Must grouse wine matches be classic?

I’m always in two minds about whether to write about the beginning of the grouse season. After all only a tiny number of people will be sufficiently interested - or well-heeled - to bag the first birds that arrive on restaurant tables this evening.

However grouse will feature on menus over the next few weeks and I’ve been rethinking my recommendations. Up to now my view has been that grouse is such an expensive luxury that it deserves a venerable bottle of top red burgundy or Bordeaux. "I'd go for a burgundy like a Chambolle-Musigny but a mature red Bordeaux or a Côte Rôtie would be equally delicious" was what I wrote a couple of years ago.

But the fact is that most chefs now cook grouse as rare as roast beef and I’m not sure that a younger bottle of the same type of wine mightn’t be better with the season’s first birds. And that could easily be pinot from less traditional areas such as Central Otago and Martinborough in New Zealand, Australia’s Mornington Peninsula or Yarra Valley, Oregon or from California’s Anderson or Russian River Valleys whose wines often outperform mediocre burgundies. Or a vivid young syrah rather than a venerable one. Just because you’re paying a fortune for your bird doesn’t mean you should necessarily pay over the odds for your wine, especially if you're eating out.

Later in the season when grouse gets gamier you might want to reach for more complex wines - the Domaine Tempier Bandol I wrote about a while back would be fabulous but younger less expensive southern French mourvèdres would be fine too. And last year I successfully paired it with a dark brambly Georgian Saperavi.

I found restaurateur Tim Hart of Hambleton Hall in Rutland was with me on the mature mourvèdre front but was still basically a burgundy man "The same whether it’s August or November" So is cookery Rowley Leigh who used to offer a special selection of burgundies 'at prices way below normal margins' at his former restaurant Le Cafe Anglais because, he said, 'we heartily believe in drinking Burgundy with grouse'.

Henry Harris, formerly of Racine in Knightsbridge was prepared to concede "there might be some difference in a couple of weeks as the birds get more fragrant and the heather seems stronger" but was still inclined to stick to France. "Day one an elegant Bordeaux, as the season progresses a Rhône."

So, there you go. Maybe I’m now out on a limb but if you’re lucky enough to be having grouse more than once I’d try it both ways.

If you want to have a go at grouse yourself there's a great recipe here from Bristol chef Stephen Markwick with whom I collaborated on A Well-Run Kitchen.

Photo © Robin Stewart at shutterstock.com

How to pair beer and food

I was recently asked the question: “What am i looking for when matching beer and food? Do I want a beer with a similar taste or should I be looking for a contrast?”

Good question because beer actually behaves differently in many ways from wine as my son Will and I explained in our book An Appetite for Ale:

“As you’ve probably already discovered beer behaves differently from wine when it comes to food. Most lack acidity and tannin, two qualities that help wine match well. But it has other qualities such as bitterness, sweetness, carbonation, lower levels of alcohol and, most importantly, a range of flavours you simply don’t find in wine (chocolate, smoke and caramel to name just three) that more than compensate.

The most significant of those is bitterness, not likely to bother you if you’re a beer lover but which may bother friends you’re trying to get to share your enthusiasm. So far as food is concerned it’s a double-edged sword. It can be intrusive and jarring, much as an over-exuberant use of oak can be in wine, but also incredibly refreshing especially with foods that are sour, salty, fatty or in other ways palate-coating like chocolate and cheese.

There are two types of bitterness, hop bitterness and roasted malt bitterness. Hop bitterness works fantastically well with spices which is why IPAs are such a great match for spicy food while roasted malt bitterness has a palate-cleansing quality which can help with such disparate foods as roast or barbecued meats, cheese and chocolate. With a rich chocolate dessert for example you don’t want yet more richness in your glass. You want something that is going to be refreshing like a bitter porter or a sour wheat beer.

Complement or contrast?
People often talk about complementing or contrasting flavours with beer but we think that’s an unnecessarily complicated approach. All you need to ask yourself is “What sort of a drink do I want with this dish or this meal?” And that’s a question of balance. If you know the flavours are going to be delicate like a salad or a seafood risotto you want a beer that won’t overwhelm them such as a pilsner or a wheat beer. If the flavours are full as they would be in a steak and ale pie or a beef stew you want a beer of equal weight like a traditional British or a Belgian trappist ale. If the flavours are extreme - very hot, spicy or sweet - you want a beer that offers some respite and refreshment.

A similar common sense approach applies to deciding the order in which you’re going to serve beers. In general it’s better to drink lighter, drier beers before richer, sweeter, more powerful ones just as you serve lighter dishes before more intensely flavoured foods.

Light or dark?
If you’re just getting into beer you may not have fully grasped that beers don’t always taste as they look. A light colour doesn’t necessarily mean a light beer as those of you who have tried strong Belgian golden ales like Duvel will know. Nor does the fact that a beer is dark mean that it’s powerful. (Think of traditional British brown ales like Mann’s or stouts like Mackeson). So let flavour rather than colour be your guide.

