Domaine du Vieux Vauvert Vouvray 2016

Domaine du Vieux Vauvert Vouvray 2016, France

(£9.99, Waitrose or via Wine Searcher) 

First things first: this is not a dry wine!

There. Glad we got that one out of the way. But it’s important to say because there’s nothing worse than expecting something to be dry when it’s sweet (or vice versa). This isn’t a sweet wine – it’s more like medium dry, or off-dry, but that sweetness is really important.

And that’s because I was putting this wine alongside Glynn Purnell’s pork chop with blatjang and radishes on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen.

Vouvray is made from the Chenin Blanc grape variety and its rich appley flavours and vivid acidity are considered a classic match with pork. But often in Vouvray (an appellation in France’s Loire Valley) you also get a little bit of residual sweetness. And that’s essential here because blatjang is a South African chutney packed full of raisined fruit sweetness. This dish is in fact a kind of inspired take on sweet and sour pork – and this wine works seamlessly alongside it.

Glynn certainly seemed to agree, saying, ‘The wine goes absolutely beautifully’. Fellow chef José Pizarro also described it as, ‘gorgeous’.

So, you see, we shouldn’t be afraid of a bit of sweetness in our wine. Especially when it comes to such beautiful food.

(Susie, 6.5/10, July 2017)