Ginger and chilli marinated aubergine with Lacryma Christi

Recently I’ve had a bit of a thing about pairing aubergines with orange wine especially if they’re cooked in a middle-Eastern style but it was actually an unusual red that went with this dish at the Uruguayan tasting at 67 Pall Mall the other day.

It was a variety that’s more common in Italy called Lacryma Christi (tear of Christ) and is generally a blend of other grapes such as Piedirosso and Sciascinoso. This version from Uruguay was made by Fiorella Faggiani Bohemian by Fiore using minimal intervention techniques (indigenous yeasts, old oak barrels and left unfined and unfiltered) and was a vibrant, slightly rustic red not dissimilar to a barbera.

It was particularly good with the aubergine which had been marinated in ginger and chilli and topped with a pepper, walnut and watercress salad - so slightly spicy but not excessively so. And relatively modest in alcohol at 13.5%. Sadly I can't find it for sale in the UK but I'm guessing an Italian Lacryma Christi Rosso would also work.

The other pairing that was great at the lunch was a crab risotto with a liine-up of different albarinos but I’m sure you can imagine that ...

I attended the lunch as a guest of Uruguay Wine.

Chardonnay and charred aubergine with coriander chutney

When I think of coriander I rarely think of chardonnay - more like a sauvignon blanc or a riesling - but the tasting sponsored by Wine Australia at Imbibe the other week before last really surprised me.

The event pitted Master Sommelier Clément Robert against Master of Wine Sam Caporn each of whom chose an Aussie wine to go with one of three dishes prepared by Roger Jones of The Harrow at Little Bedwyn.

Admittedly aubergine is quite a rich, savoury vegetable but it was the pungent Indian style coriander chutney that really made Sam’s match with the 2016 Petaluma Piccadilly Valley chardonnay from the Adelaide Hills sing.

Why did it work so well? I think because of the maturity, quality and luscious creaminess of the chardonnay (the current vintage costs £27.80 from Corking Wines), the fact that the dish was cold and that there was a good dollop of yoghurt on the side. (Dairy often assists a wine match particularly with chardonnay.) The slight nuttiness and smokiness of the aubergine also helped but it wouldn't necessarily be the easiest pairing to pull off at home if you didn't have Roger there to cook it for you.

It is worth trying oaked chardonnay with Indian food if you're in a restaurant though. It goes particularly well with creamy curries such kormas and butter chicken

See also The best food to match with chardonnay

Aubergines with walnut sauce and amber wine

It’s hard to pick out one pairing out of the multitude of dishes we were served with amber or orange wine during my first visit to Georgia last week but I’m going for one we barely ever failed to find on the table - grilled aubergine with walnut sauce.

Amber is the name that Georgians are increasingly using for 'skin contact' white wines which are made in qvevri - large egg-shaped clay pots which are buried in the ground. The juice is left in contact with the grape skins for a period that can range from a few days to a few months and accounts for the deep colour and exotic dried fruit flavours (often peach, apricot and quince) of many of the wines.

They are more structured and tannic than a classic white wine so pick up well on bitter and savoury flavours especially walnuts and aubergines (eggplant), both of which are ubiquitous in Georgia. The two together make the perfect amber wine pairing.

We were served this particular dish at Shumi winery and it would go particularly well with their 2017 Iberiuli Mtsvane Qvevri Dry amber wine (which you can find in a Tblisi wine shop called 8000 vintages) but other richly flavoured amber wines would work brilliantly too.

You can find a similar recipe here.

I was invited to Georgia by Georgian Wines and hosted at the meal by Shumi.

Mature Marlborough chardonnay with modern Japanese food

I don’t often go to wine lunches or dinners, preferring to experiment with a range of wines from more than one country and producer with the food I’m eating but I couldn’t resist the temptation of trying New Zealand producer Astrolabe’s wine with the food at Sake No Hana in London's St James's.

The restaurant describes its food as 'modern authentic Japanese'. Although the presentation is classic the flavours and saucing are bold which is maybe why the 2014 Astrolabe Province Marlborough chardonnay stood out as the surprise star of the meal.

It was outstandingly good with a dish of aubergine with roasted sesame miso sauce, a tataki of beef with sesame and egg mustard sauce, tuna with truffle and black cod with yuzu and pretty good with the tempura prawn and beef with shiitake mushrooms. The only dishes it didn't work quite so well with were a very simply prepared tuna tartare and the sushi which went better with their lighter pinot gris.

When I came to think about it afterwards I was struck by how many of the ingredients were umami-rich with miso, sesame and truffle playing a key part in the flavour of the dish - which was, of course, the element that made the chardonnay, which was barrel fermented and aged in French oak, shine.

The fact that it wasn’t the most recent vintage helped too - the wine had had almost 4 years in bottle. And was served cool rather than icy cold which tends to numb the flavours in a mature wine like this.

Astrolabe also suggests the more conventional food pairings of poultry, pork and light game, creamy seafood and pasta dishes, mushroom risotto and paella (though I’m not quite so sure about the latter!)

Hic! wine merchants still has the wine for a very reasonable £15.75 if you feel inspired to try it for yourself or £17.80 from Armit Wines.

I ate at Sake no Hana as a guest of Astrolabe.