Indian Wine Pairing - Current Edition

I like Jura wines (red or white; sous voile or ouille) with many different Asian foods. I find that they can handle up to about a medium heat surprisingly well (which is usually as hot as I am willing to go :sweat_smile:).

2 Likes

I mostly go Gewurtztraminer or Riesling, occasionally Picpoul.

1 Like

Hmm I was going to say lower acid reds.

1 Like

There were multiple dishes mentioned. Picking out one and having your mind blown just means you didn’t read the whole post.

1 Like

Riesling works great. Always love a good Müller Scharzhofberger Kab with spicy Tikka Masala.

1 Like

We did try matching wine and Indian food, and it was a disaster. Only a really mild dosa worked with a Spatlese.

1 Like

And if you read the posts, you see only very few people differentiate between the completely different dishes mentioned in the original post.
Saying X works with “Indian” food is like saying Y works with French food. You need to be much more specific with the pairings.

I’d love to see you pair that young Riesling or Dom with a Vindaloo. Let me know how that works out for you. There is no wine in the world that gets anywhere close on matching it, unless you are eating a heavily americanized version of it.
The non-Indian Indian dishes like Tikka Masala and the milder Mughlai-Style dishes work well with them, but I can list tons of Indian dishes where wine simply does not work no matter what. I just commented to point out this discrepancy here.

BTW not just Indians feel that way. I am lucky to have had friends from the subcontinent who were great home cooks and their versions of Indian cuisine (both north and south) blew away almost all the restaurants I have been to.

As for pairings, well….for the milder Mughlai tradition dishes I will usually go for a New World Sauv Blanc. Agree 100% with @Sarah_Kirschbaum (and relieved to do so!) re: the inadvisability of trying champagne with any of this. Seems like a ghastly combination. I could see Riesling with some southern Indian food I guess; haven’t tried. And Vindaloo / phaal? Just forget it.

Painting with an excessively broad brush I know….

Mikko,
Apparently there is a dispute whether Tikka Masala was invented in London or Glasgow…

1 Like

Wait, pork from Bangladesh?!?!

It’s the national dish of Birmingham.

Glasgow fer sure

I like beer and sake with Indian food. Never red, white or bubbly wine.

Try a mango chutney glazed salmon, with an orange labeled wine.

Kofta kabobs like gutsy reds from the SoRho

A turmeric laden aloo gobi might line up with a golden gewurztraminer

a stern Sociando Mallet adds some structure to any curry/naan platter

Sambar is a kind of hearty breakfast soup / sauce / gravy to go with dosa or idli etc., so breakfast bubbles are fine with this

pakora are a crispy/greasy/spicy fried starter and are nice with zippy whites and/or/both Champagne

impossible burger kofta in a coconut sauce and multi colored biryani. the white label of the Burg was qutie harmonious with the raita in the back.

Everyone loves crispy samosas, and given that Gigondas is also well loved, combining them is like Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups.


Older picture, I think it was tandoori mixed grill before it hit the heat. 1998 CNDP delights, even if no sushi is involved.

6 Likes

There is a small christian community in Bangladesh.

The original Vindaloo was with pork and no potatoes. Pork really works in this dish but you can forget wine pairings, the vinegar and the chili make that impossible.

1 Like

Hugh Johnson, in his pocket guide, claims that sherry with Indian is “revelatory.” Has anyone tried this with success? I tried once and was not impressed, but there are lots of variables between cuisine and types of sherry (I drank fino).

1 Like

and here i thought that vindaloo came from Goa…

and true, Madhur Jaffrey’s excellent recipe uses no potato
but i have always thought of this dish as an excellent example of acculturation
since Vin was something that the portuguese colonisers drank and cooked with
and Aloo is the Hindi word for potato

unoaked Sauvigon Blanc does the trick

1 Like

Depends on how long you want to backtrack its history.

The original dish comes from Portugal, not India. However, the vindaloo as we know it today does come from Goa, where they jacked up the spice of this Portuguese dish and replaced wine with vinegar. Aloo here just happens to be the same is the word for potato, but it is just a corrupted form of alho, aka. garlic. Even though people might think “aloo” in vindaloo means “potato”, it is true that in authentic vindaloo there should be no potato.

Unless, of course, you want to add some to your vindaloo. Even though authentic vindaloo has no potatoes, I wouldn’t mind having some in mine.

2 Likes

It’s actually originally from Portugal. The “Aloo” for potato is not a correct reference, it’s just a bastardized Portuguese word.

And no wine “does the trick” with Vindaloo. The level of spiciness is so extreme, and with the vinegar in it, trying to pair it with wine is not going to work. Some dishes just are not meant to be had with wine, vindaloo is a great example of such.

when have you tried SB w Vindaloo?

first try it, then tell me i am wrong

thanks for background info, youtwo…

2 Likes