Wine with the 'WAH' factor

FANS OF JAPANESE food have long faced problems pairing wines with their favourite eats, with many of the whites on the market being either too dry or too sweet to complement the delicate tastes of sushi, sashami and several other fish-based dishes.
Now Australian winemaker Jacob’s Creek has come up with a solution by creating Wah, a refreshing and fruity white wine designed to match the Japanese menu.
The pale straw coloured wine with a greenish hue is a tri-varietal blend of chardonnay, pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc and exhibits lifted fruit aromas and subtly melded flavours of pear, peach and citrus. The palate is crisp, with softened corners that yield a lovely refreshing yet smooth mouth-feel.
A very cold and relatively dry winter was observed across all grape growing regions of Southeast Australia prior to the 2013 growing season. Mild weather with low rainfall was encountered during the spring, which necessitated early season supplementary irrigation to aid the promotion of ideal vine canopy development. The summer months were generally warm to hot across all regions of the wine-growing area and these conditions produced an excellent rain-free vintage, allowing the chardonnay, pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc fruit to ripen to its optimum. Fruit was harvested during the cool of the night at temperatures less than 15 degrees to minimise phenolic pick up.
Jacob’s Creek, whose portfolio already covers an extensive list of wines, recently proudly presented its first tailor-made wine, which was co-created with leading fourth generation Japanese sushi chef and owner of Michelin-star sushi restaurant Ginza Sushi Kou, Mamoru Sugiyama, from Tokyo’s fashionable Ginza district.
The folks from Orlando Wyndham, Pernod’s Australian wine division, explain that work on Wah began with the arrival of Mamoru Sugiyama in Australia. After a visit to the local fish market for fresh ingredients, Sugiyama-san prepared a selection of sushi at the Jacob’s Creek facility in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide.
Jacob’s Creek winemaker Rebekah Richardson adds, “Wah is designed to work in synergy with any Japanese dish using dashi or soy sauce, in particular with most sushi. Sugiyama-san taught us that the sushi dining experience is as much about taste – in terms of the balance of sweet, sour and salty - as it is all about the texture of the food.”
With the chef’s exceptional experiences in Japanese cuisine and the estate’s prodigious know-how in winemaking, Wah is crafted with sushi and crustaceans in mind. Wah has the necessary texture and palate weight required to match the oily richness of tuna and salmon. Its aromatic components lighten the palate so the wine doesn’t overwhelm delicate sushi and also contributes additional layers of taste.
Most diners used to cringe at the thought of having wasabi-laden sushi or soy sauce-soaked bites with wine, and thus opted for beer, sake, or other Japanese-made spirits. A glass of chilled Wah goes down wonderfully with white fish sashimi, boiled crustaceans, minced Japanese dango fish balls and several Japanese dishes flavoured with dashi or soy sauce.
The official tasting note includes Thai-style fish cakes as one of the foods that go well with Wah but somehow we doubt it. The crisp, fruity flavour of wine is very like to be overwhelmed by the tastes of red curry paste and pungent fresh herbs in the fish cake. But, hey, there are no rules here and you might find your own perfect pairing. One thing’s for sure is that if Jacob’s Creek, or any wine producers, is to tap into Thai cuisine and create such a bottle, it’s going to be very, very interesting.
The wine was first released in July this year and has just arrived in Thailand, where it was welcomed with an extravagant launch party at Shintori, on level 18 of Zen on Monday. Wah is currently available at Shintori and selected leading Japanese restaurants in Bangkok.