SIR – Bryony Hill’s advice (Letters, January 20) to drink sweet wine with a pudding would be disputed in Sauternes.
We were politely told that it should go with cheese or foie gras; the only acceptable dessert would be a tart. We were also told that an open bottle will keep in the fridge for up to six weeks, but have never been able to verify this advice.
Phillip Roberts
Kelsall, Cheshire
SIR – Dinner at a certain château in Reims persuaded me that champagne can be drunk with any food, including chocolate (Letters, January 21).
Peter Oldfield-Murray
London N20
SIR – Some years ago my French friends in Albi, Languedoc, gave me a birthday lunch consisting of nine courses, each served with a different alcoholic drink, plus an aperitif and digestif.
The first course was served at 1pm and my wife and I left at 7pm. I’m pretty sure we had pudding and dessert wine at some stage.
Ray Bather
Allendale, Northumberland
SIR – Frank Russell (Letters, January 21) tells how his father, a Yorkshireman, always ate cheese with apple pie.
My father always ate a little cheese between his main course and pudding to “cleanse the palate” – a habit I picked up from him.
However, unlike Dad, a teetotaller, I save a little dinner wine to sip with the cheese and find it enhances the cleansing process.
Pat Cooper
Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire
SIR – My father was once dining in the Netherlands. When he asked if he could have some cheese for pudding he was told quite emphatically that cheese was for breakfast.
William Fleming
Chichester, West Sussex
SIR – In the North East we enjoy a slice of rich, moist Christmas cake with a piece of Wensleydale. Delicious.
Pauline Hempsey
Stokesley, North Yorkshire
SIR – Like Frank Russell’s father, I enjoy a slice of cheddar with apple pie.
However, I was taught to do this by my Scots-Canadian grandmother, so the habit appears to have more than one source.
David E P Judge
Hemingford Grey, Cambridgeshire
SIR – My Yorkshire-born grandmother used to say: “An apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze.”
Suzi Grenfell Marten
Holyhead, Anglesey