A super dish for Spring and Summer lunches and good for weight-watchers too! I’d treat this the same way that many Spaniards treat their Paellas and order a chilled rosado to accompany it.
Chicken is happy with most styles of wine but the flavour of bacon, despite its often salty nature, can be overrun by bold white wine flavours and tannic reds. A lightly coloured rosado (in Spain rosé wine comes in all shades of red) made with Tempranillo or with Syrah will complement this dish nicely, adding to the overall taste but not overpowering the salad.
A wonderful traditional dish served all over Spain and one of the reasons that I emigrated here in the first place! The combinations of the various different ingredients mean that this rice dish can go happily with various different wines.
Red wine drinkers will be pleased with wine from Navarra, often made with Garnacha and or Tempranillo – a blend of these two would be super, Crianza or Reserva style as well.
White wine drinkers will find it a little more difficult to obtain
Presenters, Noelle and Bob, outside HQ with glasses in hand!
the perfect match – but an old style oaked white Rioja will be good (though such wines are something of a rarity these days as tastes have changed).
So let’s go for a compromise and one that you’ll see many times in restaurants where the Spanish are enjoying their rice dishes – a lovely dry rosado!
Spain is the spiritual home of rosado wines where you can find many different shades and flavours. Coincidentally I was co-presenting a wine tasting on Friday night where we enjoyed a super Navarra rosado, Castillo de Javier, made exclusively from Garnacha, which for me will be the perfect match for Arroz al Horno!
A white wine required here I think. Nothing too aromatic or fruity, just a fresh and clean inexpensive whitewine with some flavour. I think I’d go for a wine from Rueda – Verdejo is the native variety here and it’s this grape that will give the wine the flavour and that ever-so-slight steely edge.
However if we add the fairly bland (in comparison) Viura to the blend we’ll have a little more body to stand up to the tomato and onion.
Fortunately, such DO Rueda wines are generally the most economic too!
As we’ve said before, chicken is very wine friendly and isn’t proud – it is happy to share the table with all colours and most styles of wine. So it’s the highly flavoured chorizo that we have to deal with in this dish. A young red from Navarra, where Garnacha is the predominant variety in the blend, would suit it quite well.
Sunday Brunch Presenters, Noelle and Bob, enjoying the recommended wines!
However, the chilli included in the recipe would emphasise and noticeable tannin, making the wine harsh and therefore detracting from the dish as a whole.
It might be better, therefore, to go for a Rosado – same place and same grape variety or maybe from Rioja where Tempranillo may also be involved. Spain is home to some excellent rosado wines which are often well under 10€ a bottle, so I think that I’d go for this.
