Wine without BS

Wine Match Challenge - Corned Beef with Mustard Sauce

This year I've had a bit of a corned beef 'revival', for lack of a better term. Growing up it was made semi regularly but my parents have always enjoyed their meat well done and my memories of overly dry beef with boiled potatoes aren't my best childhood food memories.

Having only enjoyed it cooked to perfection in recent times and enjoying it regularly as part of a New York Reuben Sandwich during my extended time in the United States this year I have started cooking it myself. As this post goes live I will be heading into the kitchen to cook it tonight using this recipe I found online

Question is, what wine do you think will pair best with this British classic?

I've done some basic searches on-line and was surprised to see an almost even amount of people recommending a white wine vs. those suggesting a red wine. The mustard sauce is fairly mild but is going to be better suited to a white wine on its own. Being beef though I am still leaning towards a red and have an relatively inexpensive Bordeaux that I am leaning towards opening.

As always with this segment though, I am keen to hear your thoughts?

Wine Match Challenge - Salmon Quiche

 

About a month or two ago I found myself re-heating some left over Salmon Quiche for my lunch, while at the same time deciding to review the Ashbrook 2010 Verdelho. The combination of the two was awful and something I won't repeat ever again, as an unpleasant metallic taste took over. I was confident that the salmon and/or the dill, also in the quiche, was what was reacting with the wine. However, a twitter follower of mine suggested that eggs are just really hard to pair wine with - full stop!

So what do you think would work? I'm keen to hear your thoughts on wine pairing suggestions for a simple salmon quiche.

Wine Match Challenge - Macaroni & Cheese

 

Who doesn't love the occasional, or perhaps regular, serving of Macaroni and Cheese! It is pure comfort food and a dish my siblings and I would often be served as kids and the Kraft pre-made packet version has to have been one of the first dishes we 'cooked' ourselves. As an adult, it is not a dish I can say I'd had in many years, however a recent trip to the USA brought a new interest in the dish. Mac & Cheese can be found very easily in America and I must confess that the examples I tried there make the packet stuff I had become a customed to as a child look pretty pathetic. One version in my LA hotel even had Lobster meat in its recipe!

This past weekend I had a proper, non-packet, version of the dish for dinner and found myself wondering, what wine will work best? I actually had two bottles of wine open already, a Cullen 09 Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon and a Penfolds Raswons Retreat Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep down I was thinking a chardonnay would probably be the best match, but decided not to open a third bottle and stick with the two I already had and I tried them side by side with the dish.

Despite being a lighter style, the Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon wasn't a disaster and actually paired better than the entry level Penfolds Cabernet. The acidity of the Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon did it's job to cut through the cheese without creating any major flavour clashes. However, I wouldn't call the pairing 'ideal', so I would love to hear your thoughts on what other wines you think, or know, will match this classic dish.

Wine Match Challenge - Surf 'n' Turf

 

Today's Wine Match Challenge comes from a recent awards night I attended where over 1,000 people were served in the Grand Ballroom of Sydney's Westin Hotel. Rather than going with the standard alternate dish, for the first time I saw everyone being served the exact same dish. The main being served by the Westin on this occasion had a slice of beef with gravy and a piece of fish with mash potato and baby carrots making up the vegetable components.

So, we have a cut of red meat covered in a traditional gravy and a piece of fleshy white fish on the same plate. Is there a single wine we could pair with that combination? Given we had a house red and a house white on offer at the function I went with a glass of each and had my red wine while eating the beef and my white when eating the fish. Two glasses of wine may be fine on many occasions but there is going to be plenty of times you'd look like a bit of a alcoholic... so the question is... what one wine will work best with this classic combination known as Surf 'n' Turf?

I am keen to hear your thoughts and suggestions on this one.

Wine Match Challenge - Achacha

This wine match challenge is a little different from the others on this site as, rather than asking for your help to find a wine to match a usually common food, I went in search of a wine to match a rather uncommon fruit, known as Achacha. Achaha is a tropical fruit originating from Bolivia and the term "Achacha" translates to "Honey Kiss". Having met the team behind growing Achacha fruit in Australia recently I was immediately attracted to the idea of finding a wine to go with this new, exotic product now available in Australia! A box of Achacha fruit arrived at my place one day and the challenge was on!

