Sauerkraut and orange wine

I could of course have written about wine pairings with schnitzel this week having spent four days at Austria’s major wine fair VieVinum in Vienna but it merely confirmed my view that grüner veltliner is a pretty unbeatable match. (Along with beer!)

However what was a revelation is just how well orange grüner - even a fairly wild example - pairs with sauerkraut and dumplings, the sauerkraut in particular.

Stands to reason when you think about it. The sourness of sauerkraut offsets the slight sourness of an orange wine. But they also (my friend Ruth Spivey and I had a different one each) went with the grammelknödel (roughly translated as pork scratching dumplings) that were served with it at an excellent little restaurant we found called Glacis Beisl.

You’re going to ask exactly which orange wine aren’t you and I’m going to have to confess I’m not sure given they they didn’t bring the bottles, just the glasses. (My excuse is that we were preoccupied with Ruth’s gorgeous baby, Bob)

However I did at least take a picture of that page of the wine list and am pretty sure it was the first two.

Anyway do remember this next time you’re in a restaurant that serves sauerkraut or choucroute and look to see if there's an orange wine on the list - although riesling does work too as you can see from this post.

Sausage rolls and orange chardonnay

I admit orange wine is the last pairing I would have thought of with a sausage roll. Especially a high-end orange wine like Radikon’s.

But credit to Guy Field, the manager of the new Farm Shop wine bar for suggesting it.

Farm Shop is an upmarket food shop in South Audley street with a surprisingly large but cosy wine bar underneath with over 200 wines, many by the glass.

The current list includes the Radikon Slatnik orange chardonnay from the Friuli region of north-east Italy  at £13.50 a glass which is not unreasonable given the average retail price is around £45-48 - rather more from the Farm Shop but we are talking Mayfair.). It’s an intensely rich wine - quite unlike any chardonnay you’ve ever tasted - and utterly delicious. If you’re out of London you can order it online from Buon Vino.

We drank it with the wine bar's take on a ploughman’s (above) which also included ham, cheddar, pickles and a terrific scotch egg and it was a really excellent pairing almost in the way a strong, artisan cider would have been although I hasten to say it didn’t taste remotely cidery. It would work well with other pork dishes too including roast pork

I ate at the bar as a guest of Art Farm.

Okonomiyaki and orange wine

Our experience of Japanese wine is so limited in the UK that it came as quite a surprise to find three wines I would never have expected in a small restaurant and natural wine bar called Pasania in Osaka - a pinot noir, a kerner and an orange koshu.

Koshu is the variety that most often makes it over here but is on the whole relatively unexciting, or has been in the past at any rate. Maybe I need to revisit it as this orange version - Coco Farm & Winery's F.O.S. (fermented on skins) - was luscious, as aromatic varieties so often are.

It went perfectly with the restaurant’s speciality, okonomiyaki - a delicious umami-rich pancake made with cabbage and in this case, pork, squid, shrimp and octopus. (If you're unfamiliar with it - and a Brit - imagine a cross between bubble and squeak and a tortilla.)

Pasania is one of the restaurants in Osaka that is listed on the Star Wine List website. You can find the others here.

By the way you need to make a reservation as they don’t have many seats or take walk-ins. There’s a full explanation on their website  but don’t be put off - it’s worth it, especially if you're a natural wine fan.

Braised cuttlefish and artichokes with orange wine

This week’s match of the week was a toss up between this pairing of orange wine and braised cuttlefish at Emilia in Ashburton and a delicious tuna and crab taco with a cracking margarita at Zapote in Shoreditch but I reckoned you know that tacos (fishy ones especially) are great with margaritas and it’s always a struggle to know what to drink with artichokes.

Six of the best drinks to pair with tacos

As I’ve said before it’s much easier to pair them when they’re braised or grilled than when they’re boiled, French-style with a vinaigrette or if they're partnered with other more wine-friendly ingredients - in this case cuttlefish and white beans.

I knew from past experience orange wine goes well with octopus so thought it would go with cuttlefish and it did, brilliantly, thanks partly to the wine being so delicious.

It was a deeply coloured 2021 skin contact Malvasia called Giandon Bianco from Il Farneto in Emilia Romagna with really lovely apricot and quince fruit. You can also buy it from the natural wine shop Highbury Library in London for £21. I think orange wines work particularly well when they’re made from aromatic grape varieties like malvasia and pinot gris

You might also find these articles helpful

Pairing wine and artichokes

The best food pairings for orange wines