The visit to Ginza was not purely a restaurant visit, as the reason I was there was for a champagne and sushi tasting event, organised by the Theatre of Wine, (an independent wine shop in Greenwich). I have never thought of champagne being particularly well matched with sushi, but on coming across the idea, I could see that the clean tasting sushi could potentially match quite well with a crisp, dry, champagne.

Despite being local-ish to the area, I’d not heard of Ginza before, but doing some research on the ‘net, it seems it’s only been around about 5 months. Some of the reviews have heaped high praise upon it and some had even favourably compared it to Nobu and Ubon, which certainly got my attention.

Ms R and I were the first of the 8 arrivals, excluding our host, Paul, and so duly got stuck into the chosen aperitif of the Mandois Brut nv, the Theatre of Wine’s house champagne and very quaffable it was, too. The decor of Ginza is probably what most people would expect, being mainly dark wood, with a few Japanese pictures on the wall and all in all, quite pleasant. 

Once all the attendees had arrived, Paul gave us a brief history of the Champagne region, how champagne is made and some of the houses that make it. He explained that champagne is made from chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes. Non-Vintage (nv) champagnes are those made by blending champagnes of several different years whilst Vintage champagnes are made from grapes picked in that particular year. Each village’s grapes & vineyards in the region are rated every year, with those rated at 100% given Grand Cru status and those rated between 90-99% given Premier Cru status. Blanc de blanc champagnes are those made with 100% chardonnay grapes.

We then moved onto the first course, assorted sashimi, which we ate with another Mandois, but this time the Premier Cru, Blanc de Blancs 2002 and Premier Cru Egly-Ouriet nv. I preferred the Premier Cru Mandois to both the first Mandois and the Egly-Ouriet (although most of the table preferred the Egly), as it wasn’t quite as acidic and was more smooth with a slightly nutty tone. It went fine with the sashimi (salmon, shrimp, mackerel, crab claw, tuna, cod & scallop), which was pretty good, although the combination of sashimi and champagne didn’t blow my mind.

The next course was the Nigiri sushi, which the same type of fish were served up on the obligatory oblong of rice. The champagnes that were matched with our sushi were a Danial Dumont Premier Cru Rose nv, and a Plageoles Mauzac nv (although this wasn’t a champagne, being made slightly out of the region and with a different grape; Mauzac). The rose was quite drinkable, if a little sweet for me, and the Mauzac was quite yeasty on it’s own. When drunk with the sushi, though, the combination was quite spectacular. The yeasty flavour of the Mauzac perfectly complimented the sushi/soy sauce combination in a way that made you want to alternate drinking it and eating the sushi for hours on end. It was one of those combinations that totally hit the nail on the head, although it was more the soy sauce (a fermented condiment) that worked so well with the yeasty Mauzac.

A Caterpillar Roll and a Dragon Roll were next on the food agenda, and were two dishes I’d not seen nor heard of before. The Caterpillar roll was a long inside-out maki roll (uramaki), topped with avocado and salmon roe and filled with asparagus & deep fried squid. The Dragon roll was also an uramaki roll, rolled in salmon roe but filled with tempura shrimp. Both were served with a wasabi mayonnaise and I have to say I really liked the taste and presentation of both of these dishes, my favourites of the night. The Rolls’ were served with a Vilmart Grand Cru Cellier nv champagne and a Riesling (Dr Loosen Graacher Himmelreich Riesling 1990). Both went well with the uramaki, but couldn’t recapture the Mauzac and maki combination.

The final two dishes were Black Cod and a Cuttlefish & noodle salad. These were served with an Egly-Ouriet Grand Cru and a Raventos i Blanc Gran Reserva Cava 2002. I have to admit that by this point I was quite merry and so can’t really remember too much about the wines. The cuttlefish was indistinguishable from squid and the Black Cod very tasty, but not as heavenly as the Black Cod I have had at Ubon.

I think the night was a successful one and I really enjoyed being taught about the wines we were drinking. Overall, the food was excellent and although I don’t think it was quite up to Nobu, Ubon or even Asakusa’s standards, it was still very good indeed. I’m not sure how it rates price-wise, as we paid £60 a head, which included approx 9 glasses of fine wine as well as the food, but I think Ginza is definitely worth another visit.