The fruit is a dark orange in colour on the outside but inside the flesh is white and delicate. It's sweet and has a really nice tang to the flavour and the fruit is related to the popular Asian fruit known as the Magosteen. I, and a few others, who tried it also found a likeness to lychees. It was instantly clear that a light, fresh and fruity white grape variety would be the only wine that wouldn't destroy the delicate flavour. So I headed off to my local bottle shop, got a trolley and started collecting a range of wines that would perhaps fit the bill!

The list of wines chosen for the challenge were: Icely Road 08 Sauvignon Blanc, Ashbrook 09 Verdelho, Andrew Thomas 09 "Braemore" Semillon, Peter Lehmann 07 Semillon Chardonnay, Innocent Bystander 09 Moscato and the Grant Burge Sparkling Pinot Noir/Chardonnay. I then invited a good friend of mine around for a much valued second opinion and we got stuck into our Achacha fruit and glass by glass tried to find a winning combination!

In the interest of full transperancy I have inlcuded our rather basic notes on each combination below.

Icely road Sauvignon Blanc: I said "Not bad"; Rob said "Too sweet"

Ashbrook Verdelho: I said "Nice! Lifts the zest of the fruit"; Rob said "Very nice. Seems to intensify the alcohol"

Andrew Thomas Braemore Semillon: I said "Works well. Harmonic balance of flavours"; Rob said "Very pleasant"

Peter Lehmann Semillon Chardoonay: I said "Not working as well as the others"; Rob said "Not in harmony with the fruit"

Innocent Bystander Moscato: I said "Very sweet! Some may like it but too sweet for me"; Rob said "Horrible"

Grant Burge Sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay: I said "Fizz takes over and cleans the palette and leaves no trace of the fruit"; Rob said "The bubbles just take over everything"

After getting through all the wines we went back and tried a few combinations again and agreed that both the Andrew Thomas Semillon and Ashbrook Verdelho are the two stand outs, but as they do different things with the fruit we could not say one is better than the other. The Semillon was very harmonious and seemed to complement the fruit and not get in the way of anything. However, if you focus on the zestier part of the fruit close to the seed, then a sip of the Verdelho gave a really nice balancing out of acid and sugar that was actually a real highlight. The tricky thing is that this only worked as well with a particular part of the fruit and the outside flesh definitely was more suited to the Semillon.

Of course, I didn't get to try every single possible wine match and two wines I'd like to try with Achacha in the future is a restrained desert wine. A Botrytis Semillon that isn't too over the top could be great. As, too, could be the new Layers Table white wine from Peter Lehmann, as if you read my review on this wine on this website you'll see it has hints of tropical fruit that I do think would complement this rather exotic fruit!

So in the highly unlikely scenario that you are ever asked "What wine should we have with our Achacha?"  at least you can now answer with confidence that a good Semillon or Verdelho should do the trick just fine! Details of the versions of each I had are below,

Ashbrook Estate - 2009 Verdelho
Price - $18  at Dan Muprhy's
Region - Margaret River, Western Australia
Recommended - Yes, one of the better examples of the variety I have tried to date.

Andrew Thomas - 2009 'Braemore' Semillon
Price - $27  direct from Thomas Wines 
Region - Hunter Valley, New South Wales
Recommended - Definitely! Clean, crsip and more enjoyable to me than the comparable Tyrells 'Stevens' Semillon.

For more information on Achacha just visit their very informative website www.achacha.com.au

Wine Match Challenge - Toasted Ham, Cheese and Tomato Sandwiches

Recently I found myself stuck at home with torrential rain outside, hungry and with very little in the way of hearty food options available. Opting for the classic toasted snack I whipped up a toasted cheese, tomato and ham sandwich and decided to polish off the remaining Brokenwood "Forest Edge" Chardonnay that I had left over from the night before.

 

 

It doesn't work! Both are great on their own but together it was less than ideal. The oak from the Chardonnay simply took over and left me wondering... what will work? My initial thoughts were that an unoaked Chardonnay may do the trick...  what do you think? 
 

