Matches Made In Heaven

By Franz Scheurer

An inappropriate wine match can ruin a terrific dish as a brilliant wine can be diminished by food that matches badly. Good food / wine matches are relatively easily accomplished if one doesn’t’ make the mistake of just trying to match to the protein. A good food / wine match relies on complementing or contrasting of flavours and matching weight.

Every now and then a food / wine match comes along that simply blows your mind and lifts the end-result way above the sum of its parts.

Here are a few examples indelibly imprinted on my mind:

Bitter & Twisted’s Black and White Chocolate Cake and Bloodwood Shiraz, 2000

Cheong Liew’s Prawn Plums and Jane Moss Margaret River Rosé, 2004

Chui Lee Luk’s Spiced Marron and Pernod Absinthe

Freshly shucked Angassi oysters and Domain A Sauvignon Blanc Fumé, 2001

George Francisco’s Oysters with Fire Ice and Dom Perignon, 1990

GJ Food’s foie gras, fresh toast and Kracher No.6, 1990

Ming Palace’s Peking Duck and Ashton Hills Pinot Noir, 2002

Neil Perry’s Bruny Island Scallops with Sweet Corn Crepe, Lemongrass and Mussel butter and Giaconda Chardonnay, 1993

Peter Doyle’s Crisp Skin John Dory Fillet, grilled White Scallop, Jacqueline Sauce and Curly Flat Chardonnay, 1999

Tim Pak Poy’s Pear Soufflé and Delord Bas-Armagnac, 1962

No doubt there are many more, but these are the first ten I could think of. I would be very interested to hear back from Australian Gourmet Pages’ subscribers as to their most memorable wine matches.