MatchingFood and Wine

Chardonnay
Key Flavours: Lemon, melon, pineapple, butter and vanilla (when oaked).

Key Regions: Chardonnay’s home is Burgundy, where it used to make the world’s finest white wines, including Chablis. For the best New World Chardonnays look for top Californian producers such as Au Bon Climat and Ramey Wine Cellars, or top Kiwi producers like Isabel, Dog Point and Felton Road.

Key Food Matches: Most Chardonnays are very food friendly wines and are excellent with poultry, pork, rich shellfish and white fish.

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Chenin Blanc
Key Flavours: Wet wool, beeswax, honey, apple and almond.

Key Regions: In France’s Loire Valley glorious Vouvrays and hedonistic Coteaux du Layons are produced; especially good examples are made by Domaine des Forges and Gaston Huet. From the New World it’s hard to beat South Africa where Joostenberg and Waterford Wine Estate produce world-class wines.

Key Food Matches: Dry style: Simply prepared fish and salads. Medium style: Fish in rich sauces. Sweet style: Fruit tarts and almond based pastries.

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Gewurztraminer
Key Flavours: Lychee, rose petal, white peach and spice.

Key Regions: The Alsace wines are undoubtedly the best, and producers Hugel and Zind-Humbrecht consistently produce the finest examples.

Key Food Matches: Dry style: Smoked salmon, spicy Thai dishes, pâtés. Sweet style: Foie Gras, fruit-based puddings.

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Grüner Veltliner
Key Flavours: citrus and peach flavours are esp. prominent, with spicy notes of pepper and a whiff of smoke with vivid minerality and bright acidity

Key Regions: Grown primarily in Austria (signature grape) and Slovakia

Key Food Matches: Grüner Veltliner’s vivid acidity and appealing spicy quality pair it very well with all types of food: pork (esp. roast loin), sweetbreads, veal (esp. roasted), Wiener Schnitzel , Vietnamese or Thai spicy dishes, steamed lobster, grilled scallops or shrimps, sushi, bitter greens like brussel sprouts and artichoke

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Pinot Gris (aka Tokay Pinot Gris in Alsace and Pinot Grigio in Italy)
Key Flavours: Pear, honey, apple and citrus.

Key Regions: Alsace’s clay-rich soils bring out the grape’s honey characteristics, while from Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia region marvellously rounded, elegant and mineral-laden examples are produced.

Key Food Matches: Dry style: Pork, creamy pasta dishes. Sweet style: Rich pâtés, fruit-based puddings.

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Riesling
Key Flavours: Lime, green apple, petrol and honey.

Key Regions: Germany for its nervy, mineral-laden dry wines and exotic sweeties, and Alsace where the grape produces earthier and weightier dry wines aswell as some of the greatest sweet wines in the world.

Key Food Matches: Dry style: Duck and goose, wild boar. Sweet style: apple puddings, fruit desserts.

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Sauvignon Blanc
Key Flavours: Gooseberry, cat’s pee, asparagus, grass, elderflower. Highly aromatic, strongly-flavoured, grassy wines.

Key Regions: In Bordeaux it is blended with Sémillon to produce prestigious white Graves and great sweet Sauternes. It performs exceptionally well on the Loire’s chalk and flint soils of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé.

Sauvignon Blanc is also responsible for New Zealand’s most famous wine: Cloudy Bay, but Chile and South Africa are also making very good quality, rounded, fruit-driven Sauvignon Blancs.

Key Food Matches: Asparagus, green salad, fish and shellfish, Thai green curry.

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Viognier
Key Flavours: Apricot, peach, pear and nutmeg.

Key Regions: Viognier is most famous for the Rhône’s white Condrieu wines, but increasingly the Languedoc is producing some excellent examples; Domaine Vins de Vienne’s Viogniers are outstanding.

Key Food Matches: Rich shellfish, roast pork and savoury dishes with apricots in them.

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Cabernet Sauvignon
Key Flavours: Blackcurrant, chocolate, tobacco and mint.

Key Regions: Bordeaux’s Left Bank is the variety’s home, where it is blended with Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Producers like Frog’s Leap Winery in California make powerfully fruity, oaky reds, while Italy produces Super-Tuscans like Sassicaia and Solaia. It also enjoys particular success in the Languedoc, Australia, Chile and South Africa.

Key Food Matches: Red meat and hard cheese.

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Grenache
Key Flavours: Raspberry, white pepper and smoke.

Key Regions: Grenache is the major stakeholder in most red blends in the Southern Rhône, including Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It is the most extensively grown grape in Spain,  (aka Garnacha Tinta) esp. in Rioja (blended with Tempranillo), but the very best Garnacha wines come from Priorato  (blend it with small quantities of Cabernet Sauvignon). Grenache is undergoing a revival in Australia’s Barossa Valley

Key Food Matches: Hearty casserole, lamb, venison and game.

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Merlot
Key Flavours: Plum, black cherry, pepper and coffee.

Key Regions: Merlot is the most widely-planted grape in Bordeaux. It thrives on the clay rich soils of the Right Bank (Pomerol and St Emilion). It enjoys success in California, Argentina and Chile too (Andrew Will, Pulenta, Errazuriz)

Key Food Matches: Beef, lamb and calves liver.

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Nebbiolo
Key Flavours: Leather, prune, chocolate and licorice.

Key Regions: Nebbiolo is hardly ever seen outside the confines of Italy’s Piedmont (the great Barolos and Barbarescos) although there has been some experimentation with the grape in California but with little success to date.

Key Food Matches: Beef, offal, rich casserole, wild mushroom and game.

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Pinot Noir
Key Flavours: Raspberry, cherry, violet and farmyard (aged wines).

Key Regions: Burgundy’s Côte d’Or is the best region for Pinot Noir. New Zealand and California vie for position of best New World region;  For sparkling wines look no further than Champagne where the variety is used by the top Houses in the prestige cuvées to add body and elegance to their wines.

Key Food Matches: Sparkling: Smoked salmon, oysters, shellfish. Still: Poultry, light game, salmon, tuna and charcuterie.

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Shiraz/Syrah
Key Flavours: Blueberry, blackberry, black pepper and chocolate.

Key Regions: The great Northern Rhônes are made entirely with Syrah. In S. Rhone iti blended with Grenache. The Barossa Valley is home to the greatest Aussie Shiraz wines with Penfold’s Grange being the most famous. South Africa is also making some exceptional Syrahs.

Key Food Matches: Beef casserole, rare steak, barbecued red meat and hard cheese.

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Tempranillo
Key Flavours: Strawberry, tobacco and vanilla (from the oak).

Key Regions: Tempranillo’s spiritual home is Spain’s Rioja and Navarra regions and is almost always aged in oak. In Ribera del Duero it generally sees less oak. Outside of Spain it can be found in Portugal where it appears in Port blends and Douro table wines, and in Australia.

Key Food Matches: Lamb, boar, beef, wild mushroom and mature hard cheese.