Food Match Awards 2013
Each year we select the most food friendly Gold-Listed wines, and put them to the test alongside ten popular restaurant dishes to see which matches best. Here are the 2013 winners.
Scallops
Baron de Baussac, Viognier Pays d’Oc 2011, Languedoc, France
£5.29 @ Majestic Commercial
Chablis might be the classic match, but for the third year on the trot our tasters went off-piste, this year choosing this exceptionally well-priced southern French Viognier. But don’t let the price fool you – this is a grown-up wine. ‘Viognier often has a big hit of flavour, but this is quite linear, with great structure,’ said Hakkasan Group’s Christine Parkinson. ‘It’s a food wine all right, not a glugger on its own,’ agreed Martin Lam of Ransome’s Dock. ‘And the great thing about this match is that the food and wine lift each other.’
Poached Salmon Parcels
Herdade do Esporao Monte Velho White 2010, Alentejo, Portugal
£6.60 @ Boutinot
Although the salmon came in a basil beurre blanc, our tasters were specifically looking for a match with the fish here, and this extraordinarily well-priced Burgundy proved a terrific match, with enough acidity to cut the oiliness of the fish and a wisp of oak to match the texture. ‘You don’t want a slash of acidity, it has to work gently through the fish,’ said Vinopolis’s Tom Forrest. ‘And that’s why this works so well. It’s not lean structured. It has just enough plumpness.’
Fish & Chips
Jenkyn Place Brut 2009, Hampshire, United Kingdom
£15.00 @ Jenkyn Place Vineyard
OK, it might be a bit of an indulgence to spend £15 on a wine to match fish and chips, but there’s something to be said for playing the ‘patriotic’ card so forcefully. And this really worked, with the bubbles and acidity neutralising the dish’s natural oiliness. ‘Fish and chips is eating food, not thinking food,’ said consultant Angela Reddin. ‘This acts like a little squeeze of lemon across the dish.’ So if you want a sense of place as well as a sense of plaice, this is your baby.
Mushroom Risotto
Concha y Toro, Explorer Pinot Noir 2012, Casablanca/Rapel Valley, Chile
£5.38 @ CYT UK
This dish has seen everything from red to white to (last year) manzanilla sherry, and this year it was back to red. Although the Concha y Toro Explorer is Pinot Noir, it’s quite a ripe style, albeit with some characteristic varietal softness and – the clincher here – a little smoky earthiness that really chimed with the umami in the dish. ‘That slight smokiness is toned down by the food,’ said consultant Angela Reddin. ‘It becomes a beautiful wine with beautiful food.’
Margherita Pizza
Concha y Toro, Explorer Pinot Noir 2012, Casablanca/Rapel Valley, Chile
£5.38 @ CYT UK
It’s extremely rare for one wine to pick up two separate Food Match awards, so many congratulations to Concha for its sterling performance with the Explorer Pinot. Interestingly, while it was the savoury notes that worked with the risotto, it was the softness of fruit and the integrated acidity that did the trick here. ‘The wine lifted the tomato flavours out of the pizza, and the pizza lifted the fruit in the wine. It’s a great match for a simple supper,’ said Vinopolis’s Tom Forrest.
Prawn Green Curry
Auntsfield, Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2012, Marlborough, New Zealand
£8.41 @ New Generation Wines
Babich Family Estates, Cowslip Valley Riesling 2011, Marlborough, New Zealand
£8.07 @ Babich Wines UK
The Kiwis have a good record with this dish, and they really filled their boots this year, with two wines picking up awards. For milder curries the Babich was reckoned to be the perfect match. Quite European in style, it insinuated its way gently into the spicing in the dish, creating an elegant, sympathetic match that balanced the chilli perfectly. For hotter curries, the typically intense explosion of Marlborough fruit in the Auntsfield was reckoned to be a better bet. ‘Thai food can destroy wines, so you need robust flavours,’ explained Hakkasan Group’s Christine Parkinson. ‘This has a lot of fruit, but both the wine and the Thai flavours survived.’
Roast Chicken
Monte Schiavo, Pallio di San Floriano Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Superiore 2011, Marche, Italy
£6.60 @ Boutinot
Colombo & Fille, Côtes du Rhône Rouge 2010, Rhône, France
£6.64 @ Hatch Mansfield
Chicken was described by one of our tasters as ‘definitely a bisexual meat’, meaning, presumably, that it is happy with both reds and whites. So our panel found one of each here – both at superb price points. The Pallio was a very popular wine, with plenty of typical Verdicchio acidity, but perfectly balanced by fruit. ‘You need a wine with personality, but that’s low key, too, so it doesn’t take over,’ explained Hakkasan Group’s Christine Parkinson. ‘Taut, lean, mineral and refreshing, this matches the flavours with subtlety and restraint.’ For the red, our panel admitted that they’d usually be looking to Burgundy or Beaujolais – and were surprised by how good the Côtes du Rhône was. ‘It’s got a bit of hip movement – a sassy swagger within a linear structure,’ said consultant Angela Reddin. ‘It clearly has a lot more Syrah in there than you’d expect for the price.’
Slow-Cooked Pork Belly
JJ Hahn, Reginald Shiraz 2009, Barossa Valley, South Australia
£11.99 @ Matthew Clark
This is another food match that has been white as often as it’s been red in the past. This year our tasters went New World – and relatively upmarket, too – with an elegant Barossa Shiraz, something that is starting to appear more and more from the region in this competition. ‘It picked the elements out of the pork, and balanced them with its own slight herbal note,’ said Hakkasan Group’s Christine Parkinson. ‘Although it’s quite intense, it’s got lovely acidity and some lightness too.’
Braised Lamb Shank
Borsao Selección Tinto 2012, Campo de Borja, Spain
£5.10 @ Boutinot
Bodegas Borsao is a serial winner in this competition, so no surprise to see one of its (always superbly well-priced) wines taking a Food Match award. ‘You would think that a dish like this would be easy to match, but it isn’t,’ said Martin Lam of Ransome’s Dock. ‘The flavours are developed. This wine works because it infiltrates the dish without ever taking over; it adds a soft sweetness to the savoury elements in the food. That sweet and savoury combination is very enjoyable.’
Char-grilled Steak
Undurraga, TH Syrah Limarí 2010, Limarí Valley, Chile
£9.48 @ González Byass
JJ Hahn, Reginald Shiraz 2009, Barossa Valley, South Australia
£11.99 @ Matthew Clark
Our tasters usually find a couple of matches here – one for rib-eye and one for fillet – and so it was again this year. The Undurraga was the nailed-on match for the former. ‘It’s solid – a good slab of fruit with an edginess of spices, delivered in a muscular way,’ said consultant Angela Reddin. ‘Whatever you do to the steak – from mustard to charring – it will cope fine.’ For fillet, our tasters returned to the JJ Hahn Barossa Shiraz, which followed up its Pork Belly award with another one here. The key, again, was its more dialled-down interpretation of the Barossa shtick. ‘It’s a lighter style of Barossa – not at all rich, bold and jammy – so it doesn’t overwhelm the steak,’ said Luigi Buonanno of Etrusca Restaurants.