Match of the week

Grilled octopus and Baga

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on May 21 2018 at 22:49

Octopus seems an unlikely ingredient to be on trend but you’ll find it on a lot of restaurant menus at the moment. It’s far from an easy creature to cook (like squid it’s classified as a cephalopod rather than a fish) and it’s a measure of the kitchen’s skill as to whether it turns out tough or not.

Bar Douro, an appealing little wine bar in Flatiron Square just down the road from Borough Market passed with flying colours - it was deeply savoury and beautifully tender, served with deep-fried and puréed sweet potato .

I had been drinking a white at the time it appeared but immediately thought I’d prefer a red once I tasted it. They suggested a 2015 Nossa Calcario Baga from the Bairrada region from a woman winemaker I very much like called Filipa Pato together with her husband William Wouters.

For a wine that was awarded an impressive 96 points by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate it was listed at a very reasonable £12 a glass. (It retails for about £32.50 from importers Clark Foyster.

It showed the fine texture and delicacy Portuguese reds are capable of and suited the octopus very well. I also remember enjoying a baga with suckling pig a while back. It’s obviously a very good food wine.

I ate at the restaurant as a guest of Bar Douro.

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