Who'd a'thunk it? Brunello di Montalcino pairs with...

Chicken Tikka Masala!!

The Indian people don’t know what they are missing. This was quite shocking - a young ('04) Brunello di Montalcino was open, and dinner was Chicken Tikka Masala, and it’s a fantastic match!

i always love those pairings that sound like a disaster but work beautifully.

It’s a pairing of necessity, and it worked! If you think about it, the sauce in tikka masala is tomato based, and the spices are typically not very significant, so it’s not a far cry from a standard pasta and sauce combination. It’s not IDEAL, by any means, but it worked quite well - better than some intentional pairings of late.

When I cook for myself, I don’t sweat pairings that much although I try to follow some simple principles. I’ve had some pairings that were other-worldly, often when friends who are great cooks designed a dish to match a specific wine. Wine folks are often better at this than many restaurant chefs, because they have a better understanding of the wine. But with some simple ideas about acidity and intensity of flavors, I find lots of pairings do quite well. This includes a lot of non-standard pairings where I want to eat a certain dish and drink a particular wine and don’t see an obvious reason why they would clash. Keeps me fat and happy.

-Al

Just a hint, wines with ACID pair a hell of a lot better with most food than wines without. Brunello/Sangio has plenty of acid, that counters the tomato and cuts like a razor through the creamy aspects of that sauce. Tikka Masala can have some heat, so I would worry about that a little.

My rule is always very simple: the best wine to drink with nearly all food** is THE WINE YOU WANT TO DRINK.

** Exceptions include raw oysters, rich/runny cheeses, artichokes, very hot/spicy food, heavy citrus, heavy vinegar or heavy tomato.

This explains the pairing: Indian and Hungarian foods rely on some common spices, like paprika.
Hungary makes nice, food-friendly red wines, often imported into Italy.
It is the same business model that the Italian olive-oil industry uses: grow somewhere else,
export into Italy, and then re-sell abroad, as “Imported from Italy”.

That sounds very cool…I’ll have to try that…here in Singapore there is a very affluent Indian community and the food is very good…emphasis on the word VERY!!! Usually I pair whites like Muscadet or Sancere with them since the heat (weather) here and the heaviness of both the meal and wines can be a bit overwhelming in richness…but I will definitely try that…hmmm…this Saturday!!!

Here’s a pairing you might like if you ever go to a Singaporean restaurant…newer Penfolds Grange with Singaporean Chili Crabs :wink: I don’t normally drink my Granges young but had an experience where a friend brought a 1998 to dinner and we sat there cracking crabs and drinking Grange from high ball glasses…extraordinary, both the scene and the pairing hehehehe

And I thought 2007 Chateauneuf du Pape was the easy pairing for all foods… neener

It’s easy to pair a wine from the greatest vintage EVAR, anywhere, with anything.