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My 25 top food and wine pairings
How on earth to whittle the great food and wine combinations I’ve experienced down to a mere 25? And not to base them all on a few favourite wines and foods?
Some criteria had to be set. Nothing too blindingly obvious, or if, well established, some new insight or refinement to add to the subject. Nothing so obscure that you couldn’t possibly replicate it like the remarkable 1820 Bual I once drank with a sabayon of pruneaux d’Agen.
There are obviously omissions, some deliberate. No chocolate (wine matches can be workable but are rarely great). Not much cheese (again, seldom sublime). No offal (a minority taste, great though it can be with wine)
Few of the very simple pairings that can be pleasurable given the right moment and the right company - a simple crisp white with a grilled fish that’s jumped straight from the sea . . .These are the matches that survived, listed in alphabetical order:
Apple tart and sweet Chenin Blanc
A classic-style French apple tart is of course one of the most wine-friendly of desserts but I think it has a particularly affinity with the best Loire dessert wines such as Bonnezeaux and Quarts de Chaume. Don’t be tempted to overelaborate the dish - add cream, if anything.
Other good options with apple tart: Sauternes or similar sweet Bordeaux, Vendange Tardive Gewurztraminer
Caviar and champagne
I did dither over this match both because it’s so well known and because there is a sizeable number who prefer vodka but it’s one of the pairings where texture is key. Only champagne - and top quality vintage champagne at that - can still leave you with the taste of each individual egg intact - vodka is too ‘hot’, even when served ice cold. And if you’re paying that much for the real thing you want to appreciate every mouthful.
Other options with caviar: I originally said none but see my latest reflections here
Chinese food and Bordeaux rosé
There might be better individual matches within the Chinese canon (dimsum and champagne, duck and Pinot Noir) but if you want one wine to take you through the meal Bordeaux ros with its bright, sweet berry fruit handles the combination of sweet and sour particularly well.
Other good options with Chinese: other Merlot or Cabernet-based ross, off-dry German Riesling
Chicken with morilles and Vin Jaune
A classic dish from the Arbois region of France - the chicken (generally a poulet de Bresse) is cooked in a creamy sauce made with morilles mushrooms and the local Vin Jaune, an acquired taste but which gives the dish a lift you wouldn’t get with less intense wine.
Other good options with creamy mushroom sauces: a Viognier, an Alsace Pinot Gris, a top white burgundy or other good quality chardonnay,
Crab and Australian riesling
Ever since I ate Neil Perry’s blue swimmer crab omelette.at Rockpool in Sydney some 10 years ago I’ve been obsessed with the combination of spicy crab and Australian riesling. Crab lends itself particularly well to flavours such as lime, chillies and coriander while Australian - especially Clare Valley riesling - adds a vibrant zest to the dish without overwhelming the delicate texture of the crabmeat.
Other good options with crab: dry German riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, champagne
Duck and Mourvèdre
Mourvdre is a sleeping partner in many southern French reds such as Faugres but always leaves its exotically scented footprint. When it dominates, as it does in Bandol it can be an excitingly sensual partner for duck, especially cooked Provencal style with olives.
Other good options with duck: Pinot Noir, Merlot, Barbera
Foie gras and Jurançon
There are those who disagree but I find starting a meal with Sauternes too overwhelming Jurancon, while sweet, has a rich, sundried apricot and quince character that enables you to segue comfortably into a red. It also handles seared foie gras which can be challenging for Bordeaux-style dessert wines. And of course it comes from the south-west, the heart of foie gras country.
Other good options with foie gras: Tokaji, Vin Santo.
Game pie and 1st growth Bordeaux
One of the best food pairings I ever experienced was at the Connaught in London - a hot, rich ‘pithivier’ of game with a glass of 1979 Chateau Lafite Rothschild. No vegetables, not even potatoes. Perfection.
Other good options with game pie: other less elevated clarets, Cote Rotie and other Northern Rhone reds.
Goats cheese and Sauvignon Blanc
One of the all-time great food and wine matches. It doesn’t seem to matter how old the goats cheese is - a few days or several weeks - or what type of Sauvignon Blanc (though I prefer more austere, minerally styles), it works. The ultimate match is probably a Sancerre with a Crottin de Chavignol which comes from the same region.
