A delicious Taste London Launch!

There are thousands of weary people this weekend who were involved with The London International Wine Fair at Excel this week. However, on the first morning of the fair I was elsewhere for The Press Launch of Taste London 2010 17th-20th June, for which I am The Food and Wine Matching Expert. The Press Launch assembled a healthy congregation of food and wine writers and food bloggers who had signed up to sampling three food and wine matches at Bentleys, Yauatcha and Dehesa (restaurants all participating in Taste London).We sampled three dishes and wines at each restaurant and as I had been given the rather onerous task beforehand of matching wines to these very varied dishes I was inevitably in the spotlight in explaining the choice of wine, with the rational for the food match. Whilst food and wine matching is of course up to the individual there was more than a muted response to some of the matches including Nyetimber Classic Cuvee 2005, which complemented the delicious oysters at Bentleys, whilst at Yauatcha, spicy chicken wonton dumpling made a friend with Kleine Zalze Vineyard Selection Chenin Blanc 2009 and an array of flavours from the super dim sum platter worked well with the fresh and dry Cht Ste Michelle Dry Riesling 2009 from Washington State. Our final restaurant, Dehesa, had some beautiful dishes and smoked octopus a La Gallega found a suitable partner with Gavi del Commune di Gavi 2009.
A wonderful way to spend a lunchtime and a great way to get Taste London launched.