Match of the week

Teroldego and Tapas

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on October 25 2010 at 07:01

Sometimes you get in a rut with a particular food and wine combination - maybe on a ‘if it ain’t broke, why fix it? basis. Such is the case for me with tapas which I tend to recommend pairing with something Spanish - usually manzanilla sherry or - depending on the amount of seafood - a crisp Rueda, dry Spanish rosado or a young Rioja or similar Spanish red.

But the other night we were down at the Dartmouth Food Festival and found ourselves at the end of a tiring day sitting in the bar of a nice little boutiquey hotel called Browns drinking a light Italian red you don’t often come across called Teroldego Rotaliano

The hotel owner, James, had just started a policy of serving free tapas, Spanish style at the bar on Friday nights but because we were hungry and he couldn’t fit us into the restaurant brought out an amazing array of dishes you’d be lucky to get in London, let alone Dartmouth.

There was a great selection of Spanish charcuterie including ham carved off the bone, lomo and chorizo (sourced, James said, from the excellent Brindisa). There was superb morcilla (black pudding) on toast and morcilla fritters. There were spicy little quail Scotch eggs with a daub of chilli jam (OK, not particularly Spanish but very tasty), pan-fried prawns and a range of great cheeses including the delicious Monte Enebro. And the Teroldego went with them all.

I wouldn’t necessarily advocate looking out for it specifically to drink with tapas but because of its acidity and freshness it is a great all-rounder - the sort of bottle to order at the table when one of you is having fish and the others meat. And it's the sort of red that could handle creamy sauces.

The bottle we had - a 2006 Teroldego Rotaliano Riserva from Mezzacorona - is particularly good value. It costs £9.95 from slurp.co.uk, £10.49 from allaboutwine.co.uk which has the 2007 vintage and £13.61 from zelas.co.uk. And it’s a real find - as are the tapas in Browns.

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