Matthew Fort’s Thoughts on Food and Wine

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An inexact business

Let’s face it, matching wine to food, or even food to wine, is an inexact business. What seems to one thoughtful gastronaut as a marriage made in heaven may strike another as being a) boring or b) misguided or c) bonkers or d) a case for the gastro divorce courts. However, the search for that exquisite elision is an endless cheery process of exploration and discovery.

My ambitions are clear. All I set out to do is to make suggestions of pairings, not holy writ carved in stone. Some will be led by the wine. I have a bottle of the Domaine des Coteaux des Travers Reserve Rasteau 2009. A very upmarket Côtes du Rhône Village. A dinner party wine in its own right, rich and velvety, with a prickle of herb essence around the edges. What’s going to go with that? A fine, full flavoured daube, perhaps. Ok, let’s call it a stew, beef or even mutton. Not fancy enough? Well, lievre a la royale would do, wouldn’t it? Perhaps a bit too rococo. But if you want a bit more in the way of plate poetry, then perhaps saddle of venison, sauce grand veneur would suit. Or saddle of hogget crusted in pepper.

 

Suggestions by dish

And some will be suggested by the dish. Fish pie. Everyone loves fish pie. What do you want to drink with fish pie? Well, it rather depends on what has gone into it. There will be white fish, yes. There is a school of thought that abhors salmon in a fish pie. I kind of agree with that, although I wouldn’t go to the stake for it. And there should be hard boiled eggs in my view. But more depends on the weight of shellfish in your fish pie (just prawns? Or lobster or langoustines) and what has gone into the stock that forms the basis of the sauce. Just fish? Or prawns shells, too? Or lobster shells? Will it be Saint-Bris, Clotilde Davenne Sauvignon 2009? That would just about hold up with a fairly simple fish pie, without too much shellfish in it, but up the shellfish quotient, and I think you need the Chablis Domaine de la Motte Beauroy 2006. Premier Cru weight, another level of richness.

 

A moveable feast

Finding the right combination is something of a moveable feast. For example, you’re trying to decide what to have with rare roast beef. You could might think, aha, just the moment for the Chorey-les-Beaune ‘Marvine’ 2007, all those nice, bright berry notes bouncing off the suede and musk of the meat. But what if you add the gravy made with beef stock, onions and some other red wine to the equation? And the mustard and the horseradish and the Brussel sprouts and roast potatoes, and suddenly the whole business of sweet concord in the mouth becomes rather more complicated. On the other hand, you may well decide, dammit, I love the Chorey-les-Beaune anyway, and well have it. Anyway, enough of palaver, theory and principles. It’s time to make a few practical suggestions. I’ll start with the wines and the dishes I think would go well with them. I will add to them over the forthcoming months. If you have a loin of pork, and you want some ideas for recipes and wines, you can do it that way. Or if you have the wine, and you want some dishes to go with it, you can do it that way. Some of the dishes will be my own, in which case I will give the recipe. But I will also be scouring recipe books old and new for inspiration.

 

Get in touch

Talking of inspiration, if you have any bright ideas, feel free to get in touch via foodandwine@fromvineyardsdirect.ie. While I have what I call a consuming interest in food and wine, I don’t pretend to be the fountainhead of all wisdom on the subject. Only an ass would pretend to be.

And there’s one final practical observation. It’s all very well for a well-upholstered chap with a ranks of open bottles in front of him to mix and match. On the home front, things to tend to be rather simpler. Unless you’re stupefyingly rich or wantonly curious, it’s unlikely that you’ll be opening up a range of wines in the hope that one will be the bee’s knees on this occasion. One kind of wine per dish will do for most of us, even if you get through several bottles of it. And the pleasure in it will not come from some mythic marriage of flavours, but in the bright eyes, smiles and well-being of those with whom you share your table.