Heavenly couplings

Some wine and food matches are made in heaven. Zest's wine reviewers recall their own little nibbles at Paradise.

When a wine and a meal come together in a perfect combination of tastes, the match becomes embedded in the memory bank.

Recapturing memories is always fraught with false leads but in the case of wine and food matches it is further complicated by opinion. One woman's pinot noir with spicy duck breast is likely to be treated with derision by the man who insists the only wine to match with spices is a shiraz. Or a gerwurztraminer. Or a beer.

Chardonnay and roast chicken

My favourite food-wine match would have to be a really, really good New Zealand chardonnay served with a buttery, golden chicken roasted with herbs, garlic and lemon. You drink a glass or two while getting the (free-range, of course) chicken under way. The same wine accompanies the meal proper - the chicken, crunchy rosemary and garlic roast potatoes, green beans or asparagus and an intense gravy from the juices. A few chardonnays would qualify, including Kumeu River Mates Vineyard and Neudorf. But forced to name one, it would be a Te Mata Estate Elston chardonnay with a couple of years under the belt. This is always a special- event wine. It is so balanced and seamless, the rich fruit and spicy oak perfectly merged in each glorious, uplifting mouthful. And with the chicken - perfect.

Sauvignon blanc and asparagus risotto

Take the young but impressive Gane's Curio Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2008 and mix with a porcini and asparagus risotto, a dish inspired by a recent stay in Venice, and you have a match made, if not in heaven, then in the sunny Wairau Valley. The wine's strong apricot and stonefruit flavours complement rather than dominate the flavours of the food. Matching a wine with asparagus can be a tricky business but in this instance the sauvignon blanc soothed the slightly metallic taste. Altogether a harmonious affair.

Pinot noir and beouf stroganoff

My favourite match starts with Chard Farm River Run Pinot Noir 2007 on one of those self indulgent and once-every- so-often evenings. I could match that wine with almost anything but it is particularly good with beouf stroganoff. The sweet and fruity wine, which is fermented in oak, perfectly complements and enhances the taste and flavours of thin fillet beef strips cooked in a sauce of onions, mushrooms, tomato paste and cream.

Pinot noir and duck breast

In 1997 we were staying at Ballymaloe in Ireland, a boutique hotel with a famous restaurant. The menu was given to us with our pre-dinner drinks in the drawing room. The fragrance of roasting duck from the kitchen wafted by the window and we said "we'll have that, thanks." We asked what wine they'd recommend and followed their suggestion of a 1994 Clos du Val pinot noir from the Stag's Leap area in the Napa Valley - reluctantly, given it was [PndStlg]30 a bottle for a Californian wine (oh, such ignorance). The duck had a hint of star anise, the vegetables included roast beetroot (another first), the gravy had a slosh of cherry juice and the deep, earthy, complex wine enhanced every mouthful. It was my first (and so far, only) perfect wine and food match.

Champagne in Champagne

To recall the memorable may result from the seduction of the ambience of the situation. So be it. One weekend about 15 years ago my wife and I were guests of Moet and Chandon at Chateau Siran, the firm's private guest house in Champagne. We slept in Moet and Chandon's wedding beds ( yes, they were two singles), and rubbed shoulders with an eclectic mix of six other guests, including Omar Sharif's agent. Our hosts set out to prove what the Champenoise always claim - that great wines of Champagne can accompany any type of dish, and Champagne was served throughout the meal. The wine and food match which made the biggest impression was unusual. A bone-dry, spine-tingling, crisp vintage Moet and Chandon, I think it was the 75, served with rich, sweet, dark-chocolate balls. Miraculously it worked, and worked superbly.

Sauvignon semillon and barbecued mussels

We scrambled over rocks beating the tide to pull off juicy mussels and raced back to Akaroa with a bucketful. They were tossed onto the barbecue with a little onion, a handful of dill, a whiff of cumin and freshly ground black pepper and as they opened a splash of the Pegasus Bay Sauvignon Semillon 2004. It was the perfect match, the semillon having allowed the wine to age into a rich tangy complexity.