Match of the week

40 day aged fillet of Black Angus beef with Henschke’s 2010 Mount Edelstone Shiraz

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on May 26 2014 at 10:25

This has been one of the most difficult weeks ever to pick my match of the week but this, by a whisker, was it.

It was part of a skilfully put together Henschke wine dinner at Allium brasserie in Bath where every dish complimented the wines perfectly.

Boldly the chef Chris Staines had decided to serve a cheese course instead of dessert in order to show off the 2009 Hill of Grace that was the highlight of the evening but as a pairing it was pipped by two other dishes, the salmon and the beef.

The salmon, which was was served blackened with wasabi oysters, pickled vegetables and ponzu jelly was matched with a very young, fresh crisp vintage of Julius Eden Valley riesling while the beef was accompanied by smoked onion, braised ox tongue and roast cauliflower - deeply savoury notes that lent the rich Mount Edelstone a velvety maturity.

Interestingly all the Henschke wines are now made from organically grown, biodynamically treated fruit - an eloquent rebuttal of the idea that all biodynamic wines are wild and weird.

I attended the dinner as a guest of Allium.

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