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Food and Wine

I wouldn’t hold myself up as any kind of food expert – I need all the advice I can get. But I have learnt a few things, going round eating with wine farming folk most of my life. One was to ignore the Old Commandments; red with meat, white with fish and nothing with salads or chocolate cake.

At my first big meal in Bordeaux I had claret with lampreys AND strawberries – though not at the same time – and Sauternes with goose liver. Sure, I didn’t feel too good afterwards but all is still wonderfully memorable after 30 years. Since then it’s got much more confusing as there have been huge changes in the world of wine.

Today however …

We have red wines that taste like white wines – fruity, with crisp acidity – and whites that taste like reds – tannic and heavily oaked. Light, fruity reds work well with fish so the rules have changed … maybe there are no longer any hard and fast rules!

Laithwaites’s rough guide

Some say there are still basic principles – but I’m not sure about even that. What I suspect is that if you are a cook with some flair i.e. someone who instinctively knows to add a dash of this or a pinch of that and your dinner invitations are always accepted, then you should apply your talent to wine choice by thinking “does it need something with bite, acidity, sweetness, unctuousness or whatever?” If you decide you want to complement or contrast, go to it. If a touch of lemon juice would improve a dish then try a tart Chenin or Chardonnay. And if dry chicken could use an unctuous sauce then don’t serve a bone dry white or red, serve something sweeter and richer. Use the full spectrum to fit your taste ideas; everything from port through to vinho verde. On the other hand if you lack this ability with flavours play safe and let the wine waiter (or your regular cook) dig out a bottle. Keeps everyone happy. Alternatively you can always follow the serving suggestions accompanying each wine on the site.

Break the rules (if you still believe there are any)

Never be scared of the unconventional – upside down can work. My most memorable cheese matches have been with white, not red wines. Cold Sancerre straight from the cask with new, still warm goat’s cheese … Gewurztraminer with a lethal Munster … sweet Muscat with oily Roquefort. (They’ve been drinking Sauternes after dinner with cheese for years in Bordeaux. Similarly the Germans will show you that semi-sweet Riesling is more than happy to accompany heavy, red meat dishes like stewed venison).

Practise makes perfect

Confusing, this wine and food business, but the main thing is practise. It’s tough going. You’ve got to put in the hours every day, armed only with corkscrew, knife and fork. It’s hard at first, no gain without pain, but the rewards will come when peak performance is achieved. And at this game I firmly believe you don’t ‘peak’ much before your late nineties.