Carbonation - or the lack of it
The other factor to take into account when you’re matching beer and food is carbonation. Of course this is more pronounced in some beers like wheat beers or pilsners than in others such as traditional British ales and virtually non-existent in a few like strong barley wines. But, again, if your palate is likely to be under assault from deep-fried, spicy or fatty foods, look to a beer where it’s more pronounced.

Carbonated drinks also support flavours better than still ones. If you drink a peach flavoured dessert wine with a peach-flavoured dessert for example the dessert will strip the peach flavours from the wine. The carbonation of a peach flavoured lambic on the other hand will preserve the fruit flavours of the beer, cleansing the palate between each mouthful and echoing but not overwhelming those of the dessert. It means you can rely on flavour rather than strength or sweetness for the match which again makes for a more refreshing experience.

What sort of wine to buy in a bin end sale: 12 tips to help you bag a bargain

If friends and family have drunk you out of house and home over the holiday you may be looking to top up your stocks at this time of year, especially as many merchants have bin end or clearance sales. But is buying wine that way a good idea?

Supermarkets, of course, have cut price deals all the time but wine merchants generally have a promotion a couple of times a year to make way for new lines and vintages or clear Christmas stocks.

Sometimes they only have a few bottles left - not enough to put on display. Sometimes they want to shift rather more of a wine that’s simply not selling or that needs drinking up. It’s always a bit of a lottery but you stand a better chance of bagging a bargain if you follow these tips.

* With some merchants the best bargains go quickly so try and get an advance list of what’s on offer. Be ready to hit the phone as soon as the sale opens for the best bottles. If you miss them make sure to get on the merchant's mailing list for the next sale.

* Don’t take the store’s word for it that the price they're offering is the best one. Make a shortlist of the wines you fancy then compare the prices elsewhere either by Googling them or checking out a price comparison site like wine-searcher.com

* Check any ratings too. Third party endorsements are more reliable than what the merchant is saying about the wine. Of course they’re going to say it’s fabulous! Be wary of half price or greater than half price offers which smack of desperation or overpricing in the first place

* Check the vintages, bearing in mind that southern hemisphere harvests are six months ahead of northern hemisphere ones. Look for recent vintages (2015 at the time of writing) in the case of young, fresh, inexpensive wines like crisp whites and rosés. Older vintages e.g. 2010 Bordeaux should be fine with more expensive wines but it’s more of a lottery. if you’re planning to spend a fair amount check a vintage chart like Berry Bros & Rudd’s.

* If you’re in a shop look at the conditions under which the wines are kept - wine is not at its happiest stored under hot bright lights, for example. Examine older bottles for ullage - where the wine has fallen back down the neck of the bottle due to evaporation which might indicate a problem with the cork (see this rather fascinating technical explanation on the Sotheby’s website)

* Go for less familiar wine producing countries such as Bulgaria, Slovenia and Portugal or less well known regions of better known countries like Spain. Wine merchants love to take on obscure wines but can’t always shift them.

* Choose trusted producers in better known wine regions (which obviously doesn’t help if you don’t know who the trusted producers are. Which is why you need to get to know your wine merchant. Or do a quick Google search.)

* Look for deals on sweet and fortified wines like port and richer styles of sherry especially after Christmas when shops find it more difficult to sell this type of wine.

* Bear in mind that whites can age just as well if not better than reds. Old rieslings are a great buy in a wine sale. Chablis ages surprisingly well too.

* That said, bin ends tend to need drinking up - which is why they’re bin ends - so probably won't be suitable for medium to long term storage. Remember halves age faster than standard bottles and magnums more slowly

* Don’t buy your bin ends in the form of an unspecified mixed case where you don’t know the wines you’ll be getting. At least some of them will be duds. And don’t allow merchants to substitute for wines that have sold out without consulting you.

* Check the terms and conditions carefully: the delivery charge, whether there is a minimum order and whether you have to buy an unsplit case (and, if so, does that mean 6 or 12 bottles). Check whether the bottles are ‘in bond’ or inclusive of tax and duty

Finally even if you buy a wine in a sale it should be drinkable so if you get a corked bottle you have the right to return it. That said it’s easier to do so if you do it within weeks or months rather than years.

And if you have bin ends of your own at home that need drinking up how about forming a bin-end club? Here's an account of the inaugural dinner of ours!

The best of Waitrose’s white wines, fizz and stickies: November 2016

There are always so many wines at the Waitrose tasting I rarely end up doing justice to the whites but here are some bottles I’ve picked out for Christmas, along with some fizz and stickies.

