Just a remonder that you can hear my wine recommendations to accompany the Bay Radio Sunday Brunch Recipe of the Week, this coming Sunday 20th November at 12:00 hrs. It’s always fun and you may discover a really good wine or two! Please join us!
Despite the salt content of Gammon this meat can be overwhelmed by strongly flavoured wines and tannic reds would feel even more harsh in the mouth. Reds just wouldn’t suit cauliflower cheese, being honest a white wine would be its best partner. So we need a compromise and why not use a rosado?
Spain is the Rosado Capital of the wine world, with a myriad of choices from light pink to dark crimson and every shade between – one rosado I know, made with the very dark skinned Petit Verdot variety is practically the same colour as most reds and in fact darker than some!
I’d go for a Tempranillo Rosado for this dish – Marqués de Cáceres in La Rioja would be a good choice, or one from Valdepeñas where the Tempranillo grape variety is called Cencibel.
French Style Chicken with Peas and Bacon
Chicken, still the wine lover’s favourite meat as it sits happily with many different wines. The bacon will make an impact too though, so we are looking here I think for a fruity red wine. You cold try Care Tinto from DO Cariñena – this very fruity un-oaked red is made with Syrah and Tempranillo and is really juicy on the palate.
Or if you like a bit more substance with your fruit try a joven (young) red from Ribera del Duero where the Tinto de Pais (aka Tempranillo) always seems to have a bigger fruit content than Tempranillo’s spiritual home, La Rioja. I think Viejo Mundo Roble 2009, which I presented at a tasting last night, would be a super match. It’s had a few months in oak, but it’s understated, being used simply to add some body and a touch of extra flavour.
Salud!
Sunday Brunch Presenters Noelle and Bob, with empty glasses!
A super dish for Spring and Summer lunches and good for weight-watchers too! I’d treat this the same way that many Spaniards treat their Paellas and order a chilled rosado to accompany it.
Chicken is happy with most styles of wine but the flavour of bacon, despite its often salty nature, can be overrun by bold white wine flavours and tannic reds. A lightly coloured rosado (in Spain rosé wine comes in all shades of red) made with Tempranillo or with Syrah will complement this dish nicely, adding to the overall taste but not overpowering the salad.
Bay Radio's Sunday Brunch presenters, Noelle and Bob
As we’ve said before, Noelle, the much lamented Keith Floyd used to say that if the wine isn’t worth drinking, don’t cook with it! Well the same applies here for me with the olive oil in this tasty tapas recipe – and didn’t we enjoy the two excellent examples of First Class Extra Olive Oils from Bodegas Roda, who also supplied such wonderful wines!
Aubocassa and Dauro are super un-refined Extra Virgin Oliva Oils made respectively in Mallorca and Empordá (Nr. Girona) – like the wines we also taste they speak of place, of terroir and it’s no wonder they are award winners!
The wines that we enjoyed with this and also the Cheese and
This should be enough for Bob and Noelle!
Garlic Filled Mushrooms are from the eponymous Bodegas Roda, Do La Rioja. The first with the tell-tale red coloured foil is Roda 2006 Reserva, using 97% Tempranillo and 3% Graciano for a touch of extra elegance and opulence.
The foil colour indicates that this wine is full of red berry fruit aromas and flavours – think loganberry and strawberries as well as red cherries, but supported by roughly 20 months in French Oak which adds dept of flavour and complexity. It’s a sensuous full wine and well worth it’s 30€ a bottle!
The next wine the Roda 1 Reserva has the same thistle motif on the label (as have the oils and Roda’s new Ribera del Duero wine, Corimbo), but a black foil, and yes you guessed it this indicates that the fruit this time is dark. Black cherry, blackberry and a little damson in there too again with a depth of flavour and complexity as well as tannin and acidy enough to let the wine mature for probably 5 – 8 more years.
The wine reflects it’s terroir with a touch of earthiness, Autumn leaves and minerality. A wine for the dinner table where it really comes into it’s own.
