Chablis and a Take-away! A Blogger Challenge

I have been invited to take part in a challenge to give my opinion on the best take-away to go with a nice cool bottle of Chablis wine.

This was quite daunting at first because Chablis is one of my favourite white wines and I enjoy it with most meals. Chablis is made from the Chardonnay grape which is my preferred white wine, crisp and clean, clear appearance with a distinct and rich flavour.  Chablis comes from the northern part of the Burgundy wine growing area in France.

I like to drink my white wine extremely cold and even put ice cubes in my glass!

To start with I could justify drinking this wine with most take-aways that I might order but when I started to break down the reasons I liked the wine, tasting it with my eyes closed it suddenly became obvious which take-away would go best.

For starters I thought about Indian take-away. I usually have Tandoori Chicken and Special Rice. The spices in the tandoori are not too strong or firery and suit a dry white wine very well.

Thai take-aways such as thai green curry or tempura shrimp and other select items - I would drink dry white wine with this. The light crispness suits fine distinct flavours perfectly.

With a Chinese take-away I would actually prefer to drink Chinese tea but if drinking wine a dry white would be perfect - Oh yes, Chablis again!

Kebabs, a slightly more greasy take-away and the sharpness and gooseberry flavours help to cut the greasyness of the kebab.

Italian - we usually associate pizza as the ultimate take-away. When I say pizza one usually thinks of the chains like Domino's or Pizza Hut and others.  But we are still at the question - what do I think the perfect take-away would be to go with a delicious, crisp, dry delicate Chablis wine!

We had Mexican for dinner and that was definitely too spicy for such a delicate white wine.

To try to make sense of the choices I poured myself a large glass of Robert Nicolle Chablis, 2011, turned off the TV distractions and closed my eyes. I took a long, slow sip first smelling the wine as I inhaled. Keeping my eyes closed I tried to imagine what I would be eating that would go with this wine and in an instant it came to me! I would get a take-away from a proper Italian restaurant and I would have a calzone with ham and mushroom.  A calzone is like an italian version of a pasty. It stays moist and the creaminess of the mozarella matches perfectly with the smoothness of the Chablis. The ham and mushrooms have a lovely flavour but don't overpower the lightness of the Chablis.

Oh yes, Chablis would partner perfectly with an Italian ham and mushroom Calzone to take-away.