Lamb, artichoke and Gevrey-Chambertin

Since lamb goes with practically every type of red wine you can think of you might wonder why I’m singling it out as this week’s match of the week.

Two reasons - one being the time of the year. Lighter dishes like this one at the 3 Michelin-starred Hélène Darroze at the Connaught call for a lighter wine than you might drink in the autumn or winter or with more robust accompaniments. The flavour of the lamb was really delicate and sweet, perfect with the wine head sommelier Lucas Reynaud Paligot had chosen, a youthful 2021 from David Duband, one of the Connaught’s own selections.

The other is the artichokes which you might think would make it a no-no with a fine red wine but the flavour wasn’t intrusive. I suspect they were cooked right down, almost confited. It’s really only an old-school artichoke vinaigrette that is problematic for wine. And how often do we eat that these days?

For other pairings see top wine pairings for lamb. And for another great Gevrey-Chambertin match see here. (No, I don't spend all my time drinking Gevrey-Chambertin. Unfortunately!)

I ate at Hélène Darroze at the Connaught as a guest of the restaurant

Steak tartare and Provence rosé

It’s back to the usual drizzly grey grot this Monday morning but the past week has been glorious.

Definitely rosé weather which prompted my friend Andy Clarke* and I to crack open a bottle of Provence rosé at one of my favourite Bristol restaurants, Little French, the other day.

You might think that was odd as we’d both opted for steak. Andy, an onglet, in my case a steak tartare. But actually the wine - the By.Ott from Domaine Ott worked with both

In my previous post on steak tartare I wrote “Not the very pale Provence type but a Bandol rosé would be lovely.” I take that back - a good quality pale Provence rose is spot on too, especially with a fresh crunchy salad on the side. (And chips, obviously!)

You can buy By.Ott from various Indies in the UK, normally for around £25 but a wine merchant called De Burgh has the 2022 for £19.99 though I'm guessing they'll move on to the 2023 if that sells through quickly

* BTW Andy has a new book on gin coming out if you’re keen on cocktails and although I’m not much of a mixologist myself I’ve had great success with his recipes.

Roast veal and Gevrey-Chambertin

My general rule is not to buy burgundy or other expensive wines on a wine list because the mark-ups are just too painful but celebrating a friend’s big birthday at Bouchon Racine in London the other day it proved too hard to resist.

We’d chosen a sharing plate of best end of veal with morels and pommes mousseline (buttery potato purée) and were looking at light reds such as Beaujolais but kept being drawn back to the higher reaches of the list. Eventually we couldn’t resist a 2021 Frédéric Magnien Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes which sounded rather too young to drink but we hoped would hit the spot as indeed it did.

It was heady and fragrant, full of wonderfully pure fruit which showed off the delicate flavour of the veal and morels and an unctuously creamy sauce.

Sure, it would have been more affordable if I’d cooked for my friend or he for me and one of us had brought along a older bottle but then neither of us would have got our hands on such amazing ingredients and cooked them as well.

You can buy the wine from Yapp Brothers for £56 t which is obviously not cheap but not bad value for burgundy, especially Gevrey.

Occasionally it’s good just to splurge.

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