WINE TO DINE – OCTOBER 2018 – WILD MUSHROOMS

Drinks writer Peter Ranscombe selects five wines to go with wild mushrooms.

FEW ingredients are as versatile as mushrooms, offering plenty of pairing opportunities, from crisp whites that cut through sauces and creamy chardonnay that accentuates buttery accompaniments all the way through to fresh and fruity reds for meatier dishes.

Check out the wild mushroom recipes in the October 2018 issue of Scottish Field magazine and the full wine matches below

Abbotts & Delaunay Fruits Sauvage Sauvignon Blanc, 2017
Majestic
£7.99
Crisp, citrus-focused sauvignon blanc pairs nicely with lighter mushroom dishes. I was really impressed with this fresh sauvignon, which was made with grapes grown in the Aude, Gard and Hérault regions in the South of France. It’s got good structure, but enough fruity flavours to balance its acidity.

Zapallares Reserva Riesling, 2017
Davy’s
£9.95
When you want a refreshing white to cut through a rich sauce then riesling is a great contender. The grape is most famous for being grown in Germany and Austria, but it’s well-worth exploring some of its new world incarnations too, such as this example from the Casablanca valley in Chile. Like the sauvignon blanc, there’s a great balance between the acidity and the fruit, which here focuses around grapefruit flavours.

Elephant Hill Estate Chardonnay, 2015
Corney & Barrow
£20.26
Buttery chardonnay will nicely complement the butter in your frying pan, making for an even richer combination. It’s never good when smoky or buttery flavours over-power a wine, but this chardonnay from Elephant Hill in New Zealand strikes the right balance. It was one of the stars of the show for me at a recent tasting of the winery’s bottles, alongside its delicious syrah.

Montes Outer Limits Old Roots Itata Cinsault, 2017
Exel Wines
£15.50
The savoury notes in his Chilean red will work beautifully with the earthy flavours of wild mushrooms. Cinsault isn’t often seen as a standalone grape variety, usually making its way into blends in the South of France, but more and more producers in South Africa and here in Chile are producing interesting examples. Aurelio Montes’s wines from Chile are consistently reliable, as are those made by his son, Aurelio Junior, across the Andes in Argentina.

La Vierge, Pinot Noir, Hemel En Aarde, South Africa, 2012
Winebuyers.com
£24.99
Superbly-balanced woodsmoke, cranberry and redcurrant to accompany the most elegant dishes. Splashing out on pinor noir is always a treat and this South African sample comes complete with fresh red berry flavours and sweet and nutty touches of caramel. This pinot noir comes from Winebuyers, a new website that allows customers to buy bottles from a selection of around 30,000 bottles made by producers in nearly 40 countries – a breath-taking range, and well worth a look.