Other good options with goats cheese: Loire reds and dry ross
Lamb cutlets with Rioja gran reserva
Lamb of course goes with most reds but when it’s cooked as it is in Rioja and elsewhere in Northern Spain, as herb-strewn cutlets of baby lamb grilled for a few minutes over vine cuttings you don’t want a blockbluster wine to trample all over them. A mature gran reserva has both the power and the finesse to handle the delicate sweet, smoky flavours
Other good options: similar-styled wines from Navarra
Lobster with ginger and Gewürztraminer
A combination I would never have thought of from a wildly flamboyant restaurant called Everest on the 40th floor of the stock exchange building in Chicago where it’s one of the Alsace-born chef, Jean Joho’s signature dishes. Ginger and gewurz is a great combination
Other good options with lobster: Viognier, Meursault and other fine white burgundy, top quality Chardonnay.
Oysters and Chablis
Whether it’s the fossilised remains of oysters that can be found in the soil of the Chablis region or simply the severe steely dryness of the wine there are few purer, more reliable combinations than oysters and Chablis. My own preference is for native oysters, totally unadorned with lemon, shallot vinegar or any other condiment and young premier cru Chablis
Other good options with oysters: Muscadet de Sevre et de Maine, Picpoul de Pinet
Pork belly and dry German riesling
Ubiquitous in gastropubs and other modern British restaurants, roast pork belly works best with a wine that has a high level of acidity plus a touch of sweetness - always good with pork. Cue dry German riesling, especially if apple is served alongside. It provides welcome freshness, cuts through the fat and doesn’t detract from the crispness of the crackling.
Other good options with pork belly: Alsace or Austrian riesling, young red burgundy
Salade niçoise and dry rosé
What to eat with the oceans of ros that are now engulfing the shelves? What better than a classic salade nioise - if you can agree on what the classic recipe is. (Mine includes tuna, anchovies, tomatoes, green beans and hard-boiled eggs with some warm new potatoes on the side) With that I want a strong dry ros from the south of France or Spain
Other good options with salad nicoise: a dry earthy Rhone or Languedoc white
Salmon and chilled Pinot Noir
With most salmon these days being farmed and consequently coarser in taste and fattier in texture than wild salmon it a) tastes better seared than poached b) generally pairs better with a red wine than a white. The obvious choice being a chilled Pinot Noir which picks up perfectly on the richness of the fish and the caramelised crust.
Other good options with salmon: Chardonnay
Scallops and oaked Chardonnay
There’s a delicious caramelised sweetness about seared scallops that harmonises perfectly with the creamy, almost nutty taste and texture of a mature oak-aged chardonnay. To fine-tune the experience, the scallops should be fat, fresh and diver-caught and the Chardonnay at least 2 years old. A little crisp pancetta doesn’t go amiss.
Other good matches for scallops: oaked white Bordeaux, vintage champagne
Seabass and Albarino
The combination of the restaurant world’s most fashionable fish with one of the wine world’s most fashionable wines might be terminally trendy but it’s none the worse for that. Seabass is a delicate fish, often served simply with Mediterranean flavours such as olive oil, tomato and basil and Albarino is the perfect, clean seafood white
Other good options with seabass: Chablis. Loire Sauvignon Blanc
Smoked salmon and manzanilla sherry
Not the most usual combination with smoked salmon but the most reliably consistent one whatever the smoke and whether or not you add lemon. It goes without saying that the sherry should be served chilled from a freshly opened bottle . . .
Other good options with smoked salmon: Sauvignon Blanc, dry Riesling and malt whisky
Steak and Californian Cabernet Sauvignon
I agonised over whether to make my ideal pairing an Australian shiraz (I remember a wonderful match with Grange) or an Argentinian Malbec but in the end it was the vision of a perfectly cooked chargrilled steakhouse-style ribeye with, say, a 4-5 year old Stags Leap Cab that won the day.
Other good options with steak: Any medium to full bodied red you enjoy (the rarer the meat the bigger the tannins it can take on (though see also my recent experiment with different steak cuts)
Stilton and Tokaji
Yes, vintage port is the more classic combination but you should try Tokaji, a pairing I discovered a few years ago at London cheesemonger Paxton and Whitfield. How many putts? Five would be ideal. And a five to six year old wine.so that the rich caramelised orange flavours are fully developed. It’s also fantastic with Cashel Blue from Ireland.
Other good options with stilton: Sauternes, vintage port, sweet oloroso sherry
Strawberries and cream with Muscat de Beaumes de Venise
There’s a sentimental aspect to this pairing - the first time I realised that food and wine could interreact with each other in such a way that both tasted better than they did on their own. Muscat de Beaumes de Venise isn’t a great wine or even particularly fashionable these days but it’s a charming and simple accompaniment to one of summer’s great desserts.
