After the success of matching wine with food for Daily Spud, we thought we’d set ourselves up for a new challenge with another shining star on the Irish foodie scene – everyone’s favourite English Mum!

So she sent us a cracking recipe for Butternut Squash Risotto and in return we sent her two bottles of New Zealand’s finest, in the form of a dry Waipara Riesling and a top-notch Nelson Pinot Gris. I gather that she was surprised at how good the Riesling was. Here’s her full review, and below is the scrumptious recipe we just had to snatch.

You will need:

1 butternut squash

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

7 or 8 sage leaves, finely chopped

Butter

1 onion, finely chopped

350g risotto rice (arborio or carnaroli)

2 litres chicken stock

Parmesan, grated, and some for serving

So preheat the oven to 200/gas 6. Peel and deseed the squash and cut into cubes. Spread the pieces out on a baking tray and drizzle with a little olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over about half of the finely chopped sage leaves:

Roast for about 30 mins or until soft and slightly caramelised. You can do this in advance and allow the squash to cool, if you like:

For the risotto: allow the stock to come to a simmer in a saucepan, then keep warm on a low heat on the hob:

Grab a heavy based pan, put it on a low heat and melt a tablespoon of butter. Glug in some olive oil (about 2 tbsp should do it), then gently fry the onion until it’s translucent (try my trick of adding a pinch of caster sugar to stop it browning too quickly). Then add in the rice, stirring around until it’s all glossy.

Add half the squash and the finely chopped sage. Now just keep adding ladlefuls of stock, one at a time, stirring constantly and making sure all the liquid is absorbed before adding another. When all the stock is gone – this might take half an hour or so – the risotto should be nice and creamy, still with a teeny bit of bite to it.

Now add in the rest of the squash and stir in the rest of the sage (the smell is amazing). Turn the heat off, have a quick taste and season generously, then stir in another knob of butter, and a handful of grated parmesan, put the lid on and leave it to sit until you’re ready to serve. Finally, ladle the risotto into warm bowls, topping with some grated parmesan, and serve with a wine of your choice, or the above suggestions. *Drooling*

Recipe originally posted by English Mum on englishmum.com on June 18th.

I’m not the most technically minded person myself, but everyone in the blogosphere seems to think very highly of mobile technology, especially in the form of the iPhone and the Blackberry.

We’ve come across an application called Nat Decants Food & Drink Matcher, which can be bought for these mobile gadgets, and allows the user to access a huge range of food and wine matches. Pretty cool I thought. I’ll admit, it was the cheese matchings that caught my eye – drink matches for 219 cheeses!

*salivating*

Which pairs best with soft cheeses like brie and camembert: red or white wine? What about harder, more mature cheeses such as cheddar and parmesan? Which cheeses will please those who prefer a beer or cocktail to wine? Here’s the Top 10 Cheese & Drink Matches from the Nat Decants Drinks Matcher:

1. Camembert or brie with Champagne
2. Gouda with Spanish Rioja
3. Cheddar with Bordeaux or Cabernet Sauvignon
4. Manchego with Amontillado Sherry
5. Mozzarella with German Late Harvest Riesling
6. Feta with Oregonian Pinot Noir
7. Goat cheese with New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc
8. Stilton blue cheese with Port or Sauternes
9. Parmigiano with Italian Amarone
10. Macaroni and cheese with Californian Chardonnay

As well as cheese, there are thousands of pairings for appetizers, main courses and dessert. There are 292 grapes, wines and blends to choose from, as well as 61 pasta dishes, 118 vegetarian & salads, 57 chicken, 59 beef, 41 pork, 112 seafood dishes (and the list goes on) with new ones added frequently.

These applications might take a little while to catch on with technophobic people such as myself, but for those who have a taste for good food and wine, and are already living on the Starship Enterprise or Planet Falcon, this might just be your cup of 21st century tea.

The Nat Decants Drinks Matcher is US$2.99 and you can download it from the online stores for iPhone or BlackBerry.

For Apple’s iPhone App Store, visit:
www.nataliemaclean.com/iphone

For the BlackBerry App World, visit:
www.nataliemaclean.com/blackberry

Following last week’s post on spicy wines, I thought it appropriate to delve a little deeper into one of the world’s most identifiable, if difficult to pronounce, grape varieties.

First things first: correct pronunciation. Guh-voorts-tra-meen-er. (I suspect part of Gewürztraminer’s appeal is just conquering this!)

Around the world, like it’s Alsace soul-mate Riesling, Gewurz is not an easy grape to grow. Apart from Alsace, Germany and Austria are the only places in Europe you’ll find it grown with any real success. Elsewhere, once again for a challenging grape variety, it’s New Zealand that leads the way in the New World, although Chile, South Africa, the USA, and even Australia and Canada all produce competent examples.

