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| Champagne Cheer |
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| Spicy food calls for a different toast. Chooses the bubbly to face the heat of asian cuisine
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What do Thai, Japanese and Chinese cuisines have in common? Not to mention Indian and Mexican and middle Eastern? When deciding what to drink with any of these cuisines, the reflex is usually to grab a beer. Or a Coke. Or water...lots of water, I have no problem with any of those choices. Beer, in particular, is especially appealing with all of these, although most restaurants serving these spicy cuisines have been the absolute last to discover the world of great craft beers. Wine-the right wine-can go beautifully with any of these foods. Its not necessarily better than beer, but if you love wine, why shouldnt you be able to enjoy it with Thai, Indian and anything else? The key is choosing the right wine, because when you are dealing with foods that are forcefully spiced, and often with lots of chilli heat, many wines can easily be overwhelmed. Its understandable that people rarely select wine with any of these cuisines. These foods do not come from wine-making regions. They are made for beer or even whiskey.
Bubbling Dreams
So what is the right wine to go along with these foods? More often than not, its champagne. No wine, believe it or not, is as versatile with so wide a range of food as champagne, and that especially includes foods that are assertively spiced. Chicken chaat with chilli, cilantro and coarsely-ground Indian black salt? Champagne is your baby. It is also a great choice with sushi.
Beer Buddy
On first glance, its obvious why champagne would go so well with beer cuisines. Its the bubbles. But that doesnt explain all of it. Cava and prosecco have bubbles, but they dont have the intensity of champagne. California sparkling wine has bubbles, but it often is a little too heavy to refresh. I recently tried a sparkling shiraz from Australia with falafel and hummus with hot Sauce, and frankly, I wish I had used more hot sauce to drown out the thick, sweet yet bitter flavour of the shiraz. No, the bubbles are important, but champagne also has a crucial element that the other sparkling wines too often lack: high acidity. Acidity gives wine snap and zest. It gives it a sense of freshness and helps to stimulate the palate. Even sweet wines, like a German riesling auslese, when balanced by acidity, can be thoroughly refreshing. Good acidity in a wine is essential if it is to accompany foods that arent typically thought of as good with wine.
Make a List
Thai food is generally ceded to the beer camp. Its hard to beat a great pilsner with a spicy Thai curry, but you know what? A good Bourgueil comes awfully close. Bourgueil, a village in Touraine on the Loire, produces reds from the cabernet franc grape that can be raspy with acidity, but when the acidity is balanced by sufficient fruit, you have a delicious wine. If you dont believe me, have a meal at Holy Basil, a Thai restaurant in the East Village. Pimnapa Suntatkolkarn, the chef and an owner, has constructed a wine list that I wish could be a model for most restaurants, and she always offers a good Loire red. At a meal there, I tried a 2002 Bourgueil Les Galichets from Catherine and Pierre Breton, as well as a 1995 Rioja Reserva from Lopez de Heredia. The Rioja is wonderful, and about twice the price of the Bourgueil, but with a pungent, tart yet balanced dish like crisp duck with panang curry and kaffir lime? The Rioja had no business on the table. The Bourgueil, though, was perfect- refreshing and stimulating. The Rioja no doubt would receive a higher score in a blind tasting, but at a Thai dinner, the Bourgueil blew it away. Suntatkolkarn believes in choices, though, and she has wisely put on her list such versatile wines as a Mosel riesling from Selbach, a Saint Veran from Daniel Barraud, two whites that combine good acidity with fine mineral flavours, and a Brouilly, an easygoing yet intense Beaujolais from Chateau Thivin. These are wines that I would not hesitate to drink with most highly-spiced cuisines. She might want to add a champagne or two.
Red, Red Wine
Other red wines can be versatile, too, like barbera from Piedmont in northwestern Italy, for one, and Cotes-du-Rhones, unless they are too oaky. Burgundy and mellow pinot noirs, of course. Sushi and pinot noir is a surprisingly excellent combination, though you need to be careful. Burgundies are generally good choices, because they have sufficient acidity, but American pinot noirs can often be too sweet. With one recent sushi dinner, I tried an Oregon pinot noir that I have enjoyed, a 2002 from Francis Tannahill called the Hermit. Unless you pour on the wasabi and soy, sushi depends on a subtle interplay of quickly etched flavours, and the rich, intense Tannahill was
overwhelming. A much better choice was a 2000 Carneros Heritage Reserve from Schug, a lowkey pinot noir with good acidity. Like the Bourgueil, it was the kind of wine that doesnt necessarily win high marks in the ratings wars, but proves itself at the table. Cabernet, merlot and other Bordeaux varietal wines may be among the worlds most popular, but when it comes to foods off the wine trail, they tend to be overbearing brutes. Tannins, which are generally plentiful in cabernet, and spicy foods are like rivals whom you dont want to invite to the same party. Inevitably, theyll butt heads. When cabernets age and the tannins soften, the roles reverse, and its the spicy food that does the bullying. But like the best-intentioned matchmakers, evidence doesnt stop some Bordeaux and cabernet lovers from placing their favourite wines in ill-conceived pairings.
Foot the Bill
Perhaps the most famous Vietnamese restaurant in Paris is Tan Dinh. Its not the food that has won it acclaim, although its very good, but its list of Pomerols. I could not nearly afford one of the better Pomerols. But the bottle I tried was thought-provoking. I had two thoughts, actually: Bring on some roasted lamb, or bring on the champagne.
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