Martini Asti Spumante, Piedmont, Italy (from £8.50, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose, Tesco) I am not a complete obsessive about seasonal eating – I have way too many mid-winter fresh fruit-and-veg cravings to be able to carry that off. But I do think strawberries are only really worth having in Britain during their traditional season. We’re in peak strawberry season now, of course, a moment of sweetly succulent, perfumed abundance when I would happily eat them at every meal. This is a simple pleasure that doesn’t really need an accompaniment on the plate or in the bowl – even cream and sugar get in the way if the strawberries are at the perfect point of ripeness. But it does work pretty well with something alongside in the glass. An idea – I suppose Wimbledon-inspired – has got about that champagne is what’s required – but I find it’s not sweet enough, and you’re left with a mouthful of acid. Far better the sweet delicately floral sherbetty grapey foaminess of the moscato wines of Asti, such as the widely available Martini Spumante.
Franck Bonville Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs, France NV (£40.95, Lea & Sandeman) For a slightly less bubbly but still gently foaming and more gorgeously pure early summer meadow-scented use of the same moscato grapes, another great strawberry-partner is Moscato d’Asti, specifically Alasia Moscato d’Asti (£8.50, ndjohn.co.uk). It’s even lower in alcohol, too (5%abv v 7.5% for the spumante), an attribute that is all-the-more important in the heat. If you really think it has to be champagne with strawberries, go for a demi-sec, the sweetest style, such as Pol Roger Rich NV (£44.99, houseofmalt.co.uk) – although frankly I think you’d be better off saving up your champagne budget for a pairing that is as good as any wine-food combination around: one of the dry, or drier, styles (brut, extra brut, zero dosage in descending order of sweetness) of blanc de blancs (100% chardonnay) with fish and chips. The supremely lithe, stylish example from grower house Franck Bonville is a recent favourite of mine.
Segura Viudas Cava Brut, Spain 2021 (£12, Tesco) The thing that makes the blanc de blancs with fish ‘n’ chips match work so well is that it somehow pulls off both the tricks that, on their own, make for a good wine and food pairing: like-with-like and contrast. There’s a kinship in the airiness and fried flour flavours of batter with the bubbles and bakery shop flavours of the champagne; but champagne also has the racy acidity to cut through the grease and provide a lemon-like contrast to the fish. Of course, these days you could have this quintessentially British dish with a British blanc de blancs: the exquisitely elegant, nerve-tingling Gusbourne Estate Blanc de Blancs 2018 (£65, gusbourne.co.uk) from Kent is the one for the very special treat. But sparkling wines of all kinds, which tend to be guzzled as aperitifs, are in fact very good – better, I’d say – with a wide variety of foods. Another good one with like-for-like qualities: fennel braised in white wine and olive oil with the subtly Mediterranean herbiness and tang of a good cava such as Segura Viudas..
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