Meet the sommelier pairing wines with supermarket picky bits
Drinks guru Neil Ridley’s new book, The Picky Bits Sommelier, is a how-to guide for pairing wines, beers and cocktails with supermarket snacks. The research involved a gruelling snack-eating schedule that took him from the good (prawn toast and sparkling rosé), to the bad (goat’s cheese crisps with sweet wine) to the ugly (a disembowelled, de-quilled hedgehog). He talks Amelie Maurice-Jones through the process.
The week before our interview, Neil Ridley cooked six hedgehogs.
Well, ‘cooked’ is an understatement. But ‘made’ doesn’t seem to do it justice. Perhaps ‘sculpted’ is the better term. For the base, he always uses a half melon. But the quills can hold anything from blow-torched pineapple and Manchego; bocconcini balls, olives and gapes; chorizo, cheese and pickles (“tapas themed”), or marshmallows and chocolate (“dessert”).
“The sad thing is,” Ridley discloses, “when they go bald, they look quite sad, but you can just refill it, make them happy again, stick all the cocktail sticks back in. You can, of course, eat the melon.” I’ve never understood the phrase ‘kill your darlings’ until now. The killer in question? Author of The Picky Bits Sommelier: The Ultimate Guide to Snack and Drink Pairings’, published by Bloomsbury in October. The darling? Jazzed-up party-snack hedgehog of the ‘80’s – the picky bit to end all picky bits. The professional drinks writer and broadcaster has been making them for various news outlets, like Times Radio and The Sun, as he publicises his book, which makes them accomplices to murder.
The hedgehogs feature in the book despite not actually fit the criteria for a ‘picky bit’ which is laid bare in ‘The Pickifesto’, falling short at Article 2: ‘A picky bit shalt not require the diner to ‘make’ any aspect of said picky bit.’ Ridley’s definition of a picky bit is that it must be savoury, bite-sized, bought as it is and able to be eaten with your fingers. Now that’s clear, his guidebook takes the reader through a range of picky bits, all supermarket fare, and the wines, beers and cocktails you should pair them with.
Perfect and not-so-perfect pairings
“The most joyous is Tesco Prawn Toasts and sparkling rosé,” Ridley, who’s been shortlisted four times by IWSC as International Communicator of the Year, enthuses. “The fruitiness of the wine and freshness of the prawn toast… the sweetness and the salt… it’s a party that just keeps on going.” Espresso Martini and Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Parmesan & Garlic Twists also turn out to be made for each other. Ridley was inspired by the TikTok trend of grating Parmesan straight into the cocktail. “That’s a failure, of course”, he shrugs, “but if you bite into Parmesan and take a sip of the Espresso Martini, it actually heightens the nuttiness”. For a non-alcoholic pick, there’s cloudy lemonade enhanced by the tart, crunchy and sweet balsamic of – we promise you haven’t guessed it – Garner’s Original Pickled Onions. They also made it to the Times Radio interview: “I left the hedgehog, but I took the onions. On the train back, I was swigging lemonade. I was the happiest man alive.”
Not all pairings in the book are so weird though. The classic red wine and cheese combo pops up (Cab Sav with cheese twists, Tawny Port with stilton and walnut straws), as does white wine and seafood (Pinot Gris with tempura tiger prawns, Piepoul with battered Calamari). There’re also brain teasers, like (a) ‘where did the tempura prawn originate?’ and (b) ‘which British snacking staple has its own Protected Geographical Indication?’ (scroll down for the answers).
“If people have fun and smile at these pairings, but then think a bit more about the drinks they enjoy, that’s the legacy I want the book to have,” vows Ridley. It’s not his first rodeo. Ridley regularly presents on Channel 4 Sunday Brunch, and has written 11 books, including No.1 2024 bestseller, The Crisp Sommelier: The Ultimate Guide to Crisp and Drink Pairings, which features more than 130 crisps and 80 drinks. “A perfect stocking-filler if I ever saw one,” was celeb chef Nigella Lawson’s winning praise.
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The limitations of picky bits
Filling stockings is noble work, but being a professional snack-sommelier takes its toll. Ridley suffered through the Merlot and breaded mushroom combo in the latest book (he hates mushrooms), but in his crisp era, it was a goat cheese crisp and sweet wine match that sent him over the edge: “they just tasted hairy – there was weird, animal ‘goaty-ness’ about it, and I could not do it.”
When asked what his biggest takeaway from the whole thing has been, Ridley, who’s worked in the drinks industry for 16 years, admits, “I thought I couldn’t consume enough picky bits, and clearly I was wrong. There is definitely a limit.” In a six-week research period, the former Whisky Magazine editor-at-large worked his way through a checklist of drinks. He’d taste through to midday, where he’d hit a brick wall: “you’d start to struggle, because you think ‘well I’m going to break for lunch, but I’ve literally been eating lunch since 10am.”’
But while there are physical limits, Ridley makes clear, “there are no creative limits”. And consumers cottoned onto this in Covid, with 53% of Brits and Aussies snacking more during lockdown (University of Sheffield). “People weren’t able to travel, so they travelled through food and drink,” explains Ridley. “You started to see more exotic picky bits. And here we are, afterwards, and we’ve still got the hunger for it.” He’s right. In 2025, more than 80% of British shoppers regularly buy deli items, and Waitrose referenced ‘picky tea’ in its latest report, and M&S has branded itself ‘the home of picky bits’.
Democratising wine
Herein lies an opportunity for wine. “The idea of making things more casual, more fun and more democratic is really important,” says Ridley. “You don’t have to have a sit-down, five-course menu to enjoy wine. You can explore the world of wine by having a few great bottles, and then assembling an entire arsenal of snack foods around them to explore the differences.”
If The Picky Bits Sommelier can get one more person into wine, he’ll be delighted.
“I’d like to do a trilogy,” says Ridley, hinting at a third ‘sweet treats’ book. “What I’m going to pair with a bag of Tangfastics is anyone’s guess right now, but it’ll be loads of fun.”
Answers:
- Tempura coating originated in Portugal, and was brought to Japan in the 16th century by Portuguese missionaries.
- The Melton Mowbray pork pie.
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