Top food pairings with Clare Valley and Eden Valley riesling

One of the most distinctive styles of white wine, dry rieslings from the Clare and Eden Valley in south Australia have a distinctive limey twist that makes them a particularly good match for Asian and Asian-inspired food.

Spot ingredients such as ginger, kaffir lime, lemongrass, coriander and fresh chillies on a menu or in a recipe and Aussie riesling* is the obvious go to.

There are three main styles:

Inexpensive young rieslings

Here the flavour of lemon and apple is more obvious than the characteristic lime which makes them a great match for raw and lightly cooked shellfish like prawns, crab and seared squid or light noodle dishes with seafood

Also try: smoked salmon, fish and chips and light Mexican-style seafood dishes like tacos

More mature dry rieslings

Like the Peter Lehmann Wigan riesling I wrote about in today's Guardian which have developed a more intense lime and kerosene flavour (much nicer than it sounds). These can handle a fair bit of spice but are still relatively low in alcohol so won’t overwhelm delicate ingredients such as crab or crayfish. They’re especially good with Vietnamese food

Also try: milder Thai dishes such as Thai beef salad, raw Asian fish dishes such as sashimi and fish tartares and seared tuna with sesame

Some people go for creamy sauces with this style of riesling but I’m not convinced. Dairy seems too heavy with this style of wine

Medium-dry rieslings with a touch of sweetness

These can handle hotter food such as the Sichuan food I cooked for the Chinese New Year this year or the Indonesian rijstaffel I was eating the other day in Amsterdam.

Also try: hotter Thai dishes, pork belly with Asian spicing

* Other dry rieslings will work with this type of dish too but south Australian riesling has a particularly vigorous zesty character that makes it work particularly well.

Do you have other favourite pairings for Clare and Eden Valley rieslings?

Image © Mara Zemgaliete - Fotolia.com

Got other ideas? Do email your favourite pairings to us at greatmatches@matchingfoodandwine.com. To subscribe to our free monthly newsletter and be eligible to enter our fabulous prize draws click here or to get notice of posts as soon as they're published click here.

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Comments: 3 (Add)

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Pam on June 22 2013 at 13:141371903285

My fave, although a bit unimaginative, Nigella Lawson's "Coq au Riesling" Cook with it, drink it!

Anilkumar on June 22 2013 at 12:511371901894

Very appropriate pairings Fiona.I would just add that in my experience,low alcohol Rieslings work best with Thai food.

Judith Burns on June 22 2013 at 11:311371897088

Perfect choices. At a recent blind tasting our Slavonian Grasevina (welschriesling) from Josić was initially thought to be an Eden Valley riesling. We match it with smoked trout and salmon (with a little horseradish), fish carpaccio and Thai food.