Tonight's wine and food matching quest - what to drink with Saltimbocca?

Alison's cooking (Saltimbocca was the first meal she cooked for me!) and usually prefers Pork tenderloins to the more traditional veal. I think it is as much to do with food ethics, which has been featured a lot (and rightly so) in recent weeks on British TV, as flavour. Actually, I think I prefer the flavour of the Pork to the Veal. For those of you who fancy having a go and don't have a recipe, here's a good one from Delia (the pic is from her web site too).

Whichever meat you go for, the tricky bits of this food and wine combination are a) the Marsala used in the cooking an b) do you drink white or red wine with Pork. Taking the points in reverse order, I've never been one for 'wine conventions' - I've drunk red wine successfully with oily fish, and had a big white wine with lamb and it worked well. So, it is just a question of flavours really. The main ones in this dish are Marsala, Sage and the prosciutto.

Later today I'll post what we decided on to drink. Meanwhile, if you have any suggestions...

9.30pm, update on wines...

Seghesio Arneis 2006: Originally, when thinking of wines that would go with this dish I thought of a big, full-flavoured Italian white - maybe even a Tuscan Chardonnay. Felsina Chardonnay or Isole e Olena Chardonnay would have been great - if only we hadn't temporarily sold in the sale! So, in the end, I settled for Italian grape variety Arneis, but grown in the warmer climate of California. Arneis is one of Italy's oldest and most distinctive varietals, and this is Californian version is made by Seghesio in the Russian River Valley. Not a cheap wine @ £15.79 (although has 10% off in our current sale), but is certainly flavour packed. Reminds me somewhat of a Viognier - peachy, stone-fruit flavours, ripe and juicy. Worked very nicely with the sweetness in the marsala.

De Morgenzon Chenin Blanc 2005: Made by Sultan of Chenin, Mr. Teddy Hall, this is a wine that certainly swings! Produced from 35 year old low-yielding bush vines a mere 10 kms from the sea, this is wine with richness, but balanced by the Chenin's natural freshness and acidity. Touches of spice on the nose from the French oak, and a complex honeyed finish. Teddy Hall says it is the best wine he has ever made - high praise indeed. How did it go with the Saltimbocca? Pretty well actually? There was a lovely marriage of flavours between the Sage and prosciutto and the honeyed character of the wine. The touch of spice from the oak worked well with the Marsala - all in all a big wine that didn't overwhelm the food, but complemented it it pretty nicely. Of the two white wines it was a clear winner.

However, in the end, I decided to spoil us (well, it is Saturday night!)... in the interests of fair play, a red wine should have a chance too...

Martinborough 'Te Tera' Pinot Noir 2006: Having something of a New Zealand Pinot 'thing' at Surf4Wine at the moment - I will blog about the new wines in next few days - there are quite a few :) Anyway, I couldn't resist trying my favourite foodie red grape out with this dish. 'Te Tera' is young vines too young to go into the Marinborough Pinot Noir. Boy, what a lovely combo of smoky, slightly fleshy Pinot ripe red fruits (cassis?). Worked fabulously with `Sage, and the ripe fruit worked pretty well with the sauce too.

... Oh, what a perfect day!

You don't necessarily wake up expecting any day to be that much different or better from the previous one (after all, today was the day of Alison's latest MRI scan, which always leaves us feeling apprehensive - Alison has recurring breast Cancer. The way she, and many other suffers of this disease that I have met through Alison's treatment, deal with such life-changing circumstances with strength, good humour and positiveness puts the rest of everyday life into perspective), but sometimes a bunch of little things happen to make a day perfect. Well, perhaps just a little better than yesterday at least!

Today started off with good omens. Some code changes we'd been looking to make to the back-end of Surf4Wine were brought online by Kelvin, our resident web genius, in the early hours of this morning. And he was still online from the night before as I was stuck in traffic on the way into the office; me being a law-abiding driver didn't look at Blackberry/read any emails, I could just hear them pinging in! Gotta love a Blackberry in a traffic jam - makes you want to get to office even quicker to read the mail - or pull over like I did and use opportunity to get a large coffee and catch-up with Surf4Wine techy advances!

Between Kelvin and I we have some great plans for Surf4Wine over the coming months, so be sure to watch this space...

Anyway, zoomed into the office and then straight to the train station to head to London to one of our favorite importers annual tasting at the Oval Cricket ground. As I turned the corner crossing the road coming towards me was one of my all-time favourite England cricketers - Alec Stewart. I didn't rush up and ask for an autograph, but it was another sign of a good day ahead!

Tasted some lovely wines - which I'll no doubt mention over the coming days. Couple of stand-out wines, amongst many good ones: Paul Jaboulet Aîné were showing an impressive line up, and there were some very good new wines from Italy, Spain and Portugal. Plus some new vintages from down-under, including John Duval 'Entity' and Plexus. If you've not heard about ex-Grange winemaker John Duval's wines check out Jancis Robinson's John Duval write-up. 2005 is current vintage of both wines, with 2006 arriving in May this year. If you haven't tried them before then I urge you to - both are 10% off in our current sale.

