This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
What Food What Wine? results announced
The results of the first What Food What Wine? competition have seen some surprise contenders emerge alongside more classic food pairings.
Trophies were awarded for the best wine matches with 10 of the UK’s most popular dishes. Each dish offered a trophy for the best wine under £10 and the best wine above £10, with all wines tasted blind.
Zero dosage Champagne proved its food matching credentials as the Champagne Ayala Brut Nature scooped the smoked salmon category in the best wine over £10 class. The category’s under £10 class was won by Morrisons Best Australian Chardonnay 2007.
Some categories demonstrated the flexibility of many food and wine matches, most notably the mushroom risotto, which saw the Viña Real Barrel Fermented Blanco 2008 take the under £10 class, while the over £10 trophy went to the Kim Crawford Marlborough Pinot Noir 2008.
Taking on more tricky dishes for matching with wine, the competition’s chicken tikka masala category saw judges favour the Toro Loco Spanish rosé 2010 and, in the upper price bracket, the Framingham Classic Riesling 2009.
Where the judging panel, which included Gerard Bassett MS MW, Sarah Jane Evans MW and Hakkasan wine buyer Christine Parkinson, found a particularly surprising wine match, a special trophy was awarded. In the apple crumble category this went to the Gallo Family Vineyards Summer Red NV.
Commenting on the results, Peter Richards MW, chair judge of the competition, said: “What was most exciting was to see wines from right across the spectrum winning top awards. It’s great that inexpensive supermarket own-label wines are sitting alongside some of the more celebrated names in the wine world.
“Equally that there’s a pretty even balance between the New and Old Worlds. It just goes to show that all kinds of wines can and do partner food brilliantly well – so there are lots of options for wine drinkers out there whatever the taste or budget.â€
For the full list of results, together with film highlights from the judging process, visit www.whatfoodwhatwine.com