Do try this at home ... it works!
Monday, 27 March, 2006
Lesley Beake
A different perspective on food and wine matching.
There is an increasing move towards the concept of wine tasted (as it most often is drunk) with food, rather than in the isolation of a flight of tasting glasses. In fact a recent media function hosted by Swiss Air to publicize their award-winning wines did just that, presenting the tasters with three delectable portions of delights with which to taste each of three flights - a starter plate, a mains plate and a sweets plate - with four wines in each flight. It's a fine idea, and one that would lend itself perfectly to informal tasting at home or in wine clubs. For those who don't have a team of chefs and assistants in the kitchen (i.e. all of us) an easier route would be to spend a happy hour in one of our many wonderful delis (and increasingly even supermarkets), and buy a selection of the best affordable 'styles' of food with which to taste and compare different wines - and how well they work with food. Katinka van Niekerk, one of South Africa's best known, and best loved practitioners of the art of pairing wine with food (and presenter of Nederburg's 'The incredible journey of Tastes: Food and Wine pairing at Nederburg' courses, which show us how to enjoy both), has given some thought to what those 'styles' could be - and paired them with five Nederburg wines - all of them readily available in South Africa and elsewhere, and all of them posing different challenges and potential matches with the food. Preparations are simple. The organiser will need to assemble five bottles of wine (listed below) and thirty glasses for six guests - six is a good number to start with as one bottle of each wine will suffice and the management of the food and wine is not too complicated for such a small number. The glasses can be as simple and straight forward as you wish. An inexpensive option is to buy tasting glasses from a wine merchant or retailer - or (even cheaper) ask the guests to bring their own. The table is prepared with the line of glasses, poured from left to right and numbered 1 - 5, and a napkin. Three plates will be served - starter, mains and cheese with sweet - and the wines will be refreshed as necessary. All the wines can be tasted with all the possible variations on the plates, and discussion (argument, indeed!) is encouraged among the assembled guests. It's a fun way to have a great time, and learn a good deal at the same time. The wines Katinka suggests are: Wine One: Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc Wine Two: Chardonnay Classic (lightly wooded) Wine Three: Rhine Riesling (off-dry) Wine Four: Private Bin Shiraz Wine Five: Noble Late Harvest Next visit your delicatessen or supermarket and shop for small portions of different foods to taste with the selection of wines (with all of them, or just some of them). Some matches will be absolute heaven - some won't work at all. The fun is in tasting and testing, discussing and debating. It's not particularly expensive, as the quantities of food involved don't have to be large, there is no cooking involved - and at the end of it everyone has enjoyed a good meal. (Katinka has provided some crib notes to assist!) Plate One: The starters. Three small portions chosen from ... A little pt? (pt de foie gras would be good, of course) but a jolly good chicken liver or a rich country-style pt soaked with brandy would be just as good. The idea is to compare the richness of the food with the wines. Amazingly (shockingly) the pt will love the Noble Late Harvest - and will not object too much to the Riesling or the Chardonnay. Then a little mouthwatering salad - any kind that looks gorgeous - with a little vinaigrette - maybe pesto with tomato and mozzarella. Or rocket with lemony-vinaigrette. This kind of salad is going to love the Sauvignon Blanc (and, more surprisingly, the Riesling again) while a salad with an egg-based sauce (such as mayonnaise) or creamy dressing is going to prefer the Chardonnay. Plate Two: For 'The Mains' choose from ... Beautiful, cooked, unsmoked ham, perhaps with a ripe fig, or a piece of melon - the Riesling will adore it! Smoked fish - anything that looks lovely, from smoked salmon, to salmon trout ... haddock, snoek ... smoked eel ... anything that looks good when you shop. This choice will like the Chardonnay (smoke meets smoke). And a slice (or three) of beautiful, moist biltong, or any other salty game meats will complement the Riesling or the Chardonnay, while a slice of rare roast beef will be fabulous with the Shiraz. Plate Three: The cheese and sweet plate None other than beautifully Brie, soft and with the rind cut off, served with as many biscuits as you like, or slices of French bread (butter too, if desired, the cheese and the wine will be calling the shots here) that will just sing to the lightly wooded Chardonnay. The second cheese should be a piece of blue, preferably Roquefort or Gorgonzola which will be good with the Sauvignon Blanc, but superb with the Noble Late Harvest (bonkers about it, in fact) when the weight of the cheese meets the weight of the wine and the delicious contrast of salt and sweet. Mmmm. The third cheese should be an Appenzell, which was just made for Shiraz. It has the wildness of the Shiraz, and a leathery pepperiness that works wonders with the wine. If that isn't available, a piece of very old Cheddar (at least twelve-months old) would do instead, or a mature Gruyre ... oh, and maybe a bit of goats' cheese or some Mozzarella, which will take to the Riesling and the Sauvignon Blanc. This plate seems to have more on it (we wonder why!) but a selection of different flavoured chocolates, milky and nutty truffles - Noble Late Harvest! Noble Late Harvest! Noble Late Harvest! (Or try a tiramisu or an eggy sweet dish like a custard or lemon tartlet, or a fruity piece of cheesecake). Also notice how less successful the Noble Late Harvest works when the chocolate gets darker. At 70% cocoa, nothing will save it except a brandy! Note: Beware of stampedes in your local deli after this article hits the Internet. Having written up the interview with Katinka, I am now going straight out to get some of these things and start experimenting - I trust you will too. Enjoy!