Other good options with strawberries and cream: Sauternes, demi-sec champagne
Thai food and Pinot Gris
Rarely do you find a wine that handles a whole cuisine better than Pinot Gris and Thai food. Like most Asian cuisines dishes are placed on the table at the same time so one wine has to do duty for all. The crispy acidity of Alsace pinot gris makes it a reliably good match but the new wave of pinot gris from New Zealand and Tasmania with their opulent fruit and beguiling sweetness are particularly impressive
Other good matches for Thai food: none are quite as flexible but gewurztraminer works with many dishes.
Tuna and Loire reds
Tuna is often served as rare as a steak these days so like seared salmon suits red wine better than white. The grape variety I think works best is Cabernet Franc especially from the Loire which has a delicious mulberry fruitiness but also a dryness and acidity that works well with the often fragrant spicing of the fish. (It isn’t as good with tinned tuna, though)
Other good options with tuna: Pinot Noir, strong, dry ros
Truffles and Barbaresco
The idea of pairing a full-bodied red with an ingredient as evanescent as white truffles might seem foolhardy but if you’ve been to Piedmont you’ll know just how sublime it can be, especially with the ultra indulgent tagliolini (tajarin) which can be enriched with up to a dozen egg yolks per 500g of flour.
Other good options with truffles: vintage champagne
Veal and Chianti Classico
One of my pet hates is the intensely reduced ‘jus’ that so many chefs now insist on serving so a typically Tuscan roast of veal with a light white wine and stock-based sauce and maybe a few wild mushrooms is right up my street. The entirely natural match is a mature Chianti Classico riserva, intense enough to shine in its own right, subtle enough to enable you to appreciate the flavour of the meat
Other good options with roast veal: old red Bordeaux, Rioja gran reserva
Vietnamese spring rolls and Gruner Veltliner
I like Gruner Veltliner with Vietnamese food in general but its clean, green peppery flavour is quite sublime with the country’s crunchy fresh mint and coriander-laced spring rolls which are not fried and served cold rather than hot. You want a young quite simple grner rather than a mature one
Other good matches with Vietnamese food: dry Austrian or German riesling, Australian VerdelhoThis feature was first published in the June 2007 issue of Decanter.
Photo by Elle Hughes
How to organise a beer and cheese tasting
Today my son Will and I did an artisan cheese and craft beer tasting at the Great British Beer Festival to promote our new book An Appetite for Ale (due out at the end of September. Hint.) It seemed to go down well so I thought it might be something you’d enjoy trying at home with your friends.
What we were aiming to show was not only how good beer is with cheese but to come up with some unexpected pairings that might impress any non-beer drinkers in the party. Here’s what we tasted and why.
Goats’ cheese and wheat beer
An ideal pairing to kick off this kind of tasting, both goats cheese and wheatbeer are very versatile, ideal for this time of year. The goats’ cheese was a Golden Cross from Sussex - a goats’ cheese log that was quite well matured and the beer a bière blanche called Colomba from Corsica flavoured with the wild plants of the Corsican Maquis (densely wooded hillsides). The lemony herbal notes of the beer picked up perfectly on the slightly acid cheese. It’s a style of beer I really like to drink with goats’ cheese salads. Any witbier or bière blanche would work equally well.
Camembert and Kriek
Kriek is the famous sour Belgian fruit beer made with cherries. We used Liefman’s for the tasting which has a particularly refreshing sour (but not sharp) cherry flavour. The Camembert we paired it with was an artisanal cheese from Normandy, again well-matured which meant that the rind was a little bitter for the beer. A younger example would have been a better match. The fresh fruity flavours of the beer are a great contrast to the creamy paste (the central part of the cheese).
Cheddar and American IPA
Cheddar is generally paired with pale ales or bitters in this country but they can get overwhelmed if the cheese is very strong. This was the case with this award-winning unpasteurised Montgomery’s cheddar from Somerset which was about 14 months old. I like this style of cheese better with an American IPA which are stronger, sweeter and more hoppy than their typical British counterparts. The one we used at the tasting was a great favourite of Will’s and mine, Goose Island. We were amused to see on their website that they also recommend it with Cajun food and carrot cake!
Washed rind cheese and strong Belgian Trappist ale
A classic pairing from Belgium. The beer we used was Chimay Blue which at 9% is the strongest beer in the Chimay range. The monks also make a washed rind style of cheese but we chose a British example from Gloucestershire, Stinking Bishop from Charles Martell. So called not because of its odour (which has been compared to unwashed socks) but because the rind of the cheese is washed with perry made from the Stinking Bishop pear. It’s the kind of cheese-lovers’ cheese which totally annihilates red wine but the sweet, strong Chimay more than held its own. You could also try it with a French cheese like Epoisses or Livarot.
