week I was in Australia’s beautiful Hunter Valley enjoying their two great specialities semillon and shiraz.
Raan and Grover Chêne
I’ve been thinking a fair bit about red wine and Indian food lately - of which more in due course - but wanted to flag up one pairing from my trip to India last week which definitely worked.
Roast venison with Chateau Talbot 1982
I was lucky enough to dine in a Cambridge college, Peterhouse, last week and even more fortunate to drink a 1982 Chateau Talbot.
Yorkshire curd tart with builders’ tea ice-cream and Shire Highland Black Tea from Malawi
There are some dishes you just know you’re going to order when you spot them on a menu and the builders’ tea ice-cream that came with a Yorkshire curd tart at newly opened Lorne in London's Pimlico last week had my name all over it.
Pulled pork and pinot
The problem about discovering your match of the week at someone’s else's house is that you can’t really take a photo of the food if you don’t know them that well.
Vinsobres with wild boar stew and chestnut polenta
You’d expect a Southern Rhône red to go with wild boar but in fact it was the chestnut polenta that made the match with this former Côtes du Rhône ‘cru’ so successful
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