Wednesday 18th October saw the UWC hold a food and wine pairing evening at the village hall. Wine and food paring can be a little daunting but in a very informal setting we had a lot of fun looking at some typical characteristics of wine including sweetness, acidity, tannin, alcohol levels etc and matching them with some food you may enjoy at a dinner party.
The results were fantastic! Eight wines were tasted, which were paired with the following foods:
Starter: Thai spiced salad was matched with a Leckford English Sparkling Brut 2013, a great aperitif or sparkling wine that cleansed the palate after every mouthful. We also tried a Riesling called Staatliche Weinbau Domane Oppenheim 2013, which had wonderful depth and was light in alcohol which complimented the spice really well.
Main: To match a hearty beef stew we tried a white oaked chardonnay 2015 from a grower in Argentina called Rutini, unusual for a red meat, but for anyone not a fan of red wine the oaked flavour worked really well with a “heavy” meal. More traditionally we tried La Grange des Comes, 2015 St-Chinian-Roquebrun, a great French red form the Languedoc region that works really well if you make a stew with spices such as sage, rosemary and thyme.
Cheese: To match a soft camembert style cheese from France called Mont D’or we paired a white Savagnin-Domaine Jean Louis Tissot 2012 and a read Saint-Pourcain “La Ficelle” Rouge 2016. The white was sherry like in style, which often divides opinion but an excellent example of matching food with local wine. The red was good wine to go with most soft cheeses.
Dessert: Matching a wonderful cherry and amaretto cake we looked for something sweet, following the typical rule of pairing a wine sweeter than your dessert. We matched it with a Monbazillac Rech la Calevie 2013 and a Moscato d’asti, Elio Perrone 2016, both great wines that went down very well.
Next month’s meeting is at 8.00pm on the 15th November at the village hall where Brian from Upton’s Strictly Wine will be talking about wines from Italy. If you enjoy wine and want to come along to try some new varieties in a very relaxed environment then please give Ian a call on 850793.
Ian Langley