Then it was home by train just in time to grab supper and settle down in front of the TV to which my favourite team get yet another beating by Arsenal. Yes, I am the eternal optimist, but I had begun to wonder if we would ever beat them. Well, I don't wish to offend anyone on here who might not share the same footballing pleasures as me... it's taken us 9 years, but Spurs finally beat Arsenal... and what a game! Anyone that reads this and get a ticket to Wembley for me and my boy will earn my eternal gratitude - not to mention a very large bottle of Devaux Champagne!

A perfect day!

Just a quick Blog tonight... it's been a long day today!

But I had to tell you about the wine we drank tonight chez Chapman: La Soula Blanc, Vin de Pays des Cotes Catalanes 2004. Quite amazing. After being in the wine trade for 20+ years (includes years in hotel trade) I try not to use the word 'amazing' too often.

This baby definitely qualifies. Sure, there are bigger, more full-throttle, 'in your face wines' about than this one. But this wine score top points for individuality and interest, as well as being very well made. It's an extreme wine in an area that usually make pretty non-descript whites. This is one of the exceptions, and so, amazing.

Grown at altitude high up in the hills of the Coteaux des Fenouilledes, this wine is mix of Marsanne and Grenache, plus some Chenin Blanc (yes, of all things, Chenin Blanc in Languedoc!).

The nose reminds of a Cottage garden on a wet day; slightly damp herbs and grass with hints of Summer flowers - touches of fennel even. Citrussy notes too - lime? M'mmm, distinctly herby in fact. Pronounced acidity on the palate, (from the Chenin Blanc no doubt), but managing to be balanced with a big, rich, herby/lime infused palate. Lots going on, but still stays focused

This wine caught me by surprise. Richard Kelley MW recommended it to me back in the Summer and, unusually, I bought it without trying it. Glad I took Richard's advice now!

La Soula Blanc, Vin de Pays des Cotes Catalanes 2004

Was £20.50, now £16.51 in our January Sale

 Drank this tonight with a lovely Risotto made with fresh stock from last night's roast chicken (Mrs C likes to stretch the housekeeping). A quite lovely match, with the wine having enough flavour to work with the Parmesan and herbs in the Risotto, and enough acidity to cope with the creaminess of the food too.

Maybe I'll take the remaining bottles myself, unless someone beats me to it...

Livio Felluga 'Shàrjs' 2006, one of my favourite 'food' wines on our list, and just aching to be tasted for Wine Blogging Wednesday

The theme this month is white wines from Friuli-Venezia Giulia, hosted by Jack and Joanne of Fork & Bottle

Livio Felluga emigrated from Istria in Croatia, and established his property in Brazzano in the 1950s. Convinced of the winemaking potential inherent in Collio and the Colli Orientali of Friuli, he bucked the trend of the times and started buying vineyards. He now has an amazing property, covering 160 hectares in Rosazzo of which 135 are under vine. Recently revitalised by Livio’s four children (Andrea, Maurizio, Elda and Filippo), the estate is now well on the way to reclaiming its rightful place among the great producers in Italy. The energy injected into the estate by the younger generation has been harnessed by consultant viticulturalist/winemaker Stefano Chioccioli. As a result of their combined work, the whites have acquired more intense and focussed flavours, while the reds have a ripeness and suppleness that is seldom achieved in Friuli.

Livio Felluga 'Shàrjs' 2006 is made from 70% Chardonnay 30% barrel-fermented Ribolla Gialla. White peaches on the nose lead onto flavours of stone fruits with a distinct mineral edge. Lovely 'bite' of acidity adds freshness to the rich yet elegant palate.

Enjoyed this wine tonight with a stir-fry. The white peaches/mineral-style worked well with the vegetable, and the had enough flavour to cope with the Ginger, Chile and garlic. However, good as this was my perfect food for this wine is oven-roast sea-bass - very tasty and great match.

A real wet and blowy evening here in Oxfordshire. Just the night for a 'big' red, and they don't get much bigger than this!

But for such a big wine the southern Rhône-styled 'Ned and Henry's' Shiraz Mourvèdre 2004 from Dean Hewitson has very good balance, making at a not bad accompaniment to the roast Quail. To be fair, tonight's supper was trailed as the more gamey Partridge by Alison - hence deciding on such a substantial wine when I called into the warehouse earlier this evening.

Quail is a lot more delicate than Partridge, and not nearly so gamey (somewhere between chicken and Pheasant perhaps?) so I was hoping that the wine wouldn't swamp the food flavours. It just about worked! Pepper and cloves in the wine worked really well with the smoked Bacon that Alison had covered the Quail in to stop it drying. The dark red fruit flavours of the wine made a nice contrast to the lightly gamey meat.

This might be a 14.5% big Aussie red, and so potentially too big and gutsy as a true 'food wine'. But it worked out pretty well with some tasty Quail as a heart-warming supper on a chilly January evening.