Stilton and porter
The first of two pairings with Stilton. This, on the face of it was the more unlikely combination. Anchor Porterfrom San Francisco with its dark, bitter flavour of coffee grounds and mature Colston Bassett, one of the most highly regarded Stiltons, the kind of cheese with which you’d normally reach for the port. But in fact the two got on like a house on fire, the bitterness of the blue-veined cheese rounding out the flavours of the beer, the beer providing a refreshing contrast to the cheese. They looked great together too. Magic.
Stilton and Barley Wine
With the same cheese we then put up a barley wine, a Thomas Hardy Ale from O’Hanlons of Devon. At a stonking 11.7% it’s not for the fainthearted - wonderfully rich and sweet with intense dried fruit flavours. The brewer says it will keep for 25 years. It behaved much more like a port with the cheese, providing a rich, sweet contrast. Personally I would have liked some kind of dried fruits like raisins or Medjool dates to nibble with the combination but it was pretty good on its own.
When we asked the audience which beer they preferred with the Stilton about 60% preferred the porter and 40% the barley wine so which way you go is a question of personal taste.
We finished off the tasting (and you could finish off your evening) by showing how well three of the beers also went with desserts, partnering the Kriek with a creamy cheesecake (one of my favourite pairings), the porterwith a70% dark organic chocolate (which it offset like an espresso coffee) and the barley wine with a classic English fruitcake. The last two were uncannily alike but the great thing about beer is that its palate-refreshing carbonation enables you to partner it with a similar ingredient without one cancelling out the flavour of the other.
The Great British Beer Festival is on at Earl’s Court until Saturday evening. Visit www.gbbf.org.uk
Sweet Bordeaux and savoury food
Last week, the Union des Grands Vins Liquoureux de Bordeaux, the body that represents Bordeaux sweet wine producers, hosted a tasting of wines from six of the appellations they represent to partner savoury and sweet dishes at a lunch at le Cercle restaurant in Chelsea.
Sauternes and Barsac are the best, and best-known, Bordeaux appellations for sweet wines, but there are in fact eleven, producing vins liquoreux (sweet wines) and vins moelleux (medium sweet wines) from Semillon (60-80%), Sauvignon blanc (20-40%) and, in the better wines, Muscadelle (2-5%). The Semillon provides roundness, the Sauvignon Blanc light, fresher notes, and the Muscadelle an aromatic fruitiness.
An essential element to producing a good sweet wine is botrytis, or noble rot. Late in the autumn, the spores of a tiny fungus attack very ripe grapes, high in sugar content, shrivelling and discolouring the fruit, and in the wine enhancing the aroma and flavour and increasing viscosity. Sweet wines without botrytis lack distinction; wines that have noble rot have a clear aromatic profile, lusciousness, and in the best examples, complexity and longevity.
Our first wine, a Premières Côtes de Bordeaux NV, was served as aperitif with crudits and a yogurt dip. This simple, medium sweet wine was agreeably refreshing and pleasant with the vegetables and dip.
At table we moved to a Premiers de Loupiac, 2004 to partner fennel confit, orange vinaigrette and rocket salad. The slightly botrytised wine, easy and light, matched both rocket and caramelised fennel well. The chef had, for me, introduced too much orange into the vinaigrette and that did not enhance the wine. Other vegetables with a sweet note, such as asparagus, fresh young peas or in winter a dish of braised parsnips would go well with a Loupiac.
The next course, foie gras confit, fruit jelly and lemon granite was accompanied by Château de Cérons, 2001 and Château Crabitan-Bellevue, Ste-Croix-du-Mont, 2001. The two wines were markedly different in style: the Crons was full-bodied, luscious, apricotty on the nose and quite long; the light, minerally Sainte Croix du Mont was stylish, but had a harshness on the finish. Both accompanied the foie gras well; the granite was not, in my view, a good addition to the dish, and did not go well with either wine.
A salt cod roulade with carrot and tarragon, accompanied by a Château Peyruchet, Cadillac, 2000 came next. For me, this was the most successful pairing. The wine had lusciousness and also good acidity to support the judiciously tarragon-flavoured cod and the sweet note of the carrots.
