What wine goes best with Jake’s hand-cut pork pies? James Doidge, Hampshire resident and managing director of The Wine Treasury, offers his thoughts.

Red
A Jake’s pork pie is a full-flavoured, tasty thing with its chunks of well-seasoned free range pork, a little rich jelly and the crunchy pastry that encases it all. So it needs a reasonably full-flavoured one to match it. A Syrah/ Shiraz is an ideal match: full bodied with a touch of black pepper of its own.

Perhaps a juicy new world version, such as Barossa or South Australian Shiraz, or a fruit-driven Syrah from Chile. Or from the old world perhaps a Rhone Valley such as a Crozes Hermitage.

My ideal recommendation is a Shiraz from Western Australia: cooler and a little more European in the style of wines it produces. Try Plan B’s Shiraz 2010 from Frankland River, Australia for an excellent match. Ripe brambly fruit, classic Shiraz black pepper, and a touch of savoury tannin lending it a hint of an old world feel.

If you’re in Hampshire you can buy this from the General Wine Company in Liphook or Petersfield, and from Fareham Wine Cellar in Fareham.

White
Although I’d say that red matches best, on a warm summer’s day (now not quite such a fanciful thought) with a Jake’s Pork Pie for an outside lunch with salads, pickles and whatnot, something white and chilled may be called for. It needs something that packs a bit of a punch though, something with a touch of richness and texture.

You could try a Godello from Spain (rich, luscious and weighty, but dry). Or a Chardonnay with a touch of oak (perhaps a Mâcon from Burgundy, or a Chilean Chardonnay). Roussanne from the Rhône could be an ideal match: textured, weighty and lush, but perhaps a little esoteric.

As a compromise, then, Roussanne’s cousin from the Rhône: Viognier. My recommendation for this is Cline Cellars’ North Coast Viognier 2012 from California: ripe and lush with peachy flavours but not cloying as a consequence of a zing of acidity. Available again from General Wine.

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