Fresh clementines and Jorge Ordonez Malaga Seleccion Especial

No Christmas goes by without some wine pairing discovery and this year it was the delicious Jorge Ordonez Malaga Seleccion Especial no. 1 2007 with some simple fresh clementines we had at the end of a post-Christmas meal with friends.

Despite the contemporary packaging I’d expected the Malaga to be similar to those I’d tasted before: dark, treacley and oloroso sherry-like but in fact it was wonderfully light and fresh. The wines, which are made in conjunction with famous Austrian sweet wine producer Kracher, are unfortified and aged in stainless steel.

The Seleccion Especial is apparently made from grapes that are dried on the vine and has a more concentrated almost orangey flavour than the accompanying ‘Victoria’ cuvée which is very fresh and, grapey and which I would love to try with Asian-influenced desserts with tropical fruits and mangoes or with light airy fruit-topped gateaux.

Surprising though it may sound it’s unusual for a wine with orangey notes to go with oranges, or in this case clementines. The fruit often strips the character out of the wine but this was just delicious. I suspect it might even work with Christmas pudding if you wanted a light, refreshing contrast.

The wines are easy to source in the States, slightly less so here in the UK though according to wine-searcher.com it is stocked by Cambridge Wine Merchants at the very reasonable price for this quality of £14.99 a half bottle. Hangingditch in Manchester has it for £17.50 Roberson in London for £17.95, and Harrods for a rather outrageous £19.95 (how on earth do they justify that mark-up?)