Matching wine and yakitori

Yakitori, the Japanese art of grilling skewered chicken over charcoal, is a deceptively simple dish with complex flavors. Traditionally enjoyed with sake or beer, pairing yakitori with wine presents a unique challenge. Japanese cuisine, in general, can be tricky when it comes to wine pairings due to its delicate balance of umami, sweetness, and salt (learn more in my post about drink pairings for sushi). Yakitori, with its smoky, savory, and sometimes caramelized elements, requires careful consideration to find wines that complement rather than overpower its flavors.

For salt-seasoned (shio) yakitori, a crisp white wine with bright acidity—such as a Sauvignon Blanc or an Albariño—works well to refresh the palate and highlight the dish’s subtle flavors. Meanwhile, tare-seasoned yakitori, which is glazed with a rich, sweet soy-based sauce, pairs best with fruit-forward reds like Pinot Noir or Gamay, which can stand up to the umami and caramelization without overwhelming the dish.

See also: Is Koshu the best match for Japanese food?

A story from a Japanese wine tasting at Tsuru London

Bloggers’ food and wine events, like this one that took place at the south London restaurant Tsuru, are getting more and more popular with everyone snapping, videoing and interviewing each other. (More interesting than the matches, if truth betold.)

Tsuru is basically a sushi bar with a bit of yakitori and other dishes and a rather ambitious wine list put together by Damian Tillson of Sotheby’s who conducted the tasting. Unfortunately he’d run out of riesling which was apparently the most popular choice among the clientele (interesting) but fielded a couple of Sauvignon-based wines, a Macon Verz, a Provencal ros and a couple of reds.

Neither sushi or yakitori is particularly easy. The raw fish in sushi can make wine taste metallic and the sweetness of the yakitori marinade strip out the fruit so it was hard to get one one to do for both.The best options for the modern maki rolls I thought were the two Sauvignons, a simpler Entre-deux-Mers from Domaine de Ricaud and a Sancerre from Domaine Bailly-Reverdy, both tasting better with the food them they they had done on their own though to be fair tasting them against a background aroma of raw fish and cooking oil didn’t give them much of a chance.

The Macon Verz from Domaine Leflaive didn’t really work with the sushi but was quite good with the yakitori and the Cote de Brouilly from Georges Viornery just about got by but only with the tuna nigiri. A really attractive La Tunella Cabernet Franc from Friuli also found itself out of sorts, just about surviving the chicken yakitori but not working as well as you’d have thought with some teriyaki steak (the sweetness of the sauce skewed the fruit) I’d also have expected the Provencal ros, a Domaine Pique Roque to do better but it didn’t react well to either the raw fish or the sweetness of the marinades which both played havoc with its delicate fruit.

It’s a shame because the list is an ambitious attempt to provide interesting drinking at a small city restaurant but I can’t help but feel they’d do better if they limited their choice more, ventured outside France and offered more wines by the glass. My previous forays into Japanese food pairing have convinced me that very dry sparkling wine is usually a good match for sushi and also, curiously, Muscadet. And you probably need to field a softer, fruitier red like a Chilean Pinot Noir with yakitori. Or simply drink sake or beer ;-)

Image by Rachel Claire

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