Pairings | Dolcetto

The best wines to pair with beetroot

The best wines to pair with beetroot

Beetroot is one of the few vegetables that pairs better with red wine than with white - not only for the colour though that tends to put the brain on auto-suggest - but its rich, earthy sometimes sweet flavour.

What type of wine pairs best with Vietnamese food?

What type of wine pairs best with Vietnamese food?

Sunday marked not only the start of the Chinese New Year but the Vietnamese New Year celebrations too - known as Tet. As in China there are certain foods which are traditional to the occasion such as pickled vegetables and candied fruits, none of which are particularly wine-friendly but in general I find Vietnamese food, with its milder heat and fragrant herbal flavours easier to match than Thai (although I haven’t had such extensive experience of doing so).

Bagna cauda and the new Dolcetto

Bagna cauda and the new Dolcetto

Food and wine writer Marc Millon recounts a memorable celebration of the new vintage last week with his Piemontese winemaker friends

West African pork and peanut stew with Heartland Dolcetto & Lagrein

West African pork and peanut stew with Heartland Dolcetto & Lagrein

Quite an adventurous pairing this week which you might have thought on paper wouldn’t come off. A hot, spicy pork and peanut stew and a glass of Ben Glaetzer’s bold, ripe 2010 Heartland Dolcetto & Lagrein from South Australia's Langhorne Creek.

Bagna Cauda and Arneis

Bagna Cauda and Arneis

I could have chosen any one of the pairings at the ‘An A to Z di Vini Divini’ wine dinner at Bocca di Lupo last week as my match of the week but this is one of the most useful ones as bagna cauda, an anchovy, garlic and olive oil dip with raw vegetables isn’t the easiest dish to pair.

The best of the new Blind Spot wines from The Wine Society

The best of the new Blind Spot wines from The Wine Society

The Wine Society has had a range of exclusive Australian wines called Blind Spot which are made for them by winemaker Mac Forbes for a while.

Beetroot soup and English Pinot Noir

Beetroot soup and English Pinot Noir

The other day I enjoyed a surprisingly good pairing of a beetroot soup with an English blend of Pinot Noir and Rondo from Kent winery Chapel Down at the London restaurant Roast. I say surprising a) because soup is difficult to pair and b) because the two are so similar in colour that you’d think the wine wouldn’t be a sufficient contrast to the soup. In fact its fruitiness and crisp acidity (the Rondo making it taste more like a mid-weight Italian red) was just the right counterpoint to the earthy rich character of the beetroot.

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