Gewürztraminer produces profoundly aromatic wines, making it, along with Sauvignon Blanc, one of the first grapes budding wine experts learn to identify from scent alone. At it’s most pungent, you can expect a hedonistic bomb of nectar-laden summer flowers, luscious tropical fruit, head-lifting spice and a big waft of talcum powder.

The palate can be no less of an assault on the senses. Rose petals, lychees, passion-fruit, pot-pourri, and spices ranging from cinnamon and cloves to ginger and black pepper are but a few of the associations by writers and enthusiasts.

To the uninitiated, a wine of so much complexity and character can be overwhelming. True, it’s not for the faint-hearted, but Gewürztraminer’s eminence is revealed alongside equally rich and powerful food.

In it’s traditional home in Alsace, rich duck or chicken liver pâté, roast goose or onion tart all make wonderful accompaniments, but it’s further afield that Gewürz has found a new and loyal following. The spices in Indian, Thai and Chinese food often make spectacular catalysts for the spice in the wine to really show off, and the underlying fruit sweetness and relatively low acidity works to soften any heat.

If you haven’t tried it yet, put Gewürztraminer ahead of a beer or fire extinguisher next time you order a curry. And if you’re still stuck with the pronunciation, just point to it on the menu – I do it all the time for Kaeng Khiao Wan Kai.

Check out our range of Gewürztraminer’s here.

If you’re a big fan of spicy food you could be forgiven for thinking that your choice of wines to dine with is limited. Go into any Indian restaurant and chances are the people around you are drinking either a Gewurtztraminer or the safe bet of the house beer. If you’re into Mexican or Thai, you’re probably along the same lines of thought, albeit with an even greater lean to the beer.

As with anything to do with food or wine however, things needn’t be so black and white.

Firstly, there are different characteristics of spices, such as sweet (ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon for example), savoury (pepper, cumin and cardamom) or hot (chilli peppers, mustard seed and harissa). It is true that super-hot and spicy dishes can be very difficult to match wine with, so often you’re best with a palate cleanser such as an Italian Spumante or Moscato d’Asti. They’ll work better at beer in cooling down particularly hot spices, as capsaicin, the hot element in chillies, dissolves more effectively in higher alcohol. (Please note this is NOT an excuse to drink vodka with your Rogan Josh.)

Secondly, in pairing a wine with a complex dish with a variety of flavours, its the most dominant flavours that you’re looking to identify. So, a lightly spiced dish may have more dominant herbs or other flavours, where the herbs significantly broaden your opportunities for wine matching. Herby wines include Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah/Shiraz, so if your food is as much about the herbs as the spice you can afford to be a lot more adventurous with your choice of wine.

Finally, whilst some wines like Gewurtztraminer (literally “spiced” traminer, and pronounced “guh-verts-tra-meen-er”) are spicy by nature, more important in food-matching terms is the acidity and other factors such as alcohol and tannin levels. Many low tannin reds will work very well with lightly spiced food, such as Beaujolais, Valpolicella and Spanish Tempranillo (especially “Joven” meaning “young”).

Viognier, Austrian Gruner-Veltliner or German Riesling all possess spicy characteristics as well as the other components such as acidity and fruit sweetness to match spicy food. Similarly, red Shiraz, Grenache or Sangiovese, or the wines of the Rhône (Côtes du Rhône, Gigondas, Vacqueyras) have spicy attributes should your dish require something rich and full-flavoured.

So next time you’re popping your poppadoms, instead of opting for the Crouching Cobra, Big Brewery, take another look at that wine-list.

When I was first coming up with recipes for Lookandtaste, this Frittata video was one of the first to be included as it is a recipe that I actually cook for myself when I have no idea what to make for dinner, am short of time and only have a handful of veggies and some eggs in the fridge. It is one of those classics that you just need to have in your repertoire and is a meal that will fill you up with very little work involved.

When myself and Pieter (the other chef in Lookandtaste) were on the set cooking this recipe, we argued long and hard as to where Frittata was from. In the end we agreed to disagree but I am sure that I was right when I said Spain and he was way of the mark with Italy.

I would imagine that pairing a wine with eggs is quick tricky but that is exactly the reason I choose this recipe as I would hate to think that the boys over at Curious Wines were getting an easy ride on the pairing front…….

Mike’s wine match:

Ha, this is an easy one! And bad news Niall, Pieter was right – a quick check on Wikipedia confirms Frittata is very much of Italian origin!

The dish is another of those classic left-over dishes, where whatever vegetables or meats you’ve got to hand can be thrown into the mix, the staples being the egg, potato, herbs and maybe some cheese. So you could justifiably choose different wines depending on what’s in there, but I’m going to recommend a couple of great all-rounders, perfect with not only Italian food but anything with a bit of richness or variety in flavour.