So far as the whites are concerned it seems to be mainly about chardonnay this year. I don’t know whether that’s down to my personal taste or that they were showing particularly well. Frustratingly there was no indication at the tasting that the vintages we were shown were not yet available online - hopefully some will be in store though not in all branches. The previous vintage, where applicable, may be equally good but I won't have tried it recently.

Remember you have to buy 6 bottles in total for the offer to apply and that the deal ends next Tuesday November 8th.

All about chardonnay

Albert Bichot Heritage 1831 Chardonnay 2014 Burgundy £15.99 down to £11.99 Limited distribution in store.

Albert Bichot is one of the better Burgundy negociants and although this doesn’t carry a big name it’s a really elegant creamy white that would go with buttery pan fried fish or crab.

Chatel-Buis 2013 Montagny £12.99 down to £9.74

A fuller, richer style from the reliable Vignerons de Buxy co-operative in the south of the Burgundy region - good value at this price. Try with chicken pie.

Domaine Gerard Thomas 2014 Saint-Aubin Premier Cru £21.49 down to £16.12

‘Snap it up on a 25% off deal’ I wrote in my tasting notes and now’s your chance. - if you can grab hold of a bottle. It's a small parcel which isn't available online - and, I discover, only part of which is the cru I tasted (the Murgers des Dents de Chien.) Saint Aubin is one of my favourite burgundy appellations - almost always more competitively priced than better known Chassagne Montrachet. Just gorgeously rich and creamy. Would be ace with the turkey

Saint-Clair Winemaker’s Blend Chardonnay 2015 Marlborough £14.99 down to £11.24

There’s so much savvy blanc around in New Zealand it’s easy to forget they make terrific chardonnay too. Worth snapping up at this price - though note, they only have the 2014 online. Drink with all the usual suspects.

Rustenberg Chardonnay 2015 Stellenbosch £13.49 down to £9.99

And yet another sexy chard, this time from South Africa. Full, lush and opulent - tastes much more expensive than it is, especially at this price. Again the website has the 2014 though.

Other full-flavoured whites

Chateau les Clauzels 2015 Graves £13.49 down to £10.12

White Bordeaux is one of the most underrated styles of wine and this lush blend of sauvignon and semillon is as good as it gets for the price. Drink with scallops or salmon.

Cune Barrel-Fermented Rioja 2015 £10.99 down to £8.24

Like white Bordeaux, white Rioja tends to be eclipsed by its red counterpart and consequently underpriced. A lovely smooth lush white you could drink with richer fish dishes like hake or with pork. Will age at least 3-4 years.

Crisp, dry whites

La Veduta Pinot Grigio 2015 £8.99 down to £6.74

There *is* decent pinot grigio out there you know and this has a lot of character for the price. Perfect for fishy risotti and pasta dishes. Oh, and fritto misto.

Felsner Moosburgerin Grüner Veltliner 2015, Austria £11.99 down to £8.99

Better than the cheaper Markus Huber grüner Waitrose stocks this peppery Austrian white can handle all kinds of dishes from tricky to match salads to Vietnamese. A very useful bottle to have in your wine rack.

Riesling

Cave de Blebenheim Kleinfels Riesling 2015, Alsace £9.99 down to £7.49

Lovely crisp taut appley riesling to drink with smoked fish or cold roast pork. Bargain.

Louis Guntrum Oppenheimer Sacktrager Riesling Trocken 2015 Rheinhessen £16.75 down to £12.56

If you’re a German riesling fan don’t miss the chance to snap up this gorgeously refreshing grapey, appley riesling at a great price. Fragrant and fruity rather than sweet. Great aperitif or with Asian food.

Fizz

La Gioiosa Prosecco Superiore Millesimata 2015 Valdobiaddene £13.49 down to £10.12

It’s pretty hard to find good prosecco but this fits the bill. Will your guests notice? Quite possibly not (except for the rather glam bottle) but fizz under or around a tenner is hard to come by. A Which? Best Buy prosecco in 2015

Cuvée Royale Brut Crémant de Limoux £11.99 down to £8.99

Pleasantly creamy with a subtle touch of apple. Would buy on promotion, probably not otherwise. Good party fizz though.

Sweeties

Domaine Rotier Renaissance Vendanges Tardives 2012 Gaillac £14.99 down to £11.24 Limited distribution

Really lovely lush, sweet wine from the south-west of France. Would be perfect with a lighter, fruitier style of Christmas pud.

Henriques & Henriques 15 year old Verdelho £20.99 for 50cl down to £15.74

Really gorgeous madeira - sweet but with incredible acidity. Would be good with a rich paté. Perfect Xmas present for a wine buff

Curatolo Marsala Dolce £11.29 down to £8.47

Sweet, slightly orangey marsala which would be delicious with Christmas cake or panforte. Or as the base for a zabaglione. Brilliant value!

You can find my pick of Waitrose's red wine range here.