Sometimes, (and I mean not often), you choose a wine that turns out to be the perfect pairing with the dish you’ve prepared.
We always try and match the wine to the dish we’re eating if we’re organised enough to think about it in advance. Sometimes, I’ll change direction in the kitchen and Nigel has already brought a wine out of the cellar and sometimes, it just doesn’t work as well as we thought it would.
And then, there are times when you really nail it. Bang on. Last night was one of those nights.
Nigel was cooking and had had his eye on a Jamie Oliver recipe for some while. Hot and sour rhubarb with crispy belly pork and noodles. All things we love and as the rhubarb has just started pusing in the potager, the ideal opportunity to give it a try.
Rhubarb is whizzed up to a marinade with garlic, ginger, honey, five spice, chilli and soy sauce. The pork roasts slowly in the marinade until tender and then is stir fried until crispy.
A bowl of plain noodles in the bottom of the bowl, the crispy pork and its sauce, some roquette leaves, freshly sliced chilli and spring onions, lots of fresh coriander and half a lime squeezed over the top.
Hot, sour, sweet, spicy, delicious.
Nigel had already given some thought about what might go well with the dish. He opted for Peter Hahn’s Clos de la Meslerie 2016 Vouvray which has a little residual sugar but also high acidity.
Wow! Just a match made in heaven. The hot, sweet, sour of the dish perfectly complemented by the slightly sweet, zingy freshness of the wine.
Embrace these wines that have high acidity and a touch of residual sugar. A drier wine would NOT have gone anywhere near as well. What’s more, there is no notion of sweetness as it just blends in with the dish.