My preference would be red for frittata, and I’m going to plump for a Bardolino from Verona, up in the north-east corner of Italy. Bardolino’s typically light and easy-drinking but with that trademark Italian ‘bite’ that’s great for food.

If your preference was white, you could do a lot worse than staying close to Verona with a lovely Soave, again typically fresh and easy-drinking, and there shouldn’t be anything in the frittata that will overpower the delicious flavours in the wine.

Check out our own Bardolino and Soave from the 100 year old Farina winery from Verona, and ‘buon appetito’ Niall

Niall Harbison is Co-Founder and Master Chef at Look and Taste.

People often eat out when on holiday in Spain and love Paella but would be horrified about the thought of trying to re-create it when they get home but this simple video shows you that it is actually a great dish that can actually be put together in one pan and requires minimum washing up which is always a winner. What I also love about a dish like this is that it encourages the family or your group of friends to come together as you plonk (nice wine pun for good measure) the dish into the center of the table and everybody just gets stuck in and helps themselves. So all the great dish really needs is a lovely bottle of wine to compliment it and you will be able to transport yourself mentally back to that holiday in Spain…..

Mike’s wine match:

Well this has topped it for me, Niall’s most enticing dish so far on the Curious Blog!

To be honest, there’s any number of white wines would go beautifully with this dish, all you want to avoid is something too strong that could overpower the delicate flavours in the shellfish. So, you want something crisp and dry, preferably with a bit of acidic bite to it, and maybe a nice touch of fruit.

Anyone following this series, or other wine-with-food posts I’ve written, will know that my first rule of wine-matching is to take the country and preferably region of origin of the food, and start with wines from there. Now paella originates from the Valencia region of south-east Spain, and whilst white wine production does exceed red, there’s not that many make the export market. So, I’m going to stay Spanish but move up to Rueda in the north-west of the country, partly because it was the subject of my article for Look and Taste last week but mainly because I think their whites are outstanding and perfectly suited to paella.

In the Curious stable, try this Sauvignon from Castello de Medina – prominent confectioned apple with nettle and gooseberry, and great fruit/acidity balance – or this classy Verdejo/Sauvignon blend from Mantel Blanco, with ripe peach/passion fruit and silky texture.

Now Niall, next week I want you to put on a Rafa Benitez goatee and say “pae-eya” for us again

It is with some irony and much sadness that just a couple of weeks after my tribute to the wines of d’Abruzzo, the beautiful mountainous region of central Italy should be international headline news following a devastating earthquake near the medieval city of l’Aquila.

I had planned a follow-up to the (sometimes) magnificent Montepulciano, with a carefully couched post on the (often less than) magnificent Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, with the intent of highlighting a food diamond in the rough. The extensive and very descriptive coverage of the area, towns and villages around l’Aquila has given us an unromanticised view of life in what remains a predominantly rural and proudly traditional backwater of Italy.

In reading up a bit on Abruzzo’s main white grape variety, you get an overwhelming sense of the unspectacular, and often more than a hint of criticism towards its wines. The Oxford Companion to Wine uses adjectives like undistinguished, uninspiring and ‘thin’ to describe Trebbiano and its French synonym Ugni Blanc, and notes a lack of care in many wineries responsible for its production.

Much of this criticism comes from the prolific growth and yields possible from the grape. It is estimated that more wine is produced from the variety than any other in the world, with a greater area covered in Italy and France than any other grape. (Have most people even heard of Ugni Blanc?)

But in understanding the trends of wine consumption around the world, you grasp something of the nature and purpose of production in regions like Abruzzo. Italy has been the world’s largest producer of wine for some time, and on a consumption per capita basis only trails France.

Whilst average consumption has fallen considerably in both countries, the production trends still reflect lifestyles that would have seen country workers consume as much as a litre of table wine a day in days gone by.

Critically, most of this consumption would have been with food, and this is where our Trebbiano defends its corner. Naturally high in acidity, low in alcohol, and unapologetically not bursting with vibrant flavour, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo is by definition a classic food wine, if often limited to good quality table wine status.
With erraticness comes authenticity and, provided it doesn’t pretend to be anything else, long may Abruzzo remain true to its past.

For Trebbiano at its table wine best, try this d’Abruzzo from three-time Italian Winery of the Year Farnese, or as Ugni Blanc in the cracking value Cuvee Jean-Paul Sec from the Côtes de Gascogne (at thankfully the same prices as yesterday thanks to the one good thing that came out of the Budget!).

With Easter just around the corner it’s now time to start planning the long weekend and, hopefully, a lent-busting, chocolate-laden, recession-forgetting big family hooley!

If (heaven forbid!) you’ve abstained from wine for lent, you can now start thinking about leaping head-first off the wagon with some perfect wine matches for a slap-up Easter dinner. We’ve put together a decadent half-dozen for the occasion – from bubbly aperitif to mouth-watering appetiser, through to succulent main course and sticky dessert – all for €89 delivered to your door.

