Over the weekend Lucy Corrie of the Heartland Evening News raised her glass to the week’s best buys while working out what to drink with her hoisin chicken and Shanghai noodles. ‘Like any athelete, I sought the advice of an expert - wine consultant Debbie Yeung, who works for legendary wine merchants Berry Bros. & Rudd in Hong Kong‘, she said.

It’s tricky to match the strong flavours of Chinese cuisine - chilli, ginger, garlic, soy and oyster sauce. The dominant taste is sweet although salty flavours soon follow, therefore Yeung’s perfect match would be ‘…a sweet, spicy fruity white…’ or a ‘…a low tannin red’.

“The characteristics of a nice pinot noir - red berries like cherry, raspberry and strawberry fruit flavours and aromas will enhance but not overpower Chinese flavours like oyster sauce , soy sauce and sesame oil….try the luxurious Alana Estate Pinot Noir from Martinborough, New Zealand or for heavier dishes such as Peking Duck, Berrys’ Extra Ordinary Red Burgundy“,  says Yeung.

The Ambassador may not always seduce passers-by with its motley facade of fading paint, lino flooring and Formica tables, but if you ignore the cliché and judge the book by its cover, you’ll soon be singing its chabby yet chic praises.

Why? Because the restaurant’s title can also be attributed to its owner Clive Greenhalgh who here proves himself to be Ambassador for British Brasseries by instilling the same Mod Brit’-style directness of ventures such as Spitalfields Canteen or St John Bread & Wine, and indeed The Brackenbury of which he was formerly maître d’.

The cover of this book juxtaposed with the content – the charming and unprentiously-trendy staff together with the well-thought out and continually revived food and wine menu - hits the quintessentially British Brasserie nail on the head and certainly seduced me.

Fine Food & Fine Wine

Browsing through a menu which appeared to offer something for all palates and price points while basking in the sun at an alfresco street table, my palate was about to be seduced by layers upon layers of complexity from food and wine alike…

• Starter: Warm Quail Egg Salad

Alongside a refined and refreshing Picpoul de Pinet, the quail eggs were beautiful, their yoke gently oozing onto the salad leaves, while scattered radishes flashed shots of colour and gave texture to each bite. Simple. Lovely.

• Main: Roast Hake with Chorizo

Perfectly pan-fried and lightly seasoned, the hake was accompanied by the salty, strong tang of Chorizo and crisp, crunchy potatoes. A delicious red pepper and coriander sauce with its heady herby scent, sweet creamy taste and bold orange hue added yet more dimensions for the senses – yet, somehow, I still wasn’t a victim of palate fatigue. A lightly chilled Vigna Grande from Puglia stood up to the strong flavours, rounding off a dish which packed a bold punch, and blew me away.

• Dessert: Baked Custard, Raspberries and Shortbread

Rich and smooth without been sickly, the custard was served lightly chilled and scattered with plump raspberries. I also sneaked a bite of their ‘Strawberries in Beaujolais‘ which was a lovely, light alternative.

Who’s it an Ambassador for?

Everyone. Its eclectic fare (wine, food & price), friendly yet professional staff and relaxed atmosphere exclude nobody. It’s the ideal British Brasserie - the epitome of modesty and inclusivity.

On Saturday Carolyn Hart of the Daily Telegraph recommended serving Elderflower ice-cream with our 2006 Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, Domaine de Durban in her article Beauty in the Beast.

If our beloved British summer’s cast as Beast again this year, fear not, you can always coax back those beautiful lazy days of heady floral scents and falling blossom by indulging in this marvellous Muscat, with one of my favourite ice-creams below.

The wine…

Domaine de Durban is located in the hills to the east of Beaumes-de-Venise and is owned and run by Madame Leydier and her two sons. By using 100% Muscat de Frontignan à petit grains blanc as opposed to Muscat de Frontignan à grains noir which most others producers in the village cultivate, their delicately-coloured wines are beautifully aromatic and opulent, and with delicious notes of tilleul, jasmine and white peach, their 2006 is indeed a fine match for floral ice-creams such as elderflower.

My favourite ices…

On the go…

If you’re out and about in London, stroll down to Marine Ices in Chalk Farm for the finest Italian ices made from 100% natural ingredients.

I particularly like their ‘Caribbean Coconut’.

Eating Out…

Listen to up-and-coming Jazz stars at Shanghai Blues in the grade II listed building that formerly held the St Giles library in Holborn. Unwind in the understated luxury of the gently lit room and relax with exceptional service. I love to follow their divine melt-in-your-mouth barbequed chilean sea bass rolls with homemade Jasmine Tea, Sesame or Red Bean ice-cream!

At home…

Impress your guests with home-made Elderflower ice-cream!

