NYT: Wine with spicy foods

Even less surprisingly, I say Blaufrankisch wines pair best with BBQ! Dry Riesling with sushi, and off-dry with the spicier Asian cuisines.

e. ___________________

Gewurz's work very well with spicy foods, as do some German and domestic rieslings.

For BBQ, try a bottle of Cahors.

I agree. Chenin blanc is a great choice with Thai and Vietnamese cooking, as is Grüner Veltliner, Riesling and Gewürztraminer, all of which should be unoaked. I don't know Champlou Vouvray, but I'd take most Savenierres over most Vouvray for standing up to spicier food. Your last point is important, too: it's fairly rare in my experience that wine is actually improved when paired with spicy cuisine, but sometimes having beer is just not an option.

Mark Lipton

Mark, I'm with you on most points, but I'd disagree about preferring Savennieres to Vouvray. If food is really spicy, I like a little sweetness, and would prefer a sec-tendre or demi-sec Vouvray to the usually bone-dry Savennieres.

Dale, Mark,

even though Savennieres re "dry", I still find that they have a richness, even a density, and a slight sucrosity that goes fantastically with delicately but richly spiced foods. Generally, I find the Vouvray more suitable to less spicy dishes, and even on their own...

Well, gentlemen, I see no way to settle this but to have a mammoth Chenin Blanc/spicy food taste-off, venue and time TBA. We'll gather together a few dozen Chenins (heh... and maybe a few Pineau D'Aunis as our control group) and assemble a tasty selection of spicy Asian cuisine (I nominate Betsy to head this dept.) and see what works best -- may be the best Chenin win. How about it?

Mark Lipton

p.s. Dale, I normally agree 100% that off-dry to even semi-sweet works better than bone dry, but I'm with Mike here that Savenierres is the exception to the rule.

Mark Lipton wrote in news:v3mNe.265432$_o.258251 @attbi_s71:

Since I have no experience with Savennierres or Pineau d'Aunis, it is only fitting that I be a part of the control group of tasters. This seems like a very rough job, but then Betsy's cooking might make it worth while though my wife and I do a mean pad thai!

We can have a simultaneous tasting, in a couple of weeks St Helier will be here, he can be part of it too... !

OK, Betsy's happy to cook- now you just get here (coordinate with Mr. Coulter, 6 is a nice table number).

I'm a vocal fan of Savennieres as a versatile food-match. But I I still think off-dry Vouvray (or Montlouis) is a better match than typically bone-dry Savennieres with foods with heat (for instance things with birdseye chiles). That's what I meant by "really spicy"

If we can't get you here, we'll have to do a virtual dinner. Someone pick the recipes. :)

Dale

PS Or we could do a tasting of Angelo Cataldo's pairings:

hee hee hee.Beaujolais=cheese. Now there's a generalization!

We're going to have to make at least some contingents virtual, because we want in! Let's make a wine list & share those recipes...

emily

I re-tried that experiment yet again this evening. The fresh corn on the cob and steamed broccoli were not the problem; the terriyaki marinated steak with extra garlic and habanero was.

The wines were both 2001 vintage:

I tasted these right after opening them, before I lit the BBQ.

They're both good wines. Each is very much stylistically representative of its region of origin. The Mondavi seemed sweeter and fuller to me than the Pontet Canet, which seemed a trifle hollow. That's being really picky though.

With food: Total disaster! Experiment quickly abandoned. Went back to just food. Saved the wines for later.

Later: After my mouth stopped tingling, I re-tasted the wines.

The Pontet Canet is starting to open up. It's showing lead pencil (I love Pauillac for that!), perhaps violets, fennel and a backing of firm, yet reserved, tannins. I'd like to taste this again in 10-12 years.

The Mondavi is still the better of these two - but not by a lot - with plush tannins, sweet fruit, licorice and cigar box intertwined. Between the two, the Mondavi seems to be the better balanced. That could be because 2001 was a better year here in California (Napa, specifically) than it was in Bordeaux.

I may have to go back for a few bottles more of each of these. It'd be interesting to re-taste them again in a decade or so.

Tom S

Some years ago, Mark Miller of Coyote Cafe fame, staged a tasting of eight " Oriental" foods, many with fairly forward spices. We paired the foods with the usual suspects: lager, Riesling, a fruit-bomb Chard, a middle-o-the-road SB, and a Brute Rose sparkler. The Iron Horse BR spakler was the hands down winner, pairing with everything very, very nicely. The others hit one, or two, but no more.

Even the lager, and Riesling filed to impress on most.

Hunt