Lebanese expertise
From this month, London Lebanese restaurant Fakhreldine will be offering a bespoke food and wine pairing option on its menu. Sounds interesting, I thought. First, it's not the kind of thing that Lebanese restaurants normally do, and second, I would just love it if someone could show me a yogurt-friendly wine.
It turns out that head chef Karim Haïdar has a bit of a thing about wine and puts together the restaurant's wine list himself. It includes 20 wines from his home country, which are chosen by more than half of Fakhreldine's diners.
"I used to have a restaurant in Paris," explains Haïdar, whose wife is French. "I had to take care of everything - including the wine list."
He adds: "To begin with, wine was just something that people did in restaurants; I didn't understand it. Then I started talking to wine merchants, who gave me different bottles to try. I read a few books and I got interested."
Ha‹dar used to serve every one of the 80 wines listed in his Paris restaurant by the glass, and the pairing thing just came naturally. So what does he like to drink with Lebanese food?
"The problem is," he says, "I'm not very fond of Lebanese whites, so I usually end up in France - usually the Loire or Burgundy. But Lebanese reds are no problem. They're fruity, spicy and pretty powerful, so you just have to take a little care about what you put with them."
Haïdar's favourite Lebanese red, from a producer called Wardy, is Château Les Cedres (£79 for a case of 12, excluding VAT; available from Bekaa Wines, 020 8969 4777), which switched from arak production to winemaking with great success (I've tasted it and it's good).
In fact, it's a Wardy wine he likes to serve with yogurt (yes, there is a wine out there that can cope). Its soft, rich style of Sauvignon Blanc stood up fantastically well to a dish of pan-fried asparagus topped with aromatised yogurt, crispy bread and pine nuts. "I heated the yogurt with the cooking water of the asparagus, which tied it all together," Haïdar explains.
He does like some Lebanese whites, then? "I love Château Musar's white, too," he says, choosing it as a partner for his frik‚ samak (mixed seafood, slow-cooked with smoked wheat). Its intense, almost oxidised, style perfectly complements the saffron-rich sauce and nutty grain.
"It's only the vinegary Lebanese salads that can be a huge problem for wine, and our tabbouleh is particularly lemony, although a steely Chablis works fine with it," Haïdar says. With his signature five-spice lamb (cardamom, cloves, black pepper, cumin and cinnamon), a Tokay Pinot Gris or even a Condrieu works well, he says.
"Come on, then," I ask, "what's your desert island food and wine match?"
"That's easy," says Haïdar, smiling. "Mont d'Or cheese and a Vin Jaune from the Jura. Bliss!"
BOXHEAD: shorts
BOXTEXT: Coffee liqueur
Restaurant favourite Illy coffee has launched Illy Espresso Liqueur. "Every bottle contains 120g of our 100% Arabica coffee," boasts Lisa Tosolini of Trieste-based producer Distillery Bepi Tosolini. The coffee is extracted through an espresso-style process then blended with the distillery's spirit. It has a concentrated aroma of roasted coffee beans, a whiff of bitter chocolate and a sweet but balancing dryness on the finish. Available through Eaux de Vie: 020 7724 5009.
Port bursary
Fonseca has launched a port bursary for the on-trade and Association of London Clubs. Candidates must complete a questionnaire on port, to be judged by a panel from bursary creator The Fladgate Partnership (owner of Taylor, Croft and Fonseca) and Richard Mayson, author of Port & The Douro (Faber). Three places will be awarded to the winners on an all-expenses-paid trip to Oporto and the Douro Valley, 6-9 October this year. For more information, contact Fladgate's UK agent Mentzendorff on 020 7840 3600 or e-mail Alan Montague-Dennis at alan@mentzendorff.co.uk.
New New Zealand
A new Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc has hit our shores. Called Kotare (named after the Maori word for a kingfisher), it's made with grapes from the 86-acre Riversleigh Estate in the Wairau Valley in the Marlborough region. Having supplied the Mud House winery with the majority of its fruit in recent years, Kotare's British ex-farmer owners, Bruce Stapleton and Geoffrey Sprot, are doing it for themselves. Watch out for their Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris, which will join the range shortly. Available through Grape-2-Wine: 01531 660599.
Coming up rosEs
With interest and sales in ros‚ on the up in the UK - a jump of 28% in volume since last year, says AC Nielsen - producers from Provence have got together to create a campaign to stimulate even more interest. The Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins de Provence kicks off with a major presence at this week's London International Wine & Spirits Fair, and is rolling out a number of marketing and advertising initiatives this year. Ros‚ sales are forecast to reach about 35 million litres by volume and £300m by value by the end of the year.
