GRAPES of great joy

FOOD AND WINE pairing is indeed an art, and it takes a keen, well-trained palate to pull it off. For most of us, matching dishes with wines at home usually means choosing between red and white. It needn’t be that way though, as Robert Mondavi’s Winery chef Jeff Mosher explained during a recent tutorial at Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok’s Tables Grill,
“The general rule is, match the flavours,” Mosher told XP. “The flavours of the ingredients and the wine don’t have to be the same, but it should not be opposite. Look for flavours that enhance each other as well as aromas that go well together. Maintain the balance; if one thing is strong, tone down the other otherwise you won’t be able to enjoy the less powerful one. And most important of all, drink whatever wine with whatever food you like. Forget rules like red meat goes with red wine, or fish has to go with white. There are other ingredients in the dish that might be more prominent than the meat itself, so consider the most distinctive flavours and aroma of the dish, then go from there.”
The first dish he demonstrated was curried chicken with apple and almond spring roll. The chicken, including the skin, is lightly marinated in spice mix before being pan-fried. Green apple, almond and more spice are then mixed to make a nice salad to go in the roll with the chicken. A tasty and addictive appetiser, each bite has the crunch and the sourness of the apple as well as the tender and juicy curried chicken. Better still, the apple cleanses the palate after each bite, and brightens the curried ingredients.
Mosher paired the dish with 2011 Robert Mondavi Winery Napa Valley Fume Blanc, which is made of sauvignon blanc and a little semillon. The lightly citrusy, creamy and bright wine went well with the acidity of the apple and the slight nuttiness, while the low astringency smoothened the spice, making it a decent match.
“If the wine is fruity and you’d like to highlight its fruitiness, choose some acidic ingredients in the food to bring forward the fruitiness in the wine,” he told his guests.
Next up was slow-cooked pork belly with rice noodles, eggplant, ginger and scallion sauce. This quick stir-fried dish is very rich and flavourful with the marinated, slow cooked pork belly blending well with the peppery ginger in the sauce. A quite oily dish, it needs a wine that is bright, slightly fruity and spicy, like the Private Selection Pinot Noir. The label, which is a blend of 88-per-cent pinot noir, nine-per-cent syrah, three-per-cent petite syrah and one-per-cent teroldego, yields fresh and vibrant feeling with lovely toasty cinnamon, sour cherry and strawberry tastes. Its rich and lengthy palate makes it a good match with any smoky, stir-fried dish with a heavily seasoned sauce. The wine actually tastes sweeter and bright with the ginger sauce, making it a very complementary pairing.
    Mosher’s final dish was savoury spice crusted yellow fin tuna on rice with baby shitake, watermelon radish and red wine vinaigrette. In keeping with his comments about there being no rules, he paired it with red wine, 2006 Robert Mondavi Winery Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. The wine that offers “the ultimate expression of terroir” is intensely fragrant with aromas of creme de cassis as well bay. The rich flavours of blackberry merge with earthiness and minerality, while the tannins are well developed, firm and sweet. This complex and densely structured wine goes well with a variety of food from grilled, smoky barbecue to stir- fried plates.

More about the winery at www.RobertMondavi.com