Match of the week
Beef stew and oloroso sherry
Last week I was at the Copa Jerez, an international wine and food competition where teams pair a 3 course menu with sherry.
(I judged the UK competition last year which was won by Gail Ge’er Li and Jaichen Lu of Dinings SW3 whose pairing of braised beef tongue and oloroso sherry I wrote about here.)
The ultimate trophy this year was won by Parsley Salon of Copenhagen in Denmark who also presented an oloroso as their main course pairing.
We enjoyed oloroso a couple of other times during the three days we were in Jerez, in both cases with a beef stew. As a ‘racion’ (more substantial tapa) at Valdespino and as the main course of beef cheek at an utterly splendid dinner at Lustau where they paired it with their Colleción Almacenista Garcia Jacana Oloroso Pata Gallina which you can buy from Waitrose Cellar for £22.99 a 50cl bottle.
Most of us obviously think of drinking red with a dish like that but if there were just the two of you - and you were both sherry fans - a glass of oloroso would be the perfect accompaniment. (Many supermarkets do excellent half bottles for less than this, quite often made by Lustau. Morrisons has one for £6.50 for example)
I attended Copa Jerez as a guest of the organisers
Beef stew and Bordeaux
Coming home to the UK after 10 days in the Caribbean was a bit of a shock to the system especially when we were snowed in on Friday so I leapt at a neighbour’s invitation to come round for a hearty beef stew.
I took round a bottle I’d been tasting, the 2015 Chateau Castera Cru Bourgeois Médoc, which paired with it perfectly although the stew was actually made with beer rather than wine. Although not cheap (£17.50 online at Exel Wines) it was an exceptionally well balanced wine (a blend of 65% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% each Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot) and, it turned out, a platinum medal winner at last year’s Decanter World Wine Awards.
It proves again that classic British roasts and casseroles go really well with claret - which, of course, accounts for its historic popularity in the UK.
For other options with Médoc see What food to pair with red Bordeaux
The picture is a stock image, not the dish we had at my friend's!
Haggis and Westmalle Dubbel
If you’re going to or hosting a Burns’ Night dinner tonight and want to create a bit of a stir, crack open a bottle of Westmalle Dubbel, a classic Belgian Trappist ale that is still made by monks at the monastery of Westmalle. You could of course drink a Scottish beer - there are plenty of good ones - but haggis to my mind needs a bit of roundness, sweetness and strength, qualities you find more often in Belgian than British beers.
Haggis is quite gamey and also tends to be accompanied with a rich gravy that can knock lighter bitters and hoppy IPAs off their stride. The Westmalle Dubbel is a powerful 7%, rich and sweet. It would also be great with a beef stew or steak and onions and with cheese. (The monks make their own at the monastery but it also works well with those strong, stinky, difficult-to-match cheeses that are popular in Belgium and Northern France.)
RSS
Most popular
.jpg)
9 great wine pairings for duck (updated)
My latest book
How to Drink without DrinkingNews and views
.jpg)
Fine Wine and Fast Food
About Fiona
About Matching Food & Wine
Work with me
