This week’s New Year’s eve special show featured guest chefs James Tanner and Nic Watt. Husband and wife team Susie Barrie and Peter Richards chose the wines to go with the dishes cooked on the last show of the year. Special guest Brendan Coyle faced his food heaven and hell which this week was left entirely to chance as the show was pre recorded.

First up James Tanner cooked an asian style steamed Sea Bream with sticky rice. To go with this the guys would have veered towards a rose wine but decided to spare James Martin the ordeal of drinking Rose ! Instead they finally chose: Thornberry 2008 Riesling which has enough zesty succulence and depth to compliment the elements of Mr Tanner’s fish perfectly.

Nic Watt is probably best known for his asian and fusion styled cookery but also has a love of Spanish and mediteranean cuisine which he demonstrated with his dish of: Roast Lamb with a  san marino sauce and almond croquettas. Susie and Peter settled on a Vina Eguia Rioja Gran Reserva 2001 to match the hearty flavours of garlic,rosemary and anchovy in this one.

Brendan Coyle was “unlucky” this week and was forced to try his hell food – meringue which came in the form of a chocolate gateaux style creation incorporating vanilla, brandy, cream (of course) and mont blanc style meringue. Wine chosen to match was a Campbell’s Rutherglen Muscat.

Happy New Year from Wineday everyone !