Whether you’re an established wine connoisseur, or someone wanting to learn more about what’s in your glass, you can now look forward to experiencing food and wine in the comfort of your own home. UCOOK, the popular dinner-kit delivery platform, has launched wine to accompany your meals, enabling customers to order varietals that have been expertly paired to each of the meals available every week. In a culture where food and wine are so intrinsically linked, this makes complete sense.

Paired by Sommeliers

David Torr, founder of UCOOK, says that professional sommeliers from South Africa’s best wine farms are working with UCOOK’s chefs to design and create meals with wine in mind, paying careful attention to ingredients that will work with flavour profiles and varietals.

“Customers will soon have the opportunity to explore the wines that have been carefully paired with each dish, add the ones they’d like to enjoy with their chosen meals, and learn a bit more about each wine with our tasting notes and tips.” Torr says customers will also be able to add any wines they’d like outside of the pairing to their order, or simply purchase wine only, with a new checkout feature on the UCOOK site.

Each month, UCOOK will introduce customers to a featured wine farm. Customers will have the opportunity to learn about their wines with advice directly from winemakers and sommeliers, bringing the best of what restaurants and wine farms can offer into their homes.

Crush Gets Cooking

We recently got in the kitchen with two UCOOK meals, created by Lapo Magni of Lapo’s Kitchen, and accompanied by Delheim wines.

SUMMER RISOTTO

First up was a delicious summer risotto with peas, and oven-roasted leeks. We loved all the healthy greens in this dish, plus the herbs, the sweetness of the peas and the brightness of a little squeeze of lemon. We’re huge fans of oven-roasted leeks, and even though we let ours go a little further than the recipe required we absolutely loved the crunch and flavour of this element.

This dish was paired with Delheim’s Gewürztraminer, a light and refreshing wine with tropical notes of litchi. We also picked up a pronounced rosewater flavour that we loved.  With this being a less commonly-known wine, it made for a great pairing as it was perhaps not something we would have picked on our own.

RIGATONI CACIO PEPE

The second dish was an indulgent Rigatoni Cacio Pepe with crispy pancetta. This dish cleverly used reserved pasta water to emulsify plenty of grated Parmesan and Grana Padano cheese, which made the silkiest and most delicious sauce.

Add in a bunch of crispy fried pancetta and some sunflower seeds for crunch and you have a winning midweek meal, perfect for date night in. This dish was paired with Delheim’s Grand Reserve 2015, a stunning, full-bodied red wine with red berry notes. An ideal match for the rich rigatoni dish.

What We Enjoyed

Well, everything really! Although we cook on a regular basis, it’s easy to fall into the trap of making the same thing. And even when there are lots of delicious recipes available, there is something to be said for the convenience of having everything measured and delivered to your door.

Having the paired wine with the dishes just added the final touch.

Food always brings people together but the prep of it can be just as much fun as the eating. Open the wine and enjoy a glass with your partner or friend while you learn something new, then sit down, tuck in and enjoy!

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