Any Red wine for Indian food?

WINE TALK
61

Hi Steve,

A Rose that would be counterintuitive , yet works …

Salute !!!

62

Returned from London yesterday and tried both a suggested Cab and a beer. The beer won hands down, the Cab. magnified the spice to my enjoyment detriment

63

My wine pairing experience with Indian food was limited to two occurences.One was at an offline at an Indian restaurant and there really wasn’t any pairing - just a large variety of wines with a large variety of Indian dishes. The other time was at an Indian restaurant in London and we drank a moderately aged Burgundy with Rogan Josh. Excellent pairing.

64

Rosé.

65

Thanks for that great post!

[cheers.gif]

I haven’t been able to think of a good answer to the question, and your take was very much appreciated.

66

What red goes with French food?

Some good thoughts above. I have one oddball to add: the (sole bottling I’ve tried of the) Piemontese red Ruche (2011 Montalbera Ruché di Castagnole Monferrato L’Accento) absolutely excels with complex south/central Asian flavors, especially curries. My first tasting note includes,

super floral-aromatic, absolutely, kinda like a powerful Gewurtz but red. Especially lilac, rose petal, and violet. The dominant flavor I taste is Choward’s violet mints, without the sugar (there’s maybe just a bit of RS, but it’s a dry wine); there’s also some rose and cherry. Tannins are very smooth. Overall it’s kind of like a pinot (suave medium-bodied mouthfeel, color) / gewurtztraminer (floral aromatics) hybrid, but with different scents and flavors.

It’s the only red I can think of which frankly kind of sucks with things like plain-ish servings of roasted chicken or red meat which normally are a slow pitch across the center of the plate for nearly anything red. But twice with curries, of different national origin, and with some fairly picante foods, it was brilliant. From my second note:

In the two years since drinking my first bottle, I’d not been drawn to open the remaining bottle - until our 2015 Thanksgiving with “wildly international” theme. With some oddball food pairings (representing Mexico, India, Persia, Peru, China, Israel, Uzbekistan, and a few funky fusions), why not this oddball hard-to-pair Piemontese?

And, ya know - it shone, working at least as well if not better than its comrades-in-vino from Rheingau, Sonoma, and Hungary. It was companionable with some fairly tough customers like an assertive ancho-based gravy and roasted squash with five-spice and Sriracha; and FANTASTIC with braised apples/sour cherry with a healthy dose of curry (yes, again, this wine adores curry) powder, and also with the Kermani Polow, a pilaf with lots of pistachios, cardamom, dill, and crucially, rose petals which matched the wine’s rosy florality.

This is the rare red wine you don’t want to serve with a slab of red meat: it actually probably won’t go that well, and it’s an enormous wasted opportunity. This bottling is a specialist of the highest order just waiting to excel where other reds fear to tread.

I’d wager this will accompany Indian (and other) curries better than almost any other red, and I wouldn’t hesitate to try it with a broad swath of other wine-hostile Indian dishes. I just wouldn’t personally attempt to enjoy it solo as an apertif, finding the florality a bit cloying.

67

i’ve always thought white rhones (marsanne / rousanne) has paired well with indian.

68

What were the dishes you paired it with?

Granted, I would not generally go for Cabernet, but still curious.

69

I found the list at Gymkhana surprising in that it didn’t have a single Spatlese level riesling. They really embraced “the only good riesling is a dry riesling” attitude. So we went with cocktails which were pretty thoroughly mediocre. But better than the cocktails at Rules.

For our next visit in November (the food is really good) I’ll try the non-alcoholic cocktails and cross my fingers.

70

It was a couple of lamb chops coated with spice, that was unrememberable. It was the only meal we had in London we didn’t care for

71

Well that’s not exactly Indian food. It’s food with some spices.

72

Capsaicin amplifies the perception of tannin. So wines like Cabernet will tend to taste bitter with spicy food. Conversely, a low tannin wine like Zinfandel or ripe new world Rhone will usually hold up okay.

73

Someone call India and tell them no more lamb chops!

74

It is one of their signature dishes

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g186338-d1205582-Reviews-Trishna-London_England.html

75

OK, bit don’t try to make conclusions about matching wine with Indian food when you have some chop house dish with “exotic” spices.

76

So the odds of switching to beef are low for Indian restaurants, eh? I guess I can stop dreaming about sacred hamburgers.

77

That would clearly NOT be Indian food.

78

Plenty of Muslims and Christians in India who eat beef, though the current government government don’t approve.

79

And the original vindaloo featured … yes, pork! Goa was the capital of Portugal’s Indian colony.

80

(Not sure my prior post went through)

Meal consisted of Chicken Tikka Marsals, Lamb Rogan Josh, Channa/sag (all medium spice)

Wines:

2013 Donnhoff Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Spatlese
1995 Prado Enea Muga Gran Reserva
1999 Maume Charmes-Chambertin
2009 Contadi Castaldi Franciacorta

All of these wines were very good and different compliments to the food. The Donnhoff and 21 year old Muga were standouts for me.