Match of the week

Mushroom risotto with spatburgunder

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on February 8 2021 at 13:34

OK, this pairing is not rocket science - I’m sure you know that pinot noir is a great match with mushrooms and so obviously with mushroom risotto too. But you may not have totally taken on board just how good German pinot - or spätburgunder, as they call it in Germany - is nowadays.

The bottle was a half bottle of Mimus Ihringer Winklerberg spätburgunder I was sent by Iris Ellmann of The Wine Barn and was just fabulous with the most gorgeous pure, ripe but not remotely jammy fruit - quite beautifully in balance and amazingly vibrant considering it was from the 2015 vintage. (Under screwcap which was interesting). Sadly it’s not cheap at £33.65 a bottle but pinotphiles will be used to that. And it does fall into the Erste Lage classification - which is equivalent to a premier, if not a grand cru.

The risotto was one that came as part of the excellent takeaway menu I had ordered from Root in Bristol and came with a punchy chive purée which you can see I somewhat clumsily swirled into it. (Interestingly the tasting note on the wine suggests that it’s good with herbs)

I have to confess that I drank a glass of grüner veltliner I had open with a couple of the other dishes which included fried celeriac with Korean Barbecue sauce and hispi cabbage with cheese and crispy onion crumb but the spätburgunder and risotto match was definitely the highlight

You’ll be pleased to hear we’re doing a competition with Iris next month.

The wine was a sample from The Wine Barn. I paid for the takeaway.

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