Matching Lebanese food and wine

Many of us are familiar with Lebanon’s rich culinary heritage, courtesy of the Lebanese diaspora and food writers such as Claudia Roden and Anissa Helou. Yet the prevalence of popular Lebanese dishes such as tabbouleh and hummous in our supermarkets is not yet matched by Lebanese wines despite a long history of grape cultivation dating back to the Phoenicians.

The answer to this curious paradox lies perhaps in the small volume of wine produced in this tiny country of 4000 square miles as well its recent turbulent history which has often disrupted wine production and export.

The country’s top producers are out to remedy this lack of awareness, a recent example being a lunch I attended just before Christmas at the Lebanese restaurant Fakhreldine, pairing typical Lebanese dishes with wines from one of Lebanon’s oldest producers Château Ksara.

The typical Lebanese meal starts with a selection of hot and cold mezze (see photo above) which can encompass many different flavours. With them we were offered a selection of Ksara’s wines - their Blanc de Blancs 2006, Sunset Rose 2007 and red Réserve du Couvent 2006. I thought the rosé would match the mezze best, but was surprised to find that wasn’t the case. The panoply of flavours in the mezze - most notably garlic, sumac and citrus - interfered with the rose’s fruitiness leaving it rather overwhelmed.

The mezze included a luscious, smooth hoummos, smoky baba ghanoush, tabbouleh with lots of parsley (as it should be), crisp falafel, and stuffed vine leaves. warak inab. More unusual offerings were kibbe mekliyeh, a pumpkin and spinach pastry and spinach and sumac fatayer. Overall my favourite wine to pair these mezze was the fresh, fruity Ksara Blanc de Blancs 2006, a subtly oaked blend of Sauvignon, Semillon, and Chardonnay.

The one dish I felt paired better with a red was Fakhreldine’s spiced lamb flatbreads - redolent of cinnamon and allspice - which matched Ksara’s red Reserve du Couvent, a belnd of Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. We also found reds more to our taste with the main courses, a slightly disappointing dish of five-spice lamb and bukhari rice, and an exceptional mixed meat grill - skewers of lamb, infused with smoky charcoal aromas, which worked a treat with the Ksara Souverain 2004 - a wine made from a 50%/50% blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Arinarnoa - a rare crossing of Merlot and Petit Verdot. It proved a voluptuous, richly aromatic match for the lamb. This was followed by skewers of succulent lamb known as lahim meshoue, and lamb cutlets which were accompanied by Ksara’s longest-aged reds Château 2002 and Château 1999, a Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot which had been aged in French oak for 18 months. Both were finely nuanced wines, with good length and complexity though I thought the 2002 was marginally better with the lamb.

The surprise hit of the tasting foodwise? Shish taouk skewers, or chicken marinaded in chilli, garlic and lemon ‘ then flash grilled (a recipe I’ll be giving you my version of for my Lebanese feast tomorrow) The simplicity of this dish belies its excellence: tender, succulent pieces of chicken served with toum, a wicked garlic dip which left me reeling for a few hours - and I love garlic. This dish was tricky to match, with its intensely garlicky character. It would almost have been worth going back to the Sauvignon-based Blanc de Blancs.

The meal finished on a light note with fresh fruit, sorbet, and Lebanese cheese. In place of the usual sweet pastries, we drank a Ksara Vin D’Or from 1935, still vibrantly honeyed - quite extraordinary for its age.

As a footnote I’d be curious to discover more about alternatives to wine with Lebanese food. Claudia Roden writes about ‘white’ coffee, a typical Lebanese after-dinner drink consisting of hot water and orange blossom essence, and I feel there is great potential for non-alcoholic syrups, fruit juices and teas which I think would work well with these richly aromatic dishes.

Fakhreldine
85 Piccadilly
W1J 7NB
Tel: 020 7493 3424
www.fakhreldine.co.uk

Château Ksara
www.ksara.com.lb

Stockists in UK:
everywine.co.uk
wineman.co.uk

Image credit: Jeff Velis from Pixabay

Matching sweet wine and Sichuanese food

Can Tokaji – the great dessert wine of Hungary, and one of the sweetest wines in the world – go with Chinese food, asks Margaret Rand? And if it can, would you want it to?

Christian Seely’s answer to both these questions is ‘yes’. He runs the wine division of AXA Millsimes, which owns such properties as Château Suduiraut in Sauternes and Disznk in Tokaj, and one of his big interests is pairing these wines with Asian cuisines.

He’s been hosting occasional dinners of this sort for several years – in London he’s done Suduiraut with Chinese food and Disznk with Indian – and the latest occasion was in Tokaj, where a brace of Chinese chefs, flown out for the occasion, cooked Sichuan dishes to match Disznoko of various vintages and levels of sweetness.