Buy Dean Hewitson wines@ Surf4wine

Having spent the today tasting the wines of Jean-Claude Boisset in London (see earlier Blog post) , among them some top-notch Pinot Noir, I could be seen as a something of a gluten for punishment by opening Omrah Pinot Noir 2006 to drink with the Chicken Risotto Alison had made for supper.

The Omrah Pinot Noir actually had a lot in common with the Pinot Noir's I had tasted earlier. Low-ish yields and fully ripe fruit have made for good concentration - a moderately priced New World Pinot that actually smells and tastes like Pinot, which isn't always the case. Too much that passes in the name of Pinot Noir, both from France and elsewhere, lacks any resemblance to what good Pinot should be - light to medium in colour, with cherry and red fruit aromas and palate are often described as either red berry fruits, or fleshy and gamey - the latter usually as it ages. Pinot is prone to disease, very sensitive to terroir - a notoriously difficult grape variety to get the best out of.

So, all the more refreshing to taste a good Pinot at well below £10 a bottle (All Omrah wines, made by Plantagenet vineyard in Western Australia are, in my opinion, very good value for money - but then I suppose I would say that, wouldn't I!) A wonderful aroma of cherries and fleshy/gamey notes. Ripe and really juicy style on the palate. Again, fleshy, almost meaty, hints of wood-smoke. All together a very nice glass of wine, with more than a nod to the good Burgundy tasted earlier in the day.

Early start in the office today, then a dash to catch train to London to taste 2006 Burgundies from Jean-Claude Boisset and Jaffelin.

I was interested to read Jamie Goode's Blog yesterday about Burgundy 2006 and cheese - today's tasting was at the Cinnamon Club near Westminster Abbey and lunch paired white and red Burgundy with modern Indian cooking. This might have seemed a bizarre idea at first, but I have had some very successful pairings of good Indian food with wine, particularly big reds without too much tannin. So, I was almost as eager to see how the food/wine pairings worked out as to taste the latest vintages from two of our favourite producers.

The Burgundy 2006's on show, some 37 wines, showed good style - typical of what I have come to expect from Jean-Claude Boisset winemaker Grégory Patriat. Grégory is on record as saying 'As a rule, I like atypical wines which fly in the face of tradition and conventional wisdom. My Pommard Premier Cru wines have a rather feminine, lacy character, while the Savigny is rather rustic, with ripe, tightly-packed tannins. That's the way the terroir gave them to us, so let's not try and change the style ! Although it's true that I have a preference for fruity, rounded wines, I also like them to be able to last over time.' We were lucky enough to welcome Grégory to Oxford twice in the last two years to showcase latest vintages, and so we have got to know his style well and it is good taste the wines of a new vintage to see how he has worked with what nature gave him.

Those with infinitely more knowledge of Burgundy than me have often written that Burgundy is as much, if not more, about the producer as the vintage. Find a good producer and stick to him. Burgundy can be a nightmare with a myriad of producers, villages and vineyards. So finding a good producer that can produce the best a vintage can each year is a must and that is what we have done, I think, in working with Jean-Claude Boisset. Jaffelin is part of the Boisset group (which is huge and J-C Boisset is only one small part) and we brought a couple of their wines on board last year - so I was looking forward to tasting a greater range today. At Surf4Wine we do not pretend to be Burgundy specialists or experts, but I do love good Burgundy, so wanted to have some benchmark wines on our list - we have, in my opinion, found those with Boisset, and also, now, Jaffelin.

I'll blog about some of the individual wines in another post, but what about the wine and Indian food? Well, it kinda worked. There was a lovely lightly spiced Salmon starter that worked very well with the St. Aubin 'Sur Gamay' 2006 - this was largely because the Salmon wasn't too spicy and the St. Aubin was rich with a touch of spice, working well on that best of food and wine pairing notions - partner like with like. Sometimes extremes or opposites work but the other, lighter white Burgundy (I even forget which other white wine they choose, so unfriendly was the combination!) was overwhelmed by even the mildest spice.

The main course was Squab Pigeon , which was a tad too hot for me (I love Indian food, but not too hot. I like the spice flavors and combinations, but not too much heat from the Chilli). This needed a 'big wine to work with it rather than be blown away. The Gevrey Chambertin I brought in from the tasting room worked pretty well with touches of spice and some rich, ripe cherry flavours to match up to the richness of the food.

All in all, a fascinating wine tasting, and some more than interesting food and wine combinations that if just seen on paper might well have not been believed. All goes to prove that the proof is in the eating (drinking!).

See our full range of Jean-Claude Boisset wines.

Happy New Year from all at Surf4Wine!

Our Blog has been a bit quiet in the last few weeks as the Christmas rush took over. Our New Year Sale event went live in the early hours of 1st January - some great bargains with Bin Ends saving a massive 17.5% until end of the month, and 10% off everything else (excluding gifts) until 6th January. Definitely the place to be if you want to grab a post-Christmas bargain.

We have some great ideas lined up for you in 2008, so watch this space!

In the meantime, enjoy what is left of the last few hours/days of the Christmas/New Year holiday... I'm off to sample one of our latest arrivals from New Zealand. More about those soon!