Next came roast quail, apple and quince puree and grapefruit with a Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Sauternes, 2001. My serving had little apple and quince, and no evident grapefruit, but rather an excess of red capsicum, not usually a good companion to wine. This was no exception, but once the bits of capsicum were set aside, this luscious, honeyed wine, with a fine vein of acidity was a good foil for the quail. Poultry of all kinds marries well with sweet wines; one of the most famous dishes of the region is roast chicken liberally basted with Sauternes, and then served with a bottle of the same wine.
The dessert, mango and coconut rice sushi, served with Château Haut Bergeron, Sauternes 2003 was a disappointment. The coconut rice was quite mismatched with the wine, and the lime flavours were too strong to match its gentler citrus notes. The lightly botrytised, luscious wine, concentrated and full-bodied, would have gone better with an apple tart or a ripe peach. A subtly flavoured oriental chicken or fish dish could also have accompanied this wine at an earlier stage of the menu.
This might seem a startling suggestion, but with some thought and experiment, the sweet wines of Bordeaux can provide unexpectedly successful partners to savoury dishes from Asia and from closer to home. In the 19th century it was common for a Sauternes to be served with a fish our poultry course in the middle of an extensive dinner. Our palates may be unaccustomed to such combinations, yet the overall success of this lunch shows that the pairing of sweet wines with savoury food does work, and with good quality wines, there is no danger of palate fatigue as you move through the menu.
Le Cercle is at 1 Wilbraham Place, Chelsea, London, SW1X 9AE. Tel: 020 7901 9999. All the wines mentioned cost under £20 and are available in the UK.
Jill Norman is as acclaimed as an editor as she is as a writer. She created the Penguin Cookery Library in the 1960s and 1970s, worked with Elizabeth David for many years and is literary trustee of her estate. She has since become a Glenfiddich trophy winner in her own right, and is a leading authority on the use of herbs and spices as well as having a long-standing interest in food and wine matching. Her most recent books are Herb & Spice (Dorling Kindersley) and Winter Food (Kyle Cathie)
Photo by Ramon Perucho
The 10 best wines for spring and early summer drinking
The last two days have been quite, quite beautiful, starting mistily, basking midday in an unseasonally warm sun and finishing with an extended dusk that announces that spring is finally here. I immediately want to eat lighter meals: the new season’s vegetables are not quite in yet but I can at least plan for summer and that means a spring clean of the cellar, pushing the full bodied reds to the back and assessing what whites, lighter reds and rosés I still have lurking in the racks.
Now is the time to drink up any lighter wines from last year that may have slipped my notice and make a shopping list for the weeks ahead.
The idea of changing the wine you drink with the season, just as you change your diet and your wardrobe still meets some resistance. People tend to ‘like what they like’ when it comes to wine, drinking the same bottles right through the year. The more pronounced acidity and palate weight of lighter wines may not be to your taste. But try them with the right kind of food and you’ll see how perfectly tuned they are to the flavours of spring.
Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon blends
What more is there to say about Sauvignon Blanc? Only that there is much more variety than ever before and that quality seems on an unstoppable upward curve. Try those from South Africa if you’re not familiar with them. And revisit white Bordeaux and other Sauvignon-Semillon blends.
Best food pairings: goats’ cheese, asparagus, grilled fish and other seafood, dishes flavoured with coriander and dill
Grüner Veltliner
No sign of the Grüner bandwagon slipping off the rails. It’s still every sommelier’s darling - less demanding than Riesling, more sophisticated than Pinot Grigio (though see below). Drink young.
Best food pairings: Light Asian flavours e.g. Asian accented salads and noodle dishes, Vietnamese spring rolls
Albariño
Another fashionable option, Spain’s feted seafood white, which comes from Galicia in the North West of the country, has the intensity to cope with most light fish preparations. A good wine to choose in fish restaurants.
Best food pairings: shellfish, light fish dishes, spring and summer soups e.g. gazpacho, tomato salads
Chablis and other unoaked or lightly oaked Chardonnays
If you’re a Chardonnay drinker, time to change the register from oaked to unoaked or at least subtly oaked. (Those rich buttery flavours will overwhelm delicate vegetables and seafood unless they’re dressed with a rich butter sauce.) Faced with competition from the new world, Chablis is better quality than ever and a good own brand buy from supermarkets. Watch out for offers.
