Food Matching The matching of wine and food is one of those mine fields in which only the brave or the foolhardy walk happily! Meat Beef or steak Lamb Pork Veal Offal, stews and the like Fish White and flat fish Oily and round fish Smoked fish Poultry Chicken and Guinea Fowl Turkey Duck Game Grouse and pheasant Rabbit Hare Venison and wild boar Miscellaneous Pasta and Pizza Indian food Chinese Thai Vegetarian Deserts & Cheese Puddings Cheese Oily and Round Fish How are you going to enjoy your fish?: Plain grilled or pan fried Hollandaise or similar sauce Cold with mayonnaise Provencal or other tomato sauces back to the start menu again >> White and flat Fish We now need to consider what sort of sauce you may be going to have with your white fish: Plain grilled or steamed Hollandaise Meuniere Lemon butter Dieppoise back to the start menu again >> Chicken and Guinea Fowl How will you be enjoying the chicken or guinea fowl? Plain roast (probably with all the trimmings!) With a dark sauce e.g.sauce chasseur With a cream sauce Cold with salad and so on back to the start menu again >> Turkey How will you have the turkey? It's Christmas - how do you expect?! With a rich dark sauce With a cream sauce Cold - help me to cheer up the left-overs! back to the start menu again >> Duck How will you be having this duck? Plain roast With a fruit-based sauce e.g.duck a l'orange Pot-roasted or casseroled back to the start menu again >> Beef How will the beef be cooked? Plain roast - or plain steak, or 'en croute' With a dark sauce like chasseur With a cream or mushroom sauce With a mustard sauce With tomato or provencal sauce back to the start menu again >> Lamb How will the lamb be cooked? Roast, or grilled lamb chops Madeira or Reform type sauce With mint or other strong flavoured sauce back to the start menu again >> Pork How will the pork be cooked? Plain roast - with wonderful crackling With a cream sauce With a mustard sauce Chops, with sage or whatever With any apple or calvados flavourings back to the start menu again >>   Matching Wine and Food - Meat Roast beef, or a plain steak can be one of the most delicious dishes going - and we shall assume that you will undoubtedly be able to get it cooked just exactly as you like it, from the finest herds! Firm wines go best with these firm uncluttered flavours, and either claret or burgundy would do - or Rhone, or Italian! back to the start menu again >> Rich sauces with beef are going to need rich flavours to compliment them. Many of the wines which you might chose to serve with game will serve well here. Remember also that flavours like madeira, often found in these sauces, will overwhelm many fainter wines! We would suggest a Chilean Merlot. back to the start menu again >> Beef with a creamy sauce can be quite difficult,as there can be a surprising richness, which unusually for a cream sauce,will require quite a robust wine to cope with it. Mushrooms add their own particular flavour of course, which so wellcompliments pinot noir, but wild mushrooms are the quintessential flavour to be desired! We would suggest a South African Shiraz, or a Californian Cabernet Sauvignon. back to the start menu again >> Beef with a mustard or spicey sauce is going to present the palate with a whole hefty challenge! The problem here is going to be to find suitable strong flavours thatcan still work together in harmony, enhancing, rather than cancelling each other out. Strong young tannins will be helpful. We recommend a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon. back to the start menu again >> Beef in tomato and similar sauces requires a fairly simple matching flavour in the wine. Somehow, finest wine and tomato just don't seem to get on that well, although of course tomato is a wonderfully versatile flavour. We would suggest a Merlot or Beaujolais Villages. back to the start menu again >> Roast lamb, or plain grilled lamb chops always seem to us to provide the ideal accompaniment for claret! That being said, of course, there are now so many alternatives in a similar style that we must not be too inflexible! We do need subtle flavours, though, to properly enhance the delicacy of young lamb. We recommend a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, or a Rioja. back to the start menu again >> Lamb with full flavoured dark sauce assumes that the sauce is in fact subtle enough not to overpower the flavour of thelamb in the first place! We need a wine with sufficient flavour to compliment the strong sauce,but not so much flavour as to competely clog the palate! We recommend a Chilean Merlot, South African Pinotage, Rioja or an Australian Cabernet Sauvignon. back to the start menu again >> Lamb with mint sauce, while it may be traditionally British, is generally regarded with horror by wine lovers everywhere! The problem is that the taste of vinegar, as generally used to make 'English' mint sauce, can absolutely kill a wine, making it taste ofvinegar too! In order to compete, we need a wine with substantial flavour of its own,which may in turn be too much for the lamb. Perhaps a sauce made withoutvinegar... please! We would suggest a Chilean or Californian Cabernet Sauvignon, Italian Cabernet, or a Merlot. back to the start menu again >> Roast pork with crackling... one of those all-time delicious dishes for Sunday lunch! Pork chops witha bit of kidney (which of course you can't get nowadays!)