 

 

 

 

Wine Match Challenge - Beef Dumpling Soup

It has been a while since I have found something worthy of putting up for my next Wine Match Challenge and tonight's dinner has provided the perfect opportunity for me to once again ask for your ideas and advice. Soup is on the menu and it is not something I have had allot of experience pairing wines to!

Beef Dumpling Soup has a few unique aspects that have me pondering what wine will pair best. It's a beef based broth with beef and pork mince dumplings with Asian flavours such as ginger and soy sauce. The beef aspect has one thinking of red wines but the fact that soup is a water based liquid that a big red would over power the broth?

Should it be something like a Pinot Grigio or Pinot Gris so as not to interfere too much with any component of the meal? Help me out and I'd love to hear your ideas and recommendations for the perfect wine to match a simple beef dumpling soup!

Wine Match Challenge - Meat Pie & Sauce

I am putting up this Wine Match Challenge after my own assumption went horribly wrong! Feeling peckish late one night I heated up a nice chunky steak meat pie, added the mandatory lashing of tomato sauce and sat down with an inexpensive glass of Shiraz. Big mistake!

The combination clashed rather badly and now I am interested in your thoughts on what would work better? Cab Sav perhaps? Maybe a blend? I look forward to your comments!

Wine Match Challenge - McDonald's

Time for another wine match challenge and lets face it, not many of us can resist the either frequent or once every so often temptation to get McDonalds! Everyone has their favorites and mine is a Big Mac and fries, but I have been known to stray onto a Fillet of Fish, McChicken and the odd half a dozen nuggets (with sweet mustard sauce!)

In some pathetic attempt to make myself feel better about eating McDonalds I never order full meals and most times will just get a burger via drive thru and head home.

So the challenge this time is what wine goes with McDonalds? Would you even dare ruin a good wine with McDonalds and vice versa ruin your fast food fix by ever accompanying it with wine?

Just interested to hear your thoughts and suggestions?

 

Wine Match Challenge - Spicy Pork Goulash

This past summer I was watching Jamie Oliver at home one evening and I saw him make the most delicious looking pork goulash that instantly had me looking forward to winter! With winter now upon us I made the dish recently and started to think about what wine will pair well with it given it has so many different flavours going on within the one meal!

Traditionally a goulash would more often use beef and be a pretty simple match with a hearty red wine like a shiraz. However, in this recipe we have pork with lots of paprika, peppers, chili, rice and its topped with sour cream that has a hint of lemon zest.

Using my Twitter account I asked the wine lovers to tweet me their recommendations for the dish and got an interesting array of suggestions howeverthere was a skew to a red blend that featured Grenache. A bit research on the internet and many foodie websites were also suggesting Grenache blends with other Goulash recipes that used pork.

So I headed down to my local bottle shop and picked up a d'Arenberg 'The Stump Jump' 2006 GSM, which is a Grenache, Shiraz and Mouvedre blend for $12. I also picked up a Cape Mentelle Marmaduke 2005 for $20. The Marmaduke is Shiraz and Grenache blend with a touch of Mataro for those who need to know! I also got out a bottle of Giant Steps, Sexton Vineyard, 2006 Chardonnay as it was suggested an oaky Chardonnay could be to go to match the pork and sour cream components of the dish!

So I sat down with a bowl full of my rather successful first attempt at spicy pork goulash (if I do say so myself) and three glasses of wine ready to see if I had found the perfect match! I can tell you straight up that none of the wines where in any way a terrible match.The Marmaduke was first and remained my personal pick for best match and the fact is I enjoyed the Marmaduke more than the Stump Jump when drinking them on their own. The Stump Jump also faired well but I recommend letting it breath or even better decant prior to serving for at least 45 mins as it did get more enjoyable with time in the glass.

The Chardonnay when served not overly cold also faired well. If you must drink white the suggestion of an oaky Chardonnay does seem to be the way to go. The red blends probably worked well as the dish is a bit of a blend of flavours itself so it makes sense not to go with any wine of particular distinction or flavour from a single variety (except in the case of the Chardonnay). A Pinot Noir would also be a likely success and if I ever find a Hungarian wine it'd be worth making again to see how it compliments the country's traditional dish!

For those of you interested in the recipe for Jamie Oliver's Spicy Pork Goulash click here . Enjoy and don't forget to share with us what wines you found went well with it!