Several years ago, I found myself sitting in an Indian restaurant and as often is the case, my husband (at the time boyfriend) Brian and I were ordering the same meal. We both love lamb and when we find it on a menu at a good restaurant it’s a pretty good bet that one or both of us will order it. On this occasion we both settled on Lamb Vindaloo, a super spicy Indian curry dish from the Goa region. I had always been under the impression that if you order something really spicy that you should go with a white wine, something like a Riesling. Although that can work, the owner of the restaurant suggested a pairing that I never considered. He asked us to trust him and he brought a bottle of Catena Alta Malbec. At $60.00 for a bottle, it was a little more than we usually spend on wine for dinner, but we were celebrating a nice bonus check from work.
It’s a wine that we have had before, and it is a great wine. It’s from the Mendoza region of Argentina, the largest wine making province in Argentina. The nose of the wine is complex and pleasing with an aroma of dark fruits and a little bit of leather. The soft tannins give it a silky and smooth mouth feel and it finishes with a long minerally taste. I turned out to pair perfectly with the Vindaloo. The acids and tannins balanced out with the spice of the Vindaloo and it complemented the lamb perfectly. It was one of those things that changed the way I viewed wine paring.
Wine paring can be a really difficult thing to do properly but take a look at the Chart at the top of the page. It is pretty comprehensive, but there are a few additional tips that I think may be helpful.
- Even with Spicy dishes, choose your paring based on the protein in the dish
- Wine changes a lot with food, a wine you don’t typically choose can be great with the right dish
- If you’re not sure of the right wine to choose with a dish, chose a wine that comes from the same place as the dish, you’ll find that they marry well most times
- You don’t have to pay $400 in a restaurant for good wine
- Try to pair the wine with everyone’s food, again, the chart at the top of the page can be very helpful in paring with multiple dishes.
- Lighter foods tend to pair with lighter bodied wines
- Ordering wine by the glass when in a group can help if there is no wine that is good for everyone
- Wine by the glass in restaurants tends to be of a lower price point. Restaurants can’t offer truly high-end wine by the glass because it increases their overhead dramatically.
- Wine should have a slightly higher acidity than the food you are paring it with
- If you want to experiment with wine parings, go to a wine bar and order some food and get a taste size of some different wines to see what you like
- Don’t be afraid to ask your server for recommendations
- Have fun experimenting, even if you try something that doesn’t work out, you still get to drink some wine
There you have my pseudo expert advice on wine paring. Have fun trying new things out! Thanks for reading and please feel free to ask questions or leave comments below. If you have a topic that you would like me to cover, let me know!