Match of the week

Venison and amarone

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on December 21 2023 at 15:14

Believe it or not this is the 800th match of the week since I first started doing them in 2006 despite leaving the odd week out.

As I've explained before they're the most original pairings I've come across in the previous week, not necessarily the most obvious ones which you'll generally find in the Top Pairings section. Do dive in to the archives and take a look!

On to this week ...

Finding half bottles of amarone in a restaurant is a bit of a rarity so it was a no-brainer to order one at Frederick’s the other day, a restaurant I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that I remember from the 1970s

So the choice of main course was more or less dictated by that - amarone is a pretty powerful wine so doesn’t go with everything. I wouldn’t have necessarily paired it with venison either - sometimes it’s served more like fillet steak - but it was accompanied by beetroot and a rich sauce which made it the perfect match.

The amarone was a 2018 Tommasi Amarone del Valpolicella Classico. It doesn’t seem to be available in half bottles in UK retail but you can buy a full size bottle for £32 from an online shop called Drambusters or for £38.41 from Tannico. (Other stockists charge over £40 - including Waitrose Cellar where it's £44.99 - so both are a reasonable deal.)

You can see other good amarone pairings here

And more venison pairings here

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