My experience with Asian food and wine pairing has led me to a new paradigm in approaching wines on the Asian table. It is impossible to think of matching one wine with one dish. A typical family meal at home often consists of a bowl of rice with at least six to 10 different dishes, including the spicy, garlic-laden fermented cabbage, kimchi. Other dishes would include marinated vegetables, flavourful meat, fish or seafood platter, soup and a number of small salty and spicy dishes. Each bite is a different combination of flavours. This requires a wine that possesses the one character I truly value in this setting: versatility.

While a perfect pairing between an Asian meal and wine may be an ideal, a harmonious accompaniment is often possible. The pattern of preferences I noticed among Asian wine and food lovers has inspired me to identify these four key considerations – versatility, umami character, intensity and quality – when matching Asian cuisines with wine.

There is currently much experimentation with Asian cuisine and wine. One way to approach pairing wine with Asian food is to question the objectives. I have found that most food and wine pairing attempts to achieve one of three main objectives:

TO COMPLEMENT
The general rule is that wine should not dominate nor diminish the integrity of the dish, resulting in a harmonious match that enhances the meal; e.g. spicy stewed meats with spicy full-bodied red wines

TO CONTRAST
Flavours such as fatty with sweet, sweet with sour, spicy with sweet; contrasting is especially challenging with Asian cuisines since many delicate dishes can be drastically altered with wine’s potentially aggressive characters such as oak, tannins or sweet, overtly fruit flavours; e.g. spicy stir-fry chicken can be contrasted with off-dry or medium sweet wines

TO ACCOMPANY
Wine plays a background role without detracting from the integrity of the dishes; match the dishes’ richness and weight to the wine’s weight, body and alcohol content; e.g. dim sum with light-bodied Pinot Noir

Jeannie Cho Lee MW