Rose Murray Brown’s wine pairings for Gavin Hastings’ Healthy Salmon Dinner

Rose Murray Brown’s wine pairing for Gavin’s Healthy Salmon Dinner

Salmon is a rich fish, but is also quite versatile with whites and even lighter reds.  

My go-to whites with salmon are Chardonnay or Chenin Blanc – and for a red I would recommend a light cool climate Pinot Noir or Gamay.

My budget white choice is THE SOCIETY’S CHILEAN LIMARI CHARDONNAY 2020 – a cracking buy at £7.95 The Wine Society www.thewinesociety.com.  It is made for The Wine Society by the giants of the Chilean wine industry, Concha y Toro, but don’t let that put off you off.   It is taut linear, zippy and clean with bright citric fruit and a creamy texture from stirring of the lees (the dead yeasts after fermentation) which would work well with the richness of the salmon dish.  Look out for Limari on labels – this region north of Santiago is now ‘the’ place for Chardonnay in Chile.

For a higher priced white wine try the delicious WOLF & WOMAN CHENIN BLANC 2019 £19.50 Justerini & Brooks www.justerinis.com made by the super-talented winemaker Jolandie Fouche in South Africa’s Swartland region.  This is an enchantingly subtle and elegant old-vine Cape Chenin with nectarine, honey, slightly spicy palate with bone dry length – it also has a very distinctive eye-catching label.

It might seem odd to serve a red wine with fish, but a light thin-skinned grape like Pinot Noir does work really well.  I have been very impressed with a few of the still Pinot Noirs from England – many are from the warm 2018 vintage – and by far the best of the bunch to date is the luscious silky elegant plum-fruited DANBURY RIDGE PINOT NOIR 2018 £34 Swig Wine www.swig.co.uk from a vineyard near Colchester in Essex, made by talented ex-Lyme Bay winemaker Liam Idzikowski.  It might seem pricey, but it can stand its ground against more expensive red Burgundies – and shows what fabulous potential England has for still wine.