Tuna Provençale Wine Matching

Vincent Bakx asked which wines would complement Tuna Provençale, a tuna (fillet) dish which includes lemon, red onion, black olives, cherry tomatoes and passata.

Our wine suggestions

Forget the white with fish mantra, the meatiness of fresh tuna and robustness of the other Mediterranean-inspired ingredients means this dish demands a red wine to stand up to all those flavours. Whilst this recipe has plenty of flavour, it's not as the heaviest of dishes (a red meat dish would be considered heavyweight) so this points towards medium-bodied reds.

We've already identified the flavours as Mediterranean, so there's another clue as to where to start your wine search. Provence, of course, (hence the name of the dish) or perhaps better still Italy, whose red wines are so tomato friendly and also possess excellent acidity, to complement the lemon and balance any oil used in cooking.

The Sangiovese grape has a natural affinity with tomatoes because of its high acidity and cherry flavours. It also makes medium bodied wines, so matches the weight of this dish. In cool vintages the wines tend to be tannic, and fish dishes simply don't have sufficient fat to cope with that, so select from a good vintage only. Sangiovese dominates in Tuscany, so this is the region to look at. Try Poggio Nibbiale's 2006 Morellino di Scansano, or perhaps Berrys' Chianti.

From Provence you might try 2007 Les Aurelians from Domaine de Triennes. A blend of grapes, this is high altitude estate and cool nights means the grapes ripen slowly, resulting in elegant and not overtly fruity wines.

One final grape to consider is Pinot Noir. This works brilliantly with fresh tuna and as long as you get a fruity example, it should stand up to the other ingredients too. California's Au Bon Climat estate produces a medium Pinot from their Santa Maria Valley vineyards, New Zealand's ARA estate is another source of medium Pinot.

...or if you fancy splashing out look to Pinot's homeland, Burgundy, and select from a ripe vintage. Domaine de Montille's 1er Cru Beaune Perrières  from 2006 would be my choice.

Wine Club Recipe Matching Service

You’ll find lots of ‘rules’ about matching wine with food on bbr.com and also within your Wine Club members’ binder, but for complicated recipes sometimes it can be difficult to understand exactly which flavour to match the wine with. Berrys’ food and wine matching expert, Nick Page, provides wine suggestions to Wine Club members’ dilemmas.

This service is available to all Wine Club members. Send your request to wineclub@bbr.com

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