Red wine with fish still trips people up, and honestly, fair enough: most reds would flatten this dish. But chill a light, crunchy red like this South African Cinsault and you've got something else entirely.

This is old bush-vine Cinsault from the Swartland, made by Johan Meyer under the Mother Rock label with about as light a touch as winemaking allows. No chasing power or concentration here, just crunchy, crisp, fruit-forward drinking: think strawberry and lingonberry, a bit of thyme, a peppery lift on the finish, and tannins so soft you'd barely notice them. It's a wine built to be poured cold and drunk quickly, and this is exactly the kind of dish that proves the point.

One tip on timing: pop it in the fridge a few hours before you start cooking at least, then uncork it
and pop it on the counter. By the time the salmon's out of the oven, it'll be sitting at exactly the right temperature for the table. Salmon is rich, fatty, full-flavoured fish. Most people default to a crisp white for it, but this dish calls for something else. Load it up with harissa, then sit it on bulgur wheat with fenugreek and pomegranate, and you've actually built a dish that's fruity, floral and a little spiced, sitting on top of something rich. A tight, acid-forward white like a Vermentino would just sit there being a bit too straight to the point with the its citrus notes and more textural whites like Chenin or Fiano won't be able to cope with the richness.

What the dish actually needs is fruit to talk back to the pomegranate and harissa, and enough acidity to cut the richness of the salmon. Chill the Cinsault down and that's exactly what you get: the fruit comes forward, the tannins back off, and the acid does the work a white would otherwise be drafted in for.

Harissa Salmon with Roasted Squash and Fenugreek Bulgur

You'll need

For the squash

  • 1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into wedges
  • 2 red onions, cut into slices.
  • A thumb of ginger, grated
  • 6 cardamom pods, seeds only, lightly crushed
  • 1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

For the bulgur

  • 250g bulgur wheat
  • Vegetable stock, enough to cover
  • 1 tbsp fenugreek leaves (dried, or fresh if you can get them)
  • Seeds from 1 pomegranate (go to the meal deal section and get a tub of just seeds if you're lazy like me!)
  • A small bunch of parsley, chopped
  • Zest and juice of ½ lime
  • Olive oil, to finish

For the salmon

  • 4 salmon fillets
  • 2–3 tbsp rose harissa
  • Pine nuts, and breadcrumbs, mixed with a little oil (optional, for a crunch)

Method

  1. Take your red out the fridge and uncork it, sample a thimble full and leave the bottle on the counter to slightly warm and open up.
  2. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan. Toss the squash and onion wedges with
    the ginger, crushed cardamom and peppercorns, cumin, sugar and oil, season
    well, and roast on one large tray for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on
    how thick you've cut everything.
  3. Meanwhile, mix the bulgur, veg stock, & fenugreek together and set in a tinfoil covered tray, add to oven when you add the salmon.
  4. With about 20 minutes left on the veg, push it to one side of the tray to
    keep roasting and add the salmon fillets alongside. Spread with the rose
    harissa and, if using the crust, sprinkle over the pine nut, pumpkin seed
    and breadcrumb mix. Roast for the remaining 15–20 minutes, or until the
    salmon is just cooked through.
  5. Once everything is cooked remove the Salmon and Bulgur to rest for 5 mins on the kitchen counter whilst you set the plates.
  6. Fluff up the bulgur with a fork and fold in most of the pomegranate seeds, the coriander, lime zest and juice through the warm bulgur. Taste and adjust: it should feel bright,
    not heavy.
  7. Plate up a bed of bulgur then lay down a salmon fillet on top resting one or two large spoonful's of roasted veg against it. Garnish with extra pomegranate and any pine nuts that fell off the fish in the tray.

Also great with a side of tenderstem broccoli. Just add it to the bulgur pan for
the last few minutes to steam through, then dress with a proper tahini sauce.
This one from Serious Eats is the one to use.

Why It Worked

Everyone's first instinct with salmon is white wine, but this dish doesn't behave like a typical fish dish. Between the rose harissa, the pomegranate and the fenugreek, you've got a plate that's fruity, floral and a little spiced, sitting on top of a fish that's rich and full-flavoured to begin with. A tight, acid-driven white can cut the richness, but it doesn't have much to say to the fruit and spice
doing all the interesting work.

A chilled red can do both. The Force Céleste brings its own crunchy red fruit, strawberry, lingonberry, a savoury lift of thyme and pepper, that mirrors what's already on the plate, while the chill keeps the tannins soft enough that they never fight the fish. What you're left with is the acidity you needed from a white, plus fruit that's genuinely in conversation with the dish.

Light reds are having a moment for exactly this reason. Served cold, they trade weight for freshness without giving up flavour, which makes them a much more interesting match for food like this than people expect.

Mother Rock Force Celeste Cinsault at The Beerhive, Edinburgh. Free UK shipping.

Mother Rock Force Celeste Cinsault

View Bottle

See More Pairings

More Pairings