The chefs were Tommy and Andy Shan of Au Bonheur du Palais in Bordeaux. To Seely’s mind this is the best restaurant in Bordeaux and as good as any Chinese restaurant in the world – quite a recommendation. Andy Shan does the cooking; Tommy is front-of-house: gregarious, multilingual and the leader in the pair’s intensive researches into food and wine matching.

He describes their food as Sichuan, with some Cantonese influences. But it’s the strong flavours of Sichuan cooking that make it a possible match for Tokaji. Ask him which other wines he might serve in the restaurant (by the glass, to go with particular dishes rather than all the way through the meal) and he mentions Château de Beaucastel white from the Rhone; white Bandol from Provence; Banyuls; Pouilly-Fumé, especially from the late Didier Dageneau; Loire Chenin Blanc; dry and sweet Alsace from such names as Domaine Weinbach, Ostertag, Marcel Deiss and Hugel; and from outside France, Inniskillen Icewine.

Not all these wines are sweet, but some are very sweet indeed. The sugar is the attraction: it neutralizes the chilli in the food, and he plays with the balance of the two until he reaches a point of harmony.

This is anathema to the old British idea of choosing a wine to cut through the richness of a dish. Why, asks Tommy rhetorically, would you want to do that? What you want is complementarity, he says: it’s a response to the global experience of flavours. Red Bordeaux, he reckons, can be good with Cantonese cooking, with its low levels of spice and simple ingredients, but Sichuan flavours are complex and spicy and need something more challenging.

The dishes for this dinner are all classic ones. The Shans have adjusted the levels of chilli, but that’s all; otherwise the recipes are unchanged. And drinking Tokaji with them does at first seem rather odd.

There are two appetizers, beef straw potatoes with sesame seeds, and shrimps with ‘daily’ Jia-chang flavours. Neither seems particularly successful with the Late Harvest 2007, which seems to swamp them with its sweetness; and for the first course we move on to Asz 4 puttonyos 2004; a light year, but one, paradoxically, with a lot of botrytis: the wine is relatively light, with truffley, creamy notes and good acidity.

For us, drinking this Tokaji with beef tongue, and with Pang-Pang chicken with sesame creamed sauce, the sweetness is the dominant factor. For the Shans the sweetness is only part of the picture. Texture is just as vital, and the finely-sliced tongue has a silky firmness that chimes with the wine.

Yes, the sweetness stands out, but it sort of works, in an unexpected way. The chicken is delicate, though, and while the earthy note of the sesame is interesting with the wine the flavours don’t quite meet. The chilli needs to build up in the mouth a bit more; as it does, the wine begins to make more sense.Two sweeter wines follow: 5 puttonyos 2000 and 2001. With these are paired crispy, spicy sweet-and-sour Yuxiang chicken; King prawns fried in the ‘Halook’ wok; and leg of pork braised Dong-Po style (caramelized version). The two wines are totally different, the 2000 full of apricot and pineapple flavours, fresh, clean and focused, the 2001 leaner, smokier and more pungent. One might have backed the 2001 to match the food better, but in fact it’s the 2000 that is superb with the pork.

Texturally the slow-cooked pork is soft and richly fatty; the flavours are complex, with star anise to the fore. It’s a hit. The chicken is also pretty good with the 2000; perhaps it’s the higher acidity of the 2001 that gets in the way? But the dense flavour of the prawns works better with the 2001.

Then even sweeter wines, the 2000 and 1999 6 puttonyos. These are to go with veal with Chinese anise and tangerine peel, and Tsasui caramelized roast pork. The 2000 is pungent, creamy and approachable, the 1999 more linear, with higher acidity; and the veal is dark and caramelized, with a note of star anise. Neither is perfect, but the complexity of the 1999 is quite successful both with the veal and with the hot, pungent pork, and a faint tingle on the tongue from Sichuan pepper helps them to come together.

And finally, the biggest surprise of all: 1993 6 puttonyos with what is described as smoked salmon in red pepper oil. Well, it’s not smoked salmon in the Scottish sense; it is a cube of salmon that has been smoked and caramelised on one side. The texture is soft and melting; and the match is sensationally good. It’s the star of the evening: adventurous, imaginative and spot-on.

All of which raises the question: how do the Shans arrive at these matches? The answer is, via the 23 families into which they divide spices. They taste a wine, and they’re able, pretty easily now, to pinpoint the particular family of spices with which it will go. After that it’s a question of texture and heat.

And it works. I wouldn’t want to drink Tokaji all through a Chinese meal, even one as good as this; but that is not the intention of the Shans, or of Christian Seely. It’s a glass with a particular course that is the idea.

It might be a bit of a problem then switching to something drier – or even something red – for the course that follows, but it would certainly keep one on one’s toes. And it makes Chinese food freshly exotic, so that one can discover it anew – which is rather fun.

Image credit: Leacky Chen from Pixabay

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