"food and wine matching" news and stories

Of course my earlier piece on matching wine with salad could be viewed as a little simplistic. Salads rarely come "undressed." A little mayonnaise or a light sprinkling of the extra virgin olive oil shouldn't make much difference to your wine choice, but throw in more strongly flavoured dressings and the wine selection might need to be adjusted to cope with the flavours

Vinaigrettes - vinegar is a killer to wine (try lemon juice instead) but crisp dry whites, Vinho Verde, Sauvignon Blanc, Romorantin, Verdicchio might be OK.

Creamy Dressings - need a creamy wine to match. Chardonnay springs to mind but go easy on the oak.

Blue Cheese Dressings - another tricky one. Never found anything that could be called a 'great match' but a Sauvignon Blanc should work OK.

Coriander or Garlic Dressings - a friend of mine is mad about Coriander (I'm expecting a Coriander cheesecake any day) but in a salad it is back to the herb-flattering Sauvignon Blanc.

Soy Sauce Dressings - rosé here, people

Barbecue Dressings - going more towards barbecues here rather than salads, but Merlot and Zinfandel should pop up on your list.

For me a picnic just isn't a picnic without some leafy bits pocking out from the Tupperware. Of course being Slash-foodies we don't just throw a bag of ready mix into the cooler, no sirr-ee-bob. Seeing that salads are generally light fare involving little actually cooking a white wine or a rosé are a better match, generally, than a red. And who wants a hefty glass of red under the sun anyway?

Party/Layered Salads - often there will be more than one type of salad on the go at once, especially at picnics. I would go for an Australian white wine.

Seafood Salad - throw in some prawns, a little tuna or crab and the salad is a different kettle of fish. Here go to a Sauvignon Blanc (Sancerre for example), a crisp Italian white or a Muscadet. If the seafood is up-market (lobster or langoustines for example) move the price of the wine up too. Go for a decent Chablis.

Meat Salads - anyone adding roast beef to the green stuff? Or how about duck breasts? Here is where a light red should work better. The Loire again comes into the frame with Chinon or go to Beaujolais and serve it slightly chilled. If there is chicken or ham in the mix I would go back to an unoaked Chardonnay.

Salad with Cheese - match the wine to the cheese. Sauvignon Blanc with goat's cheese, a dry Riesling with blue and the like.

'Native' Salads - here I am talking Greek Salads go for a Greek wine and the like; Spanish ingredients call for a Spanish wine etc. But places like Scandinavia (these throw dill and cream together) do not have much in the way of wine production to pick from. So for these go for light Chardonnay's. Cucumber Salads with yoghurt and mint would be better with a Sauvignon Blanc.

Decanter has the ultimate food pairing. But the duck is the restaurant not the food.

The three Michelin starred restaurant, the Fat Duck in Berkshire, UK, played host to one of those food and wine matching events that only the ultra privileged seem to get to (moi, jealous?). The meal was in celebration of the release of the £220 a bottle Dom Perignon Rosé.  Apparently some matches were not hugely successful with the 1996 vintage deadened by the oyster and passion fruit (oh, shame), and "several diners said they would have given anything for a glass of pinot noir with the pigeon"; its a hard life... 

However the star of the evening was the 1978 - which some smart-alec thought had a touch of liquorice to the flavour matched with snail porridge, bacon and egg ice cream, and salmon in liquorice

So next time you fancy a slurp on your Dom Perignon '78 of a Thursday evening you know what to throw in the microwave.

The March issue of Delicious Magazine has an article on eight lighter style reds that can be served chilled. Although don't over-do the time in the fridge.

1. Tesco Finest Beaujolias Villages, 2004, France (£4.99 Tesco) "rounded, soft, fruity and very moreish"
2. Marks & Spencer Macon Rouge, 2004, Burgundy, France (£5.99 M&S) "a blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir... juicy and smooth"
3. Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits Pré Royal, 2003, Burgundy, France (£7.99 Oddbins) "silky, soft, rounded redcurrant character"
4. Brown Brothers Barbera, 2002, Victoria, Australia (£5.99 Morrisons, Asda) "very smooth and rounded wine with lovely red-berried flavours"
5. Lingenfelder Dorndelder, 2002, Pfalz, Germany (£7.09 Oddbins) "well worth a try. so light and tangy"
6. I Castei Valpolicella Classico, 2003, Veneto, Italy (£83.40 per six John Armit) "this one is wonderful, packed with black cherry and plum fruit and with a twist of sour cherry on the finish"
7. Cono Sur Pinot Noir, 2005, Rapel Valley, Chile (£4.99 widely available) "great-value Chilean red"
8. Louis Jadot Beaujolias-Villages Combe au Jacques, 2004, Burgundy, France (£6.99 Waitrose) "a little richer than most but still fresh, easy drinking"

Irish chef Paul Rankin has a regular column in Fresh Magazine where he creates dishes to accompany a certain wine; or maybe he has the dish and then picks a wine to go with it. Either way this month he has some superb wine-food combos that I can't wait to try.

Caesar Salad with Tabasco Onions - the key here is the dressing (mayonnaise, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and anchovies) matched with a Rhone rosé. The version he has selected is the Ile de Conas Rosé de Syrah, 2004, Languedoc, France (£4.98 Asda) described as "has a much more complex flavour than many" although I am sure any decent heavier rosé would suffice.

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