Elderflower Ice-cream
(Recipe by Mark Hix from the Great British Menu)

Ingredients:

• 300ml/½ pint whole milk, preferably Channel Island
• 6 medium free-range egg yolks
• 100g/4oz caster sugar
• 300ml/½ pint Jersey or clotted cream, or a mixture of the two
• 200ml/7fl oz elderflower cordial

Here’s how…

For the elderflower ice cream, bring the milk to the boil in a heavy-based saucepan, then remove from the heat. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl, pour in the milk and whisk well. Return to the pan and cook over a low heat for about five minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk. Do not boil. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cream and elderflower cordial. Leave to cool, then churn in an ice cream machine (according to manufacturer’s instructions) until thickened. Decant into a clean container and place in the freezer.

For those of you with a savoury tooth… 

If you’re sweet (and brave) enough, Heston Blumenthal’s Infamous Bacon & Egg Ice-cream has to be done…but it needs no accompaniment!

The sun’s shining and so am I. Those lazy summer days with friends and family have finally arrived and this weekend I managed to squeeze in a beach picnic, a barbeque extravaganza and a light alfresco dinner amongst the jasmine and falling blossom! Ahh, pure bliss.

With the odds against me I decided to put some faith in British summertime and stock up with some delicious wines ahead of the weekend. For me classic Sauvignon Blanc is synonymous with summer and perfect for lighter dishes so I cracked open a couple of bottles 2006 Sancerre, Les Monts Damnés, Cotat, Chavignol at our light balmy summer dinner. Nowhere else in the Loire does Sauvignon Blanc express quite so much concentration and complexity as in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, where the region’s trademark herbal and mineral profile shines through amidst delicious notes of pear, citrus and freshly-cut grass.

But subtlety went out the window when it came to our barbeque bash where a big, bold bottle of Berrys’ Shiraz stood up beautifully to our charred steak, smoky spare ribs and spicy chicken marinade. When it comes to barbecues I don’t think you can go wrong by looking to the great barbecuers of the world – Argentineans, Australians, Americans and South Africans.

Have a favourite BBQ wine? Let us know!

What determines a food and wine match made in heaven? In a word: YOU.

Your ability to gauge what you like and why you like it – and I’m sure you won’t be too disheartened to hear that experimentation is key. While what pleases your palate is determined by, well, your palate - there is a vast array of food and wine matching information on the web, including Kathleen Lisson’s excellent food and wine matching blog and our own food and wine matching section which may help you save both time and money on the road to vinous enlightenment.

Some wines naturally compliment specific dishes by matching or clashing with their components. Perhaps you prefer your wine to match your food– such as a Chablis with a delicate fish? Or maybe you tend to opt for a wine which provides you with the polar opposite of your food, what your meal is missing – a crisp white wine full of acidity to cut through the fat of a dish perhaps?

Peculiar palate pleasers I’ve heard about recently don’t seem so peculiar if you analyse the components of both the food and the wine. How about Champagne to accompany your Fish & Chips or a Shiraz to go with your Pasty? If you think about it, the acidity of the champagne works well to neutralise the fat of the fish & chips, providing you with a refreshing break, whereas the full-bodied and full-flavoured Shiraz can stand up to and compliment the weight and flavours of the pasty. Of course if you don’t like Champagne, Shiraz, Fish & Chips or Pasties, then these food and wine matches aren’t for you!

While some dishes lend themselves to certain wines, there are no right or wrong combinations and the most important variable in finding a great match is you. To my mind the process of tasting is determined by your own unique senses and therefore what is a match made in heaven for one person may not be for you. If you want to discover your own favourite food and wine combinations, try to determine what it is you like about the wines (and food) you tend to go for and don’t forget your preferences may change with age so continue to experiment!

Weird and wacky food favourites? Let us know!

Whether you’re a chameleonic Chardonnay or a complex Cabernet, sometimes it’s good to tempt your tastebuds with something new. Friends constantly tell me that finding their next palate-pleaser isn’t always a walk-in-the-park, so if you’re reluctant to risk your time and money on a vinous impostor, allow me!

I’ve set myself the (dreadful!) task of tasting some delicious, popular grape varieties alongside their lesser-known counterparts. As standard-bearers of style and quality from classical wine regions, I’ll be using Berrys’ Own Selection wines as the benchmarks, and will select alternative varietals around the same price point.

Part 1 – Chardonnay

This week I gathered a group of Chardonnay aficionados to compare Berrys’ White Burgundy with a Viognier and a Chenin Blanc alongside some monkfish and prawn skewers, and a fresh crab, walnut and pear salad.

Although the Big Daddy of white wine grapes expresses itself in different forms, Burgundy is Chardonnay’s spiritual home and I thought Berrys’ White Burgundy from J-Luc Terrier & Christian Collovray would be a wonderful example of a very affordable ‘old world’ Chardonnay which is well-balanced and elegant - the pure fruit balanced by just a whiff of oak.

Lured by the pure, unadulterated simplicity of the prawn and monkfish skewers combined with the effortless elegance of this wine, we found the combination perhaps a little too tempting - and had to make up another batch of skewers to try alongside the alternatives!

Switching sips:

Viognier

We found Domaine Michel Ogier’s 2005 La Rosine from Viognier’s spiritual home, The Rhône, was every bit as elegant and well-balanced as the Chardonnay.