... The slightly sweet flavour of the meat is actually probably bestcomplimented by a slightly flowery wine, as tannins will tend to taste rather harsh. The gamay grape seems to us to have a particular affinity with plain pork, although there are several other possibilities. These include a Cotes de Ventoux, and a Domaine de BelAir Brouilly. back to the start menu again >> Pork in a cream sauce can be really rather rich. It therefore needs a wine which has both flowery fruit tocompliment the meat, with sufficient acidity to cut the cream. May we suggest a Mediterranean Red (by Rene Barbier). back to the start menu again >> Pork in a mustard sauce is actually not as difficult as you might think! The mustard will not be a particularly pronounced flavour, but rather it will balance the richness of the pork, allowing the wine to add its own dimension. We suggest a Beaujolais Villages. back to the start menu again >> Pork and apple - one of those classic combinations. Surprisingly, the flavour of apple can bring out the best in many red wines, although it does also serve to show any difficiencies that may be present.Indeed, there is a saying in the wine trade that you 'buy on an apple,and sell on cheese'. That is to say that while cheese will flatter most wines, any problems will be shown up by the acidity of the apple. We will be brave and suggest Les Tenanceaux Chinon, or a Domaine de la Madone Fleurie. back to the start menu again >> Veal - outdoor reared, of course has a delicate flavour that can easily be swamped by too enthusiastic a wine. The delicacy of flavour can work with some white wines as well as subtle reds. We recommend a Valpolicella Classico, or a Dry Riesling. back to the start menu again >> Offal, stews and so on may seem to be totally dissimilar, but in fact produce a range of flavours which will match well with similar wines. We are looking at full rich flavours, which are not that subtle, but rather robust and full bodied. We suggest a Cotes du Rhone or a Chateauneuf du Pape. back to the start menu again >>   Matching Wine and Food - Game Feathered game is probably eaten nowadays slightly less well hung than in the past, which is probably as much due to improvements in refrigeration techniques as to an actual change in taste! This means that it is the actual taste of the meat that is savoured rather than that of decay! Feathered game still has a far greater depth of flavour, though, than its domesticated cousins, and so needs full flavoured wines. We tend to prefer claret and similar styles to accompany these birds. back to the start menu again >> Rabbit now is really very similar to chicken in flavour, but those who are lucky enough to still be able to obtain wild rabbit will be aware of just how much more interesting rabbit can be than any battery reared chicken! While it has a good depth of flavour, there does remain a delicacy which must be respected when selecting wine. There are so many ways to cook rabbit that blanket recommendations are difficult. However we would suggest a Rioja or Chilean Merlot. back to the start menu again >> Hare must always be served well hung! This gives a huge depth of flavour, and most methods of cooking only enhance this. We are not going to concern ourselves with the merits of includingchocolate in hare receipes here, but more with the inherent strong gamey flavours here. Burgundy, Piemonte and the Rhone will provide our favourites. back to the start menu again >> Venison and Wild Boar are becoming more and more popular, as much because of the fact that they are healthy options as to theflavour! Low in unsaturates, high in flavour, free range and delicious - what more could you ask? We would suggest a South African Cabernet Sauvignon. back to the start menu again >>   Matching Wine and Food - Fish Plain grilled or steamed white fish needs a light delicate white wine which will not overwhelm the taste of the fish... may we suggest a Mediterranean white, or a Petit Chablis. back to the start menu again >> Hollandaise is a difficult sauce to match! The combination of butter with egg yolks and lemon gives both richness and delicacy. Too much acid will kill the taste; too much flavour would be just too much! Unoaked chardonnay and lighter sauvignons are ideal. back to the start menu again >> Meuniere - The butter means that we need a wine with some acidity to cut through, but not too much so that the delicate flavour of the fish is overwhelmed. A light oak is now possible, as long as the flavour is not too pronounced. back to the start menu again >> Lemon butter is an interesting combination, with thelemon allowing rather fuller flavoured wines to be enjoyed without the fishflavours being compromised. back to the start menu again >> Dieppoise - The combination of flavours, together with grapes,in the sauce make this a dish which does not need too much acidity, or toomuch body in the wine. back to the start menu again >> Plain grilled or pan fried oily or round fish - The slightly oilier flesh of these fishes means thatwhen chargrilled, pan fried, barbecued or whatever, a wine is needed which has quite high acidity to cut through that oiliness. Wines that do not have this crispness will tend to taste rather flabby,and will rather overpower the palate! One or two red wines can work well too; one should always be prepared to experiment! May we suggest a sauvignon blanc, or dry reisling. back to the start menu again >> Cold fish seems somehow to be able to stand rather more robust flavours than the same fish will tolerate when it is hot.The texture of mayonnaise requires a degee of acidity to cut through it. We suggest a Chilean sauvignon, or a pouilly fume. back to the start menu again >> Fish with tomato and similar sauces gives us the chance for a little experimentation! The tomato flavour can certainly stand certain young red wines,while some whites just will not do at all!. We would suggest a chardonnay, or perhaps a fleurie.