Match of the week

Ox cheek ragu and nero d’avola

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on January 13 2020 at 11:10

Nero d’avola may not be a grape variety you’re familiar with but in a recent blind tasting of 25,000 consumers carried out by Majestic it proved by far the most popular choice

So maybe it’s no surprise that it worked with a hearty pasta dish like the ox cheek and porcini ragu I had at Bomboloni in Bristol at the weekend.

The wine in question was drier than the appassimento style that proved so popular with Majestic’s customers (when you see appassimento on a label it indicates a sweeter style) but it was a lovely warm, rich wine called Plumbago which sounds like a painful back problem but is in fact a Sicilian flower.

I was chatting so busily to my friend that I failed to notice the vintage we were drinking but you can buy the most recent 2017 vintage from Exel Wines for £13.24 a bottle or £14.50 from winedirect.co.uk (£13.66 if you buy a case)

Here are some other nero d'avolas from an article I wrote for the Guardian a couple of years ago, if you're interested in knowing more.

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