Best food pairings: oysters and other seafood, poached chicken, creamy sauces, fish and vegetable terrines, sushi
Dry Riesling
Like Marmite Riesling tends to polarise wine drinkers - some love it, some hate it. There’s no denying though that its crisp, fresh flavours and modest levels of alcohol it makes perfect spring sipping. If it’s the sweetness you’re not sure about stick to Alsace Riesling, German kabinett Riesling or Clare Valley Riesling from Australia. If it’s the typical kerosene flavours it can acquire with age, stick to younger wines.
Best food pairings: Smoked fish especially smoked salmon, crab, trout, smoked chicken, salads,Cantonese and lightly spiced south-east Asian food
Pinot Grigio
The tide of insipid, cheap Pinot Grigio has given the wine a bad name but the best examples (mostly from the Alto Adige) are elegant minerally whites that deserve a place in your cellar.
Best food pairings: antipasti, light seafood pastas and risottos, fresh tomato-based pasta sauces
Prosecco
The Veneto’s utterly charming sparkling wine, softer and more rounded than Champagne. It mixes fabulously well with fresh summer fruits such as peaches and raspberries as in the famous Bellini
Best food pairings: A perfect spring aperitif or to sip with panettone
Light rosé
I say light because so many rosés now are little different from reds in their levels of alcohol and intensity. Not that that style doesn’t have a place (it’s a great wine to drink with barbecues, for example) but it can overwhelm more delicate flavours. At this time of year try the lighter, less full-on styles from Provence and elsewhere in the South of France or from the Rioja and Navarra regions of Spain.
Best food pairings: Provençal-style dishes such as salad Niçoise and aioli (vegetables with a garlic mayonnaise), grilled tuna, mezze
Light Loire reds
Well, actually not so light if you look at the 2005 vintage but in general Loire reds which are mostly based on the Cabernet Franc grape are light and fragrant, perfect served cool. Examples are Chinon, Bourgeuil and Saumur-Champigny.
Best food pairings:
Seared salmon and tuna, grilled chicken, goats' cheese
Young Pinot Noir
I stress young because you want that bright, intense, pure raspberry fruit rather than the slightly funky notes you can get with Pinot (especially red burgundy) that has a couple of years’ bottle age. The most reliable place to find it currently is in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. Chile, California and Oregon have some appealingly soft, fruity Pinots too, though again, watch the alcohol and serve lightly chilled.
Best matches:
Seared duck breasts, salads that include fresh or dried red berries or pomegranate seeds, seared salmon or tuna.
Can any wine survive a Vindaloo?
The widely held belief that wine doesn’t pair with curry has largely been dispelled with the new and more subtly spiced curries on the market. But what of really hot curries like a Vindaloo?
I decided to put the issue to the test with a ‘very hot’ Chicken Vindaloo from Tesco and one from my local takeaway. Vindaloo aficionados would have probably thought both a touch weedy in that neither burnt the roof of my mouth off but they certainly contained a good blast of chilli heat that was enough to challenge any wine or beer.
The drinks I put up against them were a bog-standard can of supermarket lager, a bottle of Greene King IPA (Indian Pale Ale), an Alsace Gewürztraminer, a full bodied, fruity red Stormhoek Pinotage from South Africa and a mango lassi - all served chilled, even the Pinotage.
I limbered up my palate with a medium hot Chicken Rogan Josh which was a fairly easy run-in for all the drinks. The lager tasted a bit watery (as it did without the curry) and the mango lassi a bit sweet but the fragrant Gewürztraminer, the hoppy IPA and the fruity Pinotage all survived.
Next the supermarket vindaloo. This time none of the drinks fared quite as well except the lassi and the lager which survived the chilli heat better than the IPA. The Gewürztraminer also lost some of its fragrance and the Pinotage some of its intensity but they still hung on in there.
Finally the vindaloo from the takeaway, which was hotter still. The Gewürztraminer really couldn’t cope with this unless you added some raita and dal but the Pinotage still kept going. The lager and lassi stayed the course while the IPA again proved it is at its best with milder curries.
Conclusion: yes, you can drink wine with hot curry - it depends what you like. Lager won’t taste of anything but will provide a cool, refreshing liquid accompaniment as will lassi though drinking a yoghurt drink isn’t to everyone’s taste, especially if you already have a good dollop of raita on your plate.
If you bring that and other side dishes like dal or a vegetable curry like a sag aloo (potatoes and spinach) into the equation then you’ll find that a fragrant Gewürztraminer will match nicely. But the big surprise - although I’d had an inkling it would work because South Africans regard it as the best match for curry - was the Pinotage, welcome news to those who prefer drinking red wine to white. But don’t drink it at room temperature, chill it first!
Image credit: dhiraj jain
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