For openers, try some cheeky pink fizz from Veneto – refreshingly off-dry with soft acidity to kick-start the taste-buds. At the table, our two French Chardonnays – rich and buttery Burgundy and equally delicious Lunar Organic from the Languedoc – will suit a range of starters, from most seafood to chicken salad.

For mains, if you’re on traditional fair of turkey, goose or duck, we’ve two quite different but equally complementing reds – Hawkes Bay Pinot Noir and a fruity Morgon from Beaujolais to finish up. And finally, for the crowning indulgence, try some of this glass-coating Botrytised Sauvignon Blanc with a sticky dessert (you might even leave a sneaky half-glass for a night-cap with some Easter Egg!).

We’ve guaranteed nationwide delivery before Good Friday for orders received before 12pm on Tuesday the 7th, with non-guaranteed (but a very good chance!) on orders up to 12pm Wednesday. Normal service will resume from the Curious Warehouse on Tuesday 14th.

Have a very happy Easter,
Mike & Matt

PS There’s a little Easter surprise on this selection for Wine Club members in our April newsletter, so if you haven’t signed up already, do so now!

This salmon dish is about as healthy as it gets as it is steamed along with the vegetables and served with a super simple soy dipping sauce.

This is the sort of dish you would eat if you were on a healthy diet which got me to wondering if there was such a thing as a healthy wine, or at least a wine that was more healthy than another? Perhaps not and it could be wishful thinking on my part but I am pretty sure that there would at least be a “lighter” wine of some sort that will compliment the delicate and simple natural flavours of the salmon.

As I am no expert on wines I’ll hand it over to the lads to match something nice up…..

Mike’s wine match:

‘Light’ could mean one of a number of things in wine terms, but mostly relate to body and/or alcohol. In relation to body, whites are obviously generally lighter than reds, although there are some lovely light-bodied reds that go very well with fish, such as Beaujolais.

I think I’d stick with white on this one, (a) because we’re specifically looking for a ‘light’ wine, and (b) because the saltiness of the soy dipping sauce is more easily complemented.

So, two delicious but quite different options:

1. Dr Wagner Saar Riesling – medium-dry and deliciously fruity, with that trademark stony minerality of quality Mosel Riesling, and at only 9% alcohol light in every sense (so, healthier in per glass terms, or you can drink more of it for the same number of units of a higher alcohol wine!).
2. Lugana Tenuta Maiolo DOC – higher in alcohol (12.5%) but still a light wine. What makes the Lugana a particularly great match for this dish is the very slight salty, sappy flavour from the calcareous clay used to grow the Trebbiano grapes – perfect with the salty soy and salmon.

Enjoy!

Niall Harbison is Co-Founder and Master Chef at Look and Taste.

Posted by Niall

This is one of the recipes I have designed for busy professionals for when they get home and just want to throw something together super fast. It is made with the one complaint that I hear from people all the time in mind: “I don’t have enough time to cook”.

Ideally I would love it if the boys here at Curious Wines could pair it up with a cheap bottle of wine for the middle of the week, that you could share with a friend and enjoy over this simple meal, and basically replicate what you would normally get in a restaurant while saving yourself a fortune.

Wine match by Mike:

Niall does love giving us a challenge! On it’s own, you could match blue cheese with anything from a powerful and acidic Italian red, like an Amarone, to a Vintage Port or a Sauternes. What makes this a little more challenging is the cream in the recipe, although the basic attributes of the creamy, fattiness of both ingredients would point us towards a high acidic, high fruit white wine.

I immediately think Riesling, (a) because I’m unapologetically obsessed by it, but (b) because you can go off-dry or even medium-dry and get away with it because of the acidity we’re looking for. But likewise, I think a nice, sharp Sauvignon Blanc could go fabulously well with this dish, and that means lots of choice and good value in today’s market. New Zealand would be my first choice for both wines, as the quality is more consistent than any other country, and there’s great value to be had in quality vs price terms.

Niall’s demanding cheap, middle-of-the-week drinking wine (I prefer the term inexpensive or good value myself!), so I’m recommending two specific wines from Curious that we’ve on special for March and April (more to follow separately on Curious Picks).

For the Sauvignon, this Tussock from Nelson is terrific value at the normal €12.99, but we have it at €10.99 when you buy 2 or more. For the Riesling, I’d really recommend you try this Lingenfelder from Pfalz in Germany – it’s off-dry to medium-dry, tons of fruit and great balance, and we’re doing the same as the Tussock on price – €10.99 when you buy 2 or more (normally €12.99 also).

Now I’m off to get some spinach and cream for tonight to test my own recommendations!

Niall Harbison is Co-Founder and Master Chef at Look and Taste.