Match of the week

Hake with pork dumplings and Côtes du Rhône

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on October 19 2020 at 08:44

I suspect most of you know that you can drink red wine with fish these days but you may well stick to lighter reds like pinot noir. But this week’s match of the week proves you can drink a more full-bodied red if the food is robust enough.

The dish was part of fixed price menu at Breaking Bread, a pop-up restaurant on the Downs in Bristol hosted by two local restaurants, The Pony and Trap and a combined effort from Pasta Loco and Pasta Ripiena which have been closed during the Coronavirus pandemic.

As I ate with a friend who was writing a piece on the Bristol food scene we were allowed to dip into both but a dish of hake and pork belly dumpling with roasted hazelnut from The Pony was a definite highlight. Obviously the pork was one red wine-friendly element but there was also a rich deep meaty sauce which made the match with a big generous Côtes du Rhône from an enterprising co-op called Les Vignerons de Esterzargues surprisingly successful. It was the latest vintage of their Terre de Mistral (available from Buon Vino and Joseph Barnes among others in the UK) and full of vibrant fruit but not at all jammy. Just a delicious combination.

For other occasions when you can drink red wine with fish read When to pair red wine with fish

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