Wine: ‘Game has a natural affinity with Rhone wine’

T he shooting season, which began last week, can be a bitter sweet time. While it presages the end of summer, it also means those hearty, game-friendly red wines can be roused from their summer dormancy. Shortening days seem to be a cue for more substantial food and wine.

Conventional wisdom tells us to seek out a presentable Rhone to go with the grouse. However, that match requires a sizeable portion of syrah and southern Rhones often blend it with other grapes (13 different varieties can legitimately go into Chateauneuf du Pape, for example). So the best bet is the northern Rhone, where syrah is king. Since that region is about as far from the equator as the grape can tolerate, the ripening season is a long one but this often gives the finished wine greater finesse.

Robust, game-centred dishes seem to have a natural affinity with northern Rhone aristocrats such as the big, port-like wines of Hermitage or the beautifully balanced and blackcurrant charged 2009 Jean-Luc Colombo Saint Joseph Le Prieure listed by Portobello’s The Fine Wine Company. Another option could be the fresh, smooth and spicy 2009 Chapoutier Les Arenes Cornas (about £26) in some Sainsbury’s.

Grouse, however, will also sit very comfortably with fuller versions of Cote Rotie, given the soft but meaty scented delicacy its old vines produce and with the charms of something from a little further south such as the rounded, black cherry and bramble fruit of 2008 Tesco Finest Crozes Hermitage (around £8).

Food and wine combinations usually work because of clear similarities between the dominant elements of each part; with the food that can be the sauce or another accompaniment, not necessarily the meat itself. With dishes like game, those similarities can take several forms. It could be a question of ‘weight’ – substantial food needs muscular, intense wine. Also, there is often a natural attraction between tannin and the proteins in red meat; the fusion seems to improve them both. Finally, the density of the food’s texture may swamp anything that lacks a similarly substantial slug of alcohol.

Whichever of those factors (or combination of them) drives it, the marriage of game and northern Rhone wines is an enduring one. Logically, however, it need not be the only pairing. How about, for example, syrah from the southern – rather than northern – hemisphere? All the praise heaped on sauvignon and pinot from New Zealand’s South Island has overshadowed the North Island’s success with syrah (the serious stuff is seldom called shiraz their side of the Tasman Sea).

A current hot spot is the free-draining area of Gimblett Gravels at Hawkes Bay which has won numerous awards for its Bordeaux-style reds. It is now starting to produce superb syrah. Like the northern Rhone, Hawkes Bay is some way from the equator and many feel its Gimblett Gravels versions such as the dark cherry fruit and black pepper- influenced 2008 Villa Maria Cellar Selection Syrah (£13.20, www.slurp.co.uk) rivals top European renditions.

Another region being compared favourably to, for instance, Cote Rotie is coastal Chile, especially the Elqui Valley where altitude, rather than latitude, is helping create some superb cool-climate examples such as the 2007 Viña Mayu Reserva Syrah (£9.59 each when you buy two or more bottles at Majestic) with its juicy, bramble and rich spice flavours.

Good matches also become available when rich game like jugged hare marches together with well-made, ripe Australian shiraz. My choice would be the powerful floral, plum and black cherry elegance of 2007 d’Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz (£27, The Wine Society) made by the irrepressible Chester Osborn.

For many, however, the arrival of the shooting season is time to crack open the classy burgundies. When young birds are being served, pinot noir does indeed come into its own and its earthy flavours also seem to work well when mushrooms form part of the food.

The nation’s cellars do, therefore, offer some excellent fare to provide at least a little cheer during the onset of John Keats’ celebrated ‘season of mellow fruitfulness’. n