Bursting with ripe fruit and sumptuous peach notes on the nose and palate, its more distinctive flavour was at home with the monkfish and quickly cosied up with the crab too!

Chenin Blanc

2006 Pecan Stream Chenin Blanc from the Waterford Estate in South Africa is stylistically very different to its Chenin Blanc counterparts from the Loire Valley. Boasting apricot and guava with impressive depth and richness, it combines the exuberance of the New World with the specific personality of the grape variety.

We found it to be a wine which boasts the same depth and rich texture of Chardonnay, with additional stunning pear aromas and guava notes, all of which were echoed beautifully by the pear salad.

Tried any exciting new wines recently? Don’t forget to let us know.

With St. Patrick’s Day looming on the Emerald Isle our thoughts are turning to all things Irish. What is classic Irish cuisine? And what are the perfect wine matches for contemporary Celtic gastronomy?

There was a time when boiled bacon and cabbage was considered a traditional dish to be served on St. Patrick’s Day. Nowadays I imagine there are few homes serving up such fare. Nonetheless what would be the ideal accompaniment to this long-established dish? The bacon is quite salty, the cabbage bland and the parsley sauce rich. For me a classic Burgundian Chardonnay would be a great match, with plenty of body to stand up to the bacon and parsley sauce and slight sweetness to cut through the saltiness. Patrick Javillier’s Meursault les Tillets would be my choice.

For my ideal St. Patrick’s Day dinner, however, I would look more to contemporary Irish produce such as Dublin Bay prawns to start. There is nothing quite like the succulent texture of this tasty shellfish, simply pan-fried in butter and with a squeeze of lemon. A nice crisp bottle of Chablis would do nicely, such as the Domaine Billaud-Simon. For main course I would look to Ireland’s world famous beef. If entertaining a crowd I would serve a decent roast to share or for two there is nothing easier than a lean fillet steak. I always serve a red Bordeaux with beef, my current favourites are Chateau Petit Val St. Emilion or Berrys’ Own Pomerol.

I always like to round off a good meal with a cheese board and what to serve with cheese often sparks some debate – port or dessert wine? I am happy to serve either – Berrys’ William Pickering 20-year-old tawny is hard to beat for complexity of flavour. The intense nutty flavours go well with a variety of cheeses, from soft to blue. Or if I am in the mood for dessert wine I might be reaching for a bottle of Chateau de Malle Sauternes. Slainte!

Since moving to the big smoke in a little house near Borough Market, I’ve been taking full advantage of the fantastic local produce. Just a stone’s throw away the epicurean delights called yet again this weekend, forcing me to succumb to the sensational scents of the bustling market.

You just can’t beat good ingredients cooked by people who really understand food, and on Friday my flatmate (apparently a Master Chef in the making) knocked my socks off with a meal fit for the most particular of palates.

First up was a melt-in-your-mouth fresh pasta dish which oozed lashings of sumptuous St. Gall and parmesan cheeses from Neal’s Yard. This rich dish with broccoli beautifully paired with a bottle of 2006 Viré-Clessé, Sous les Plantes from the Burgundian Bret Brothers  (right). From 70 year old vines, the sumptuous array of tastes and textures stood up beautifully to the rich cheese.

But the real treat was yet to come; a perfectly pink rack of lamb from the Ginger Pig, each cutlet dusted with sprigs of roasted rosemary and perched alongside a refreshing pea and mint puree, a tower of the crispiest of spuds and a sumptuous sweet plumb sauce. Having just got back from a tasting trip in Burgundy, I knew what I wanted with my lamb…and the delicious bottle of 2004 Morey-St. Denis from Dujac Fils et Père was it!

The first sip instantly brought me back to the vineyards I visited a week earlier (Left: With the oldest vine in Burgundy at Arnaud Ente’s La Sève du Clos) and indeed the equally fantastic food found in every Burgundy kitchen, and kudos has to go to my friend Gareth for acheiving that of the Burgundians - the very fine art of food (and wine) appreciation.

Without wanting a rich dessert, but our sweet-teeth getting the better of us, we rounded off the evening with some of Berrys’ Sauternes. While placating the sweeties, its refreshing acidity made it a favourite all-round.

PS. While out there, I also recorded some podcasks of our Burgundy Buyer Jasper Morris MW out and about with wine growers in the vineyards and cellars. Don’t miss them on our podcask page - coming soon!

Above: Tasting wine & recording Jasper & Patrice at Patrice et Michele Rion

For all those intrigued by the chocolate & wine debate, a recent tasting trip of mine to Tuscany threw some more light on the subject.  

We were approaching the end of a wonderful lunch, held by Dr. Thomas Bär (pictured with his wife Monika Bettschart) of Chianti Classico producer Gagliole, when he produced a bowl brimming with the finest Lindt chocolates.

Bitter black with the silkiest of textures, the chocolates perfectly complimented their 2005 Chianti Classico, a fine match for the bright raspberry-esque fruit flavours & fine tannins.

Now who would have thought..?