Wine Currents
September 2004

Wine Currents: Pairing Wines with Today’s Spicy Food Profiles

I’m a big fan of all kinds of Asian food, & I love wine (that’s an understatement!). So what to drink with my beloved Vietnamese summer rolls, or Chinese beef and bean thread in hot pot? I’m a wine extremist, i.e. I love it to the point I rarely drink beer or spirits. I eat this food often & this means I’ve tried everything with it, from fine, aged Bordeaux to $5 Spanish reds. And guess what? The latter wins! I’m going to offer here a by no means comprehensive list that reflects my own preferences.

I don’t have much use in general for neutral white wines like pinot grigio, most other Italian & Spanish white wines, & chardonnay, which is really another neutral grape that mostly appears in the market after it’s been dressed up with oaky and buttery flavors. Why drink bland when you can drink wines with real character? Now that our collective palates are moving away from bland food to “big flavors” & spicy Asian food it’s time our wine palates caught up. Those neutral wines are by & large wiped out by spicy food. Give me Riesling, and if not Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Sylvaner, and Muscat. Sauvignon Blanc also works if the others aren’t available.

The really ignored wine with this food, indeed it’s all but ignored altogether, is Chenin Blanc from the Loire in France. Forget Chenins from California & elsewhere, they don’t hold a candle to the Loires, which appear in the market named after the places they come from, notably Vouvray & Mont Louis. What do I like about these wines? In their dry versions, or even better styles with a touch of sweetness, these wines are fresh, have bright, lively acidity, & vivid fruit flavors. Wine geeks may crow about minerality but spicy food tends to obliterate subtlety in wine. So what’s left? These wines offer enticing aromatics, elegance, and balance of delicious fruit & refreshing, racy acidity. Their complexity so well complements these dishes that we love them for their complexity, those with salt, heat, sometimes fattiness (that proverbial puddle of oil under too many Chinese dishes) and a hint of sweetness. And these whites are served cold, a good foil for the heat of spicy food.

Sometimes those neutral whites have a place with these cuisines, sort of like the lager beer that’s widely considered the beverage of choice. In these bland beers the bitterness from hops refreshes the palate. But in the world of wines neutral types with brisk acidity, like Muscadet, Güner Veltiners from Austria, and those Italian and Spanish whites, can work with this food like the lagers. A good example is the white Rioja from Marques de Caceres at a scandalously low $7 retail. Another is Banfi’s San Angelo Pinot Grigio from Tuscany, better than most ($13) Italian whites at any price. Be sure to seek out the most current vintages of all the wines listed, since these can fade quickly in the bottle.

But some of us feel wine should first & foremost be red, so which reds to drink w/ this type of food? That’s where the Spanish wine finished the race. Rich, pure, ripe fruit without the distraction of oak can work very well with spicy food. I avoid wines with finesse such as red Burgundy and anything aged. I want young, pretty fruit and lots of it, because the food is going to neutralize a good deal of the wines’ character.

All the wines below, and many, many more are wonderful with normal, un-spicy, casual dishes, like picnic fare, light brunches, pizzas, barbeque, pan-fried chicken, sandwiches, you name it.

A few personal favorites, listed by wine name first, then producer name, & current wholesale price based on single case purchase:

Resources

Online

• www.winespectator.com

• www.decanter.com

• www.jancisrobinson.com

Video

• Jancis Robinson’s Wine Course, Wellspring Media, 1995

Books

• Johnson, Hugh, Hugh Johnson’s Modern Encyclopedia of Wine, Simon & Schuster, 1991

• Kramer, Matt, Making Sense of Wine, William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1990

Professional biography of Abby Nash:

Since 1991 Abby Nash has been a Lecturer at the Cornell Hotel School (1997 promoted from Visiting Lecturer). He developed and teaches two Wine in Culture and History courses, the only courses of their kind in the United States. Nash also lectures in the other beverage management courses, teaches culinary arts courses, and has taught Restaurant Management, Beverage Management, and Food and Wine Pairing in the School's Professional Development Program, and teaches for Cornell Adult University.

Abby has conducted wine presentations for, among others, Meeting Planners International, the International Association of Assembly Managers, the Greek Food and Wine Institute, Cornell Clubs and Cornell Society of Hotelman chapters. He consults for restaurants for wine list development and training, is active in local wine tasting groups; and regularly attends conferences such as the New York Wine Experience and Monterey Wine Festival. He has judged for wine competitions on over a dozen occasions since 1986.

Previously he opened Abby's Restaurant & Catering as owner chef in 1984, which was sold in 1990. Nash also has taught cooking classes locally; taken classes with Marcella Hazan and others; cooked professionally from 1976-1990; written on wine for local newspapers; conducted televised cooking series; made guest appearances on syndicated radio programs; and attended La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine, Cordon Bleu and L'Academie du Vin in Paris.

His hobbies include collecting wine, food and wine books, and wine antiques.