Wine to match your food

It is a rare and memorable experience to be invited to a dinner party where both the wine and food are superb and in complete harmony. I had just such a treat a couple of weeks ago.

We started with a magnum of Bollinger Grand Anne 1990 - wonderful, aging vintage champagne that was soft, honeyed and rich (it's especially good from a magnum, where the aging process is slower). Our first course - a delicate lobster mousse - was accompanied by Romaine Bouchard's Val du Vey 2006 Chablis Premiere cru. 2006 was a great year in Chablis and this Premiere cru was exceptional.

Our main course was perfectly cooked lamb cutlets with spring vegetable accompanied by Chateau Leoville Barton 1989, a beautifully mature claret from the renowned second growth St Julien chateau.

Finally a cheese soufflé with a mustard sauce - and Taylor's 1960 vintage port. Taylor's is the top of the tree in the vintage port world and 1960, with nearing 50 years of bottle age, was at its peak.

What was so special was that the wine complemented the food - and the food the wine.

I have lots of horror stories in which the opposite has happened. One took place in a very flash restaurant in Hong Kong where we ordered a Dover sole which looked particularly fresh and succulent. My host, alas, had ordered in advance a special bottle of white wine to go with it: a bottle of Chateau D'Yquem, the best and most expensive sweet white wine that exists. The match was about as wrong as it could be.

Bizarre, you may think, but I have always been amazed at how little even top chefs know about wine and how often they leave the wine side of their restaurants to their sommeliers. Some more progressive restaurants now suggest wines to go with various dishes on their menus - a move in the right direction. ·