Match of the week

Mackerel and artichokes with Mademoiselle rosé

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on April 11 2016 at 08:55

As I’ve been down in the Languedoc for the past week most of my food and wine combinations have been classic. Picpoul and oysters (always great), a rich grenache/syrah/mourvedre blend called Cascaillou* with a beef daube (spot on) and my wine of the week, Mas des Chimères Oeillade (a cinsault) with grilled lamb and herbs.

But the most intriguing pairing was, on the face of it, the trickiest. What do you pair with mackerel, artichokes, brandade and aioli? Answer, it turns out, a dry rosé.

The dish was a somewhat fancy one from Le Bistrot d’Alex, the restaurant attached to the enterprising co-op at Florensac but tasted better than it perhaps sounds. A roughly crushed brandade (salt cod purée), served with grilled lisettes (baby mackerel) accompanied by grilled artichokes topped with aioli. The artichokes were the most dominant flavour which is always fine by me.

The wine, which is made by the co-op and sells for around 6€ is a remarkably good one despite the girly label and being called Mademoiselle. Well worth picking up a case if you’re in the area. My friends, who are taking a car back loaded up with 10!

* from Domaine La Croix Belle. Unfortunately they only make it in limited quantities - it doesn't even feature on their website.

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