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WINE
At
China
Tang at the Dorchester Hotel in London recently we tasted a wonderful wine
that compliments Asian foods well - Léon Barral Blanc 2004
VDP de l’Hérault.
- 2007 October
The art of matching wine with Asian
food The classic
combinations of wine with food will always delight - champagne with caviar,
prosciutto with Pinot Grigio, beef with Burgundy or Bordeaux, Shiraz with lamb,
pork with Gewurztraminer; but then your cuisine choice can be limited for there
is a whole world of food out there.
Enter the realm of Asian food, and getting
good liaisons of food with wine requires a tad more work. When finding a wine
partner for Asian food, the straight, well-travelled route of matching the wine
to the primary ingredient: full-bodied red with meat and dry white with
shellfish just won't fly. With most Asian dishes, the predominant taste comes
from the cooking method, sauces or the combination of various ingredients, not
the raw material itself. Asian cuisine flavours are often multi-textured too.
For example, yong tau foo has a coarse texture but is accompanied by a sweet and
hot sauce; pig's trotters is fatty and savoury, ikan panggang and tandooris are
smoky and Thai curries are piquant, sweet and creamy. Indeed, there is a
multitude of tastes in dishes that range from salt baked chicken and bulgogi to
shabu shabu and gado gado.
The best approach then is to pick a wine to
harmonise with the predominant flavour of the dish - be it derived from a blend
of spices, a cooking method or a sauce. But which wine? There are over 1,000
wine types and styles in the world to choose from.
Fortunately, for purposes of food and wine
matching, it's the wine's weight (the impression of substance that the wine
expresses in the mouth), its level of sweetness and balancing acidity that
matter most. Consider wines to be crisp and dry; juicy; oaky and fruity; tannic;
lightly sweet; richly sweet or nutty and fortified and the world's wines are
arranged in seven categories for food matching.
Basic rules apply
The first rule is to use traditional matches
as a guide. If you are ordering dishes that incorporate garlic and tomatoes
(like in Italy), most crisp and dry or juicy Italian reds or whites will make
good matches.
Traditionally, white wines and juicy red
wines with lower tannins match delicate seafoods. Fruity reds that are meant to
be consumed early, such as Beaujolais, Gamay, Chinon, Montepulicano d'Abruzzo
and Nero d'Avola, work well with seafood. Serving such red wines chilled to 11°
Celsius will reduce the sensation of tannin even further, therefore increasing
the degree of union with delicate white sauces and seafood.
Another rule is that it pays to be creative.
The champagne-and-sushi pairing can be hardly called inventive nowadays. But try
sweet white wine such as Asti (spumante) with peranakan poh-piah. My friend,
chef Daisuke Utagawa, invited me to try a red wine with raw fish. I am now a fan
of Pinot Noir with Maguro sashimi.
Interplay the basic sensations
Acid in wine makes it taste 'lively' because
of the sharpness in the mouth. Tangy crisp and dry wines generally go well with
creamy foods or those cooked in butter because the sharpness of the acid will
'cut' the richness of the cream. For rich coconut curry, korma or crispy fried
foods, venture a Gruner Veltliner, Muscadet or a dry Semillon.
Quell the chilli
Sweetness in the wine envelops the chilli in
hot spicy dishes. Served cold, Sauternes, ice wines and the like - the sweetness
will mute the chilli and their chilling sensation will refresh. If you find
these wines too forward, try something lighter like a Moscato - it will have the
requisite sweetness.
Intensity of aromas and flavours
For sweet and sour dishes, try unoaked
versions of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Blanc - all of which have
aromas of apple, pineapple, grapefruit, lychee or peaches. A general rule of
complement - aromatic duck with aged Burgundy or Pinot Noir, butter-sauced
dishes with oaked and buttery Chardonnay work well. Red wines such as Beaujolais
Nouveau or Zinfandels with strong berry flavours and bold fruit play up curry
spices well - as long as the dish is not too chilli hot. If you are going to
choose a dish to match the wine rather than the other way around, pick fish for
high-acid red or white wines. Strong-flavoured seafood and sauces can handle
characterful wines such as sherry, French MacVin Jura, Italian Vin Santo.
Wine enemies
Finally, beware of ingredients like chilli
padi, Szechuan pepper, belachan, prawn paste and fermented soya bean. Their
strong after-taste affects your palate's ability to fully enjoy your wine. It's
here where iced water works best but Port on the rocks is a divine substitute!
Edwin Soon and Patricia Guy have
co-authored 'Wine with Asian Food - New Frontiers in Taste'. This comprehensive
book also provides recipes by avid cook Soon, as well as wine matching advice.
Published by Landmark Books, it's available in all good bookshops and wine
retailers at $42 (before GST) - 2007 November 2 SINGAPORE
BUSINESS TIMES
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