Wine Pairing With Shanghainese Food
Damon Yuen matches wine with Northern Chinese cuisine.
Shanghainese cuisine, an amalgamation of Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisines, is often difficult to pair with wine because of the two common practices in Shanghainese cooking: one, the use of sweet alcohol and, two, the use of sugar, especially with soy sauce (eg. sweet and sour spare ribs)
When sweet alcohol is present, the palate experiences an unpleasant bitterness and burning sensation when confronted with tannic found in dry wines. Traditionally, the best pairing is the Chinese Hua Diao (Chinese rice wine) which is sweet, has a low tannin and is high in alcohol content. However, in my studied opinion, this is not an ideal pairing due to the high alcohol content and high sweetness level, which is a bit of an overkill.
In a Shanghainese cuisine wine dinner I recently hosted with the Washington State wines of Kiona Vineyards Winery, I discovered some new elegant pairings I would like to share with you.
Although two wines were off-dry, the majority were dry and red due to Washington State’s unique terroir. Situated at a northerly 46° latitude and planted on volcanic, silt loam and chalky soils, the vineyards receive extensive sunlight (approximately 17.4 hours per day during the summer growing season) with large temperature swings from warm, sunny days to cool, crisp nights, thus enabling the production of fully phenolic-ripe wines high in minerality, spice and acidity.
Best Pairing
1. Drunken chicken, best paired with the dry Kiona Chardonnay (Estate-bottled) Red Mountain 2005 (95%Chardonnay/3% Viognier/2% Rousanne). The wine is dry and balances off the sweetness very well.
2. Shanghainese hot and sour soup is best paired with Kiona Cabernet-Merlot 2003 (81%Cab. Sauv. / 10%Merlot / 6%Cab.Franc / 3%Syrah)
3. The Red braised yellow croaker goes well with Kiona Lemberger (Estate-bottled) Red Mountain 2003
4. Crèpes of Jing sauce minced pork paired well with Kiona Merlot Columbia Valley 2005.
I find that these wines were elegant matches because of the fruit-forwardness found in Washington wines that have strong backbones of acidity, minerality and dense, fine ripe tannins.
Loading ...