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On 24 October 1907, a man called Marcus Braun sent a bottle of wine to President Theodore Roosevelt.
He included a letter that explained it was a bottle of Adria vere – ‘the blood of the Adriatic’. And he said to Roosevelt, a keen hunter, ‘I am assured by connoisseurs that this… goes very well with bear meat.’
Braun was referring to wines of the Vranac grape from Montenegro and Macedonia. I’ve even tracked it down to give to my Swedish father-in-law. He’s partial to a bit of bear, living in Sweden’s north.
The wine is Ezimit Vranec 2022 (13%, RRP £15.99, Novel Wines) and it’s delicious. Big, bold and full of forest fruit (appropriately), it’s perfect not just for bear, but all sorts of game. It’s ideal for venison too.
As an alternative on the high street, dig out M&S Found Kratosija (13.5%, RRP £8, in store or at Ocado), made from the ancient Kratošija (krah-TOE-sha) grape.
This is the sort of robust thing you can imagine served with wild boar or venison at a medieval feast. And it most certainly was.
If it tastes familiar, Kratošija is the same grape as Zinfandel and Primitivo, which are always good game choices too.
This is very much the time of year for game. Pheasant, grouse, venison, partridge… they’re lean, wild, and there’s an old-world charm about matching them with a great bottle of wine.
According to the fabulous 1859 book Sport and its Pleasures, Physical and Gastronomical, pheasant should be ‘washed down, or rather refreshed, with some of the finest Burgundy, which I have decided after long experience, is the wine par excellence for game’.
Domaine Jean Chauvenet Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2021 (13%, RRP £29.99, Vintage by Saga) is the sort of ‘refreshing’ Burgundy he was talking about. It’s a complex, layered wine with redcurrant fruit and forest floor earthiness.
But we don’t need to drink like we’re in the 19th century. Today, wines like Alvarez de Toledo Marqués de Toro Mencia 2021 (14%, £13.50, Highbury Vintners) give you the same fresh red fruit that matches pheasant or partridge but at an extraordinarily good price.
Even grouse, the most traditional game bird, goes with non-traditional wine choices. Berry Bros & Rudd Good Ordinary Claret 2021 (13%, RRP £13.95, Berry Bros) would be the traditional option. As the chef Michel Roux Jr said, it’s ‘definitely better than good and it’s not ordinary’. That juicy, currant fruit is a great food match with a hint of spice.
More adventurous drinkers would enjoy Billy Bosch Bushvine Cinsault 2022 (13.5%, £11.99, Vintage by Saga), which has a bit more smoke and what winemakers call ‘lift’.
A fabulously versatile wine, it’s a real crowd-pleaser no matter what you’re serving.
That said, some game birds don’t need wine, apparently. According to Sport and its Pleasures, Physical and Gastronomical, the robin (as in red breast) is ‘a little ruffian’ but ‘no bad morsel’.
But the author assures us as robins in France eat so many grapes, the birds’ interior is ‘well-soaked with the same, and consequent aroma with which its flesh is impregnated’.
Even so, I think I’ll stick to grouse.
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