Hello everyone - I am the
Cambridge Wine Blogger; I write a blog about wine, mostly.
When the Moving Foodie asked me if I had a
match to go with her Roast Chicken Thai Style recipe, I suggested doing her a
guest post for my recommendation.
Food and wine matching is more
art than science, and there is often a historical logic for certain
combinations; Sancerre and goat’s cheese, beef and Bordeaux,
game and red Burgundy.
Asian food, however, has no such
history of joint gastronomic and oenological combinations to fall back on -
which can prove both challenging and liberating – so we need to apply some
basic principles and take things from there.
With bold, spicy and exotic
flavours, plus plenty of acidity, saltiness, bitterness and sweetness, this
dish needs something with high acidity, a touch of residual sugar and good body
– the traditional match for Asian cuisine in general is Gewurztraminer, often
from Alsace, which ticks all these boxes and adds in an aromatic fragrance.
Austrian wines such as Riesling
from Lower Austria or the whites of Styria can also be a good match for Asian
fusion food as they are high in acidity and body, but being quite dry, they
would be overpowered by the brown sugar here.
A perfect match for this dish,
however, would be the Domaine de la Rouletière Vouvray Sec 2010 by Jean Marc
Gilet at £12.99 from Cambridge Wine Merchants (or £11.02 each for a case of 6).
Grown on chalk hills in the Loire
Valley, this wine is made from 100% Chenin Blanc, it has 10g / l of residual
sugar, so although labelled “sec” has just enough off-dry sweetness to match.
In the glass it is a clear, light
gold colour, with a clean, medium intensity nose with honey, floral, apple and
pear aromas. Slightly off-dry, medium body, medium-high acidity, soft citrus,
green apple, and stone fruit. A perfect match.
Links
Cambridge
Wine Merchants - http://www.cambridgewine.com/
My blog, the Cambridge Wine
Blogger - http://cambridgewineblogger.blogspot.co.uk/
