Welsh Wine

With the winter holidays just around the corner, and with things as they are, this magical time of year will be welcomed more than ever. It may seem frivolous to be worrying about wine and food pairings, but enjoying celebratory meals with our family is one of the rituals that keep us grounded in the present and thankful for the people with whom we share them. It is also an opportunity to support the farmers in our communities ... a gift we can all make. Our family feasts may have to be smaller in number, but with the wealth of Welsh food and wine, they don't have to be smaller in taste.

So, whatever menu you are planning, from sausage rolls, Tenby crab, Anglesey oysters, Welsh lamb or beef with all the classic sides, cheese boards, to the classic Christmas pudding, there is a Welsh wine to complement it perfectly. There are ninety permitted grape varieties in Welsh regional wines from Acolon to Zweigeltrebe. Most are north European cool-climate varieties, both Vitis vinifera and hybrids. Some of the most popular whites being grown are Bacchus, Chardonnay, Madeleine Angevine, Muller-Thurgau, Sylvaner, Ortega, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Reichensteiner, Sauvignon Blanc, Schonburger, Seyval Blanc, Siegerrebe, and Solaris. Whilst common red varieties grown are Cascade, Dornfelder, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Regent, Rondo, and Triomphe D'Alsace. With climate change bringing the Welsh climate out from the fringe, we'll be seeing more red varieties planted.

And from these are made still and sparkling white, rosé and red wines, sweet wines, and fortified wines (Port-like). So where do you start? The first trick is to match nature's bedfellows. Wine is made from grapes, and grapes that are grown in the same soil and climate are going to marry well. So if you pair Welsh wines with Welsh-grown foods, you will be guaranteed success.

Conventional thinking says that white wine goes with fish and red wine with meat. This is not always true. The beauty of wine and food pairing is not so much knowing the rules, but knowing them and then knowing how to break them. And if you know the true secret to matching, then creating gustatory perfection is easy. Here is the nub: what matters most is not whether the dish is meat or fish, but the dominant flavour of the dish. For example, a firm tuna steak with a sauce of olives, garlic, capers, and tomatoes, can easily take a lightly tannic Pinot Noir. Conversely, a rib-eye steak would take a grape such as Regent, but once the same steak is smothered in blue cheese, mushroom, and cream sauce, it would go beautifully with a Chardonnay, a Schonburger, a Pinot Gris, or a demi-sec sparkling rosé.

And cheese can be tricky. Apart from the odd sweet red, such as Port, only white wine will provide a glorious culinary union. The temptation to marry red wine with any cheese is a classic error: it is not a simple case of 'personal preference'. Fruity reds kill flavourful hard cheeses, while tannic reds do the same for soft varieties, rendering them chalky in texture. The best choice for pairing with cheese will almost always be a white wine. Try Chardonnay with soft, creamy cheeses such as Angiddy, Cenarth Brie, or Perl Wen. Solaris is great with Caerphilly or fresh goat's cheese.

If ever in doubt, there are so many styles of sparkling Welsh wine that can take a meal from the canapés to the puddings. So can rosés. They are not just for summer drinking. A still rosé wine with enough tannin can easily handle a salty starter, a main of pork roast stuffed with figs or apples, a fruit salad, or a chocolate and fruit pudding. And a sparkling rosé is the perfect match to canapés such as paté, Welsh Rarebit, and quiche, a main course of fish or poultry, to the cheese course and the Christmas pudding. Whilst the Champagne grapes of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier can be used, the majority of Welsh sparkling wines showcase the incredible diversity of grapes styles and their suitability to this wine style. Hence their versatility. Another easy-going grape is the Seyval Blanc. It goes deliciously with any Welsh seafood or cheese.

Gwledda hapus!