Match of the week

Cold roast pork with apple and Chardonnay

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on April 6 2009 at 12:15

I had a reminder last week of just how good Chardonnay can be with meat given the right accompaniments.

It was at a new South-African owned London restaurant called High Timber and was rather an elaborate starter of pulled shoulder of Middle White pork, served cold with balls of poached apple, apple and vanilla purée and a crisp wafer of crackling.

The restaurant owner Neleen Strauss suggested a glass of full bodied 2008 Jordan Chardonnay (Jordan are co-owners of the restaurant) which was an excellent pairing, matching the pork weight for weight and picking up on the apple and vanilla. An old vine Chenin Blanc would have been worked too - and you could of course serve those ingredients rather more simply.

I also found the Jordan Merlot a pretty good match for the cheese selection I picked out which included a Tomme Brule, a Pecorino and a Brillat Truffe (a Brie-like cheese layered with truffles) though it struggled a bit with a Fourme de Maury, a blue cheese spiked with Maury wine just as a Stilton can be spiked with port. Maury would in fact have been better.

For a full review of the restaurant click here

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