Match of the week

Sauvignon-semillon and seared salmon carpaccio

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on September 13 2016 at 10:58

Some weeks are tougher than others when it comes to picking my match of the week. Last week which included an excellent lunch with Carolyn Martin of Creation Wines at Sexy Fish was one.

I dithered over whether to highlight the two duck and pinot pairings - one with a duck and watermelon salad, the other a delicious, glazed honey and shichimi duck breast, kimchi and pickled daikon - but you all know about duck and pinot, right?

So I’ve gone for the salmon carpaccio and Creation’s 2015 Walker Bay sauvignon-semillon. It’s a blend that often gets overlooked in favour of the brighter, zestier flavours of straight sauvignon but I love its smooth lush texture and almost tropical fruit. Apparently it’s aged in 320 litre cigar-shaped barrels which allows more of the wine to be in contact with the lees.

The elements in the dish that made it work so well were the yuzu (Japanese citrus) and the sesame oil in the dressing which keyed in to different elements in the wine. (The viognier was pretty good too.)

Helpfully Carolyn gives detailed pairing suggestions and recipes with all their wines. I also like the sound of this simple pickled fish recipe.

For other pairings with salmon see 10 ways to serve salmon and the wines to pair with them. You can see my review of an earlier visit to Sexy Fish on the decanter.com website.

I attended the lunch as a guest of Creation Wines.

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