Pairings | Truffles

 The best pairings with red burgundy

The best pairings with red burgundy

As with white burgundy there’s a world of difference between a simple village burgundy and an elegant premier or grand cru - most of which need 5 years at the very least to show at their best but the dividing line when it comes to pairing wine with red burgundy is age. Is it a light wine you’re dealing with or a more mature, intensely flavoured one. Duck is almost always a winner but here are some other options.

The best food pairings for Barolo and Barbaresco

The best food pairings for Barolo and Barbaresco

The food of Piedmont in north-west Italy is as highly regarded as its wines so it makes sense to make the local dishes your first choice if you’re looking for a match for a bottle of Barolo or Barbaresco.

What food to pair with red Bordeaux

What food to pair with red Bordeaux

Although Bordeaux produces some of the most expensive wines in the world it also produces bottles that are great for everyday drinking. So what kind of food pairs best with them?

Can you pair tea with a 4 course meal?

Can you pair tea with a 4 course meal?

Wine consultant and former chef Nayan Gowda reports on a tea dinner hosted by Lalani & Co but comes away more impressed by the tea than the pairings.

The best food pairings with Saint-Emilion

The best food pairings with Saint-Emilion

Saint-Emilion is a familiar name on a wine list but what sort of food goes with it best? Sommelier Nathalie Gardiner suggests her favourite pairings.

Possibly the best truffle dinner ever

Possibly the best truffle dinner ever

Did I want to go on a truffle trip to Spain at the end of January? Balmy Barbados seemed like a better option but since that wasn’t on the cards and the enquiry came from an old friend I said yes. The 2 day visit - the annual Viñas del Vero ‘Days of Wine and Truffles’ in Somontano would include an outdoor picnic in the foothills of the Pyrenees (eek), a truffle hunt and - the clincher - a multi-course truffle menu by one of the region’s most talented chefs followed by a gastronomic brunch. “Bring the Gaviscon”. my friend sagely advised.

Fonduta with truffles and Nebbiolo

Fonduta with truffles and Nebbiolo

The last few days I’ve been eating and drinking my way around Piedmont - the perfect time of year as the region’s fabled white truffles are in season.

Ferran Adria, white truffles and Dom Pérignon ...

Ferran Adria, white truffles and Dom Pérignon ...

"It’s not every day you get invited to a private dinner cooked by the most famous chef in the world" writes Guy Woodward. "But the other week an email arrived in my inbox that had me scrambling for my diary and clearing anything and everything listed under October 30.

Paul A Young Shropshire Blue and walnut chocolate truffles with Taylor’s First Estate Reserve port

Paul A Young Shropshire Blue and walnut chocolate truffles with Taylor’s First Estate Reserve port

Port and stilton is one of the classic wine pairings but does it work if you pair a port with a blue cheese chocolate?

White truffles and Boca

White truffles and Boca

A full-bodied red mightn’t be the first wine you’d think of reaching for with white truffles but it works remarkably well as I discovered at a truffle dinner at Bocca di Lupo last week.

Fonduta with white truffles and Barbera d’Alba

Fonduta with white truffles and Barbera d’Alba

There’s only one pairing I could focus on this week given that I was in Piemonte and that is white truffles. What was the best match? Incredibly hard to say!

 Chocolate truffles and PX

Chocolate truffles and PX

You can tell how much I love sherry from the fact that this is the second week running a food pairing involving sherry has been my match of the week.

 Eggs, chips, truffles and Cava gran reserva

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.

Pasta with truffles and chardonnay

Pasta with truffles and chardonnay

Although chardonnay is grown practically everywhere that grows grapes (with notable exceptions such as Bordeaux) it’s not a variety you may associate with Italy. But the country produces some fine examples and Isole e Olena’s Collezione Privata is one.

Braised brill with truffles and La Rocca Soave

Braised brill with truffles and La Rocca Soave

I’ve already mentioned this wine pairing as part of my write-up of the Action Against Hunger pop-up with Rick Stein but it was the outstanding match of last week.

Trattoria della Posta, Monforte d’Alba - Piemontese food at its simple best

Trattoria della Posta, Monforte d’Alba - Piemontese food at its simple best

Of all the meals we had on my 3 day visit to Piemonte this week Trattoria della Posta was the best. It’s not that the food was different (Piemontese cuisine has a limited repertoire), simply that it was perfectly executed.

A wine and truffle lunch with The Wine Society

A wine and truffle lunch with The Wine Society

Are Languedoc wines grand enough to stand up to truffles? Our new contributor Donald Edwards reports:

Guacamole, salsa and a citrussy pale ale

Guacamole, salsa and a citrussy pale ale

Last Friday night Helen, our designer, and I had a bit of a works outing to our colleague Monica Shaw's who works on the nuts and bolts of the website. She cooked up an amazing Mexican feast of which this was just one element but it was striking how much better the whole meal went with beer than with wine.

Dumplings and grand cru Chablis

Dumplings and grand cru Chablis

You might think dumplings were humble fare, not best suited to show off a great wine but as last week’s tasting lunch at Bob Bob Ricard proved, that’s not necessarily the case.

 Black truffle and fontina pizza and Puligny Montrachet

Black truffle and fontina pizza and Puligny Montrachet

It’s easy to get into a mindset with food and wine pairing where you automatically revert to a tried and tested combination. Like pizza with Peroni or a Sicilian red

Louis Roederer Brut with a truffle cheese toastie

Louis Roederer Brut with a truffle cheese toastie

This match last week at 45 Jermyn St had EVERYTHING going for it starting with a decadent toasted cheese sandwich lavishly scattered with grated white truffle. What could be better? Well, actually a glass of very decent champagne (Louis Roederer Brut premier) with it - one of those matches made in heaven where the whole is better than the sum of the parts.

Panko-fried yellowtail with truffle honey and sparkling sake

Panko-fried yellowtail with truffle honey and sparkling sake

I honestly didn't know which dish to pick out of this extraordinary pop-up at The Dead Doll’s House Islington last week, hosted by wine importer Bibendum PLB who now also bring in a wide range of sakes. So I’m going for this one because it was the first and one of the simplest.

Beef carpaccio and chardonnay

Beef carpaccio and chardonnay

Beef and chardonnay doesn’t sound like an obvious combo at first glance but it depends, as always, how the beef is cooked.

Food for wine: glammed up roast chicken and smart white burgundy

Food for wine: glammed up roast chicken and smart white burgundy

In the first of an occasional series on dishes to make at home to show off a special wine Lucy Bridgers devises the perfect romantic dinner for her lucky other half.

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