The Wine Buff

This year, 2012, is the Year of the Dragon with celebrations beginning on January 23 and continuing for 15 days, the year finishes on 09 February 2013.

So to celebrate the year let’s look at pairing wines with Chinese food, so instead of grabbing a bottle of beer with your next Chinese dish try one of our recommendations.

When selecting your wine for Chinese food you need to identify the dominant taste sensation of the dish. These are sour (rice vinegar), sweet (sugar, coconut milk) and salt (soy).

When it comes to sweet Riesling wines and Chinese food, sensory scientists have proved that the different taste qualities – sweet, sour, salty, bitter – balance or compliment one another.

For example, sour (acidity) and sweet suppress one another; adding sugar to lemon juice reduces the tartness; the level of acidity or sourness has not changed but the presence of sugar changes how we perceive it. It is the Riesling grape’s ability to develop high sugar levels while maintaining acidity that produces white wines that age very well and compliment Chinese food as well. Riesling wine is produced from dry to very sweet; the sweet wines counterbalances the Chinese food’s salt and sour.

So let’s look at some matching’s.

Delicate seafood flavours, typical of Cantonese cuisine as in steamed dim sum, scallops, steamed whole fish.
Try: Minerally Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadet , Morin Sancerre and Poeze Muscadet.

Spicy noodles.
Try: Cote du Rhone White, Beaubois Cotes de Nimes.

Sweet and sour dishes.
Try: Fruity rosé e.g. Merlot-based Bordeaux. Marquis Rose.

Duck dishes such as crispy duck with pancakes.
Try: New World Pinot Noir, Merlot and Merlot blends, Whaletail Pinot Noir.

Dishes in which ginger is a dominant.
Try: Gewurztraminer, Ginglinger Gerwurztraminer Alsace.

Black bean sauce:
Try: Rich, velvety but not too tannic reds e.g. Chilean Merlot, Rawen Merlot.

Barbecued dishes such as spare ribs:  
Try: Rich, but not too tannic reds e.g. Baccichetto Refosco, Italy.

Hot, fiery dishes typical of Szechuan cuisine:
Try: Wines with a touch of sweetness especially Alsace Gewurztraminer, Sweet New Zealand or German Riesling and Tokaji Furmint. Ginglinger Gerwurztraminer Alsace, Whaletail Riesling, Tokaji Furmint Classic.

The real key to the pleasure of wine and food is simply relaxing and enjoying with friends. Now that you know the best wine pairings, Chinese food anyone?