Friday Fungus: Mushrooms and wine - thoughts

Mushrooms and wine – now that’s a fine thought. But which wine? Red, white, fizzy, fortified, sweet, dry – I really didn’t know except that the person who got me thinking about it suggested Prosecco.

The next question was, of course, to ask how we are serving the mushrooms. For this experiment the plan is just plain, pan-fried with some herbs and maybe a dash or two of Worcester sauce. And ideally wild mushrooms – a little more oomph than cultivated mushrooms.

So to the suggestions – as yet untried – but gratefully received:

From Jon Beech – serve with a good dry sherry. I like this idea – I’ve cooked mushrooms in sherry before and it’s a good combination. Think I’ll serve the sherry cold – just need to test a few.

From The Wine Sleuth – a good red wine is suggested, specifically a Cahors (which for my Gnostic connoisseurs would be perfect, of course) which will have some nice spicy notes to it!

In the Washington Post there are some suggestions from a top sommelier, Scott Calvert:

"Earthy mushrooms pair best with earthy wines," Calvert advises, in explaining why he pairs black trumpets, chanterelles and shiitakes with earthy reds such as Burgundy, nebbiolo and pinot noir. We've found earthy mushrooms a great match with one of the best-value earthy reds around: Kenwood Russian River Valley Pinot Noir.

Likewise, meaty mushrooms -- such as cremini, morels, porcini and portobellos -- pair best with meaty wines, among which Calvert counts pinot noir (which "can go either way" as earthy or meaty), sangiovese and syrah/shiraz. We recently sampled a meaty Kenwood Jack London Cabernet Sauvignon that shined with a portobello-topped steak.”

I’ll be trying out some of these suggestions (once there are a few more mushrooms around) and reporting back. But, in the meantime, do add your own ideas and suggestions!

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