Match of the week

Italian cheese and a Provence red from Microcosmos

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on June 3 2015 at 10:55

I don’t often pair red wine with cheese, let alone make it my match of the week but the Italian cheeseboard I had the other day at Bocca di Lupo in Soho proved a great pairing for a highly unusual Provencal red

Well, actually, the grapes (old vine Carignan and Grenache) are grown in Provence but the wine is made in Marseille at Fabienne Vollmy’s quirky urban winery Microcosmos Chai Urbain.

I was actually attracted to the tasting and lunch because she also makes Vermentino about which I have a bit of a thing at the moment but this deliciously wild, ripe, unfined, unoaked red handled both the cheeses - a pecorino and a deeply savoury red wine-washed cheese (a good style of cheese for red wine). I think the candied orange peel also helped.

The wine, which is called Cargo*, also paired well - more predictably - with lamb chops

All Fabienne’s wines are made in tiny quantities - she’s a true garagiste - but the Cargo is available in the UK for £237 a case from The Burgundy Portfolio.

* Named because the winery is only a few hundred metres from the port of Marseille.

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