Enter Gourmet Heaven with our best food and wine pairings!
Set the tone for a year of culinary feasts with a bunch of especially curated pairings by Wine Park in collaboration with Mumbai’s best restaurants. Last year we celebrated December’s final festive days with a sumptuous menu of wine and food matches featuring Mumbai’s best restaurants with Instagram posts and videos at @winepark_in (do follow us on Instagram for your daily fill of great wines). The curated pairings, spread across Indian and international genres of cuisine were a resounding success and are still very much available to savour! And we will share them all with you over the next few weeks. Here’s four fabulous pairings to get the taste buds buzzing.
St. Urbans-Hof, QbA, Riesling “Old Vines” 2018 paired with Lamb Biryani at San Qi at Four Seasons Mumbai
The St. Urbans-Hof, QbA, Riesling “Old Vines” 2018 beautifully expresses the crisp and intensely floral Mosel Valley style, laced with minerality and drinking of elegant fruit and delightful sweetness to finish. The German Riesling is the perfect companion to that most delicious of wintry comfort dishes we just love to tuck into – the lamb biryani. This remarkably wholesome meat and rice is prepared using the unique Dum Pukht style (slow cooked) so the flavours of the meat and vegetables seep into every grain of rice. The lamb biryani contains a tasty panoply of spiced veggies alongside the showstopper lamb. The Riesling’s sweetness and low alcohol content (10%) absorb and soothe’s the biryani’s spicy edge rather. The slow cooked lamb’s gamey flavour and chewy, fatty texture are nicely enhanced by the chilled white wine’s elegant fruit and bright acidity. The sweetness also compliments the mildly sweet slivers of caramlised onions, sprinkled atop the biryani.
Dog Point, Chardonnay 2017 and Steamed Triangular Crystal Dim Sum filled with Water Chestnuts, Asparagus, Baby Corn and Beans at Ming Yang, Taj Lands End Mumbai.
The Dog Point Chardonnay 2017 is a fine fermented result of the coming together of New Zealand’s finest wine region of Marlborough and the modern, organic approach of one of its best estates. This Chardonnay is organically produced and barrel aged, with notes of mineral, smoke and dry fruit, tasting of peaches, pear and citrus, laced with butterscotch thanks to oak ageing. This new world Chardonnay is the ideal accompaniment to the Steamed Triangular Crystal Dim Sum filled with Water chestnuts, Asparagus, Baby corn and beans at Ming Yang. These crackling crystal dimsums, packing the crunch of chestnuts and the asparagus’s herbaceous depth are positively lifted by the Kiwi Chardonnay’s exuberant fruit palate. Steamed dim sums can be lighter on flavour so the Chardonnay plays the vital role of unlocking the veggies’s sweet and sour notes. The Chardonnay’s slight creamy texture imparted by oak, soaks in the dim sum’s fluffy dough and its nutty notes play well with the dim sum’s vegetal aromas.
Saint Cosme, Little James’ Basket Press Red NV paired with Honey smoked spare ribs at Yauatcha
The Saint Cosme, Little James’ Basket Press Red NV is a fascinating Rhone valley wine made from handpicked Grenache grapes. The wine features a lively palate of red currant, sweet cherries and pepper and smooth tannins that get better in the glass as the wine breathes itself out. This Southern Rhone red pairs beautifully with hearty rustic dishes, namely the Honey smoked spare ribs. The spare ribs are cooked in a sweet and sour sauce, smoked with jasmine tea leaves and brushed with honey and soy sauce. The dish’s sharp flavours coupled with the pork’s generous fat content couple perfectly with the Grenache’s smooth tannins, softening them and lengthening the wine’s impression on the palate. Furthermore the wine’s ripe red fruit palate nicely balance the spare rib sauce, filling the tasting experience with more flavour.
Man Family, Bosstok Pinotage 2018 & Cumin & Honey Roasted Duck Breast at Perch
This fascinating red wine, native to South Africa and produced in a wholesome style by the Man Family estate, shows a palate of opulent fruits like plum and blackberry and a whiff of dark chocolate and earthy notes with elegant texture complimented by firm tannins and good acidity. This Pinotage finds a near perfect match in the Cumin & Honey Roasted Duck Breast (Green Pea puree, Asparagus, Edamame & Baby Beets). Honey roasted duck has tender meat that is distinctly rich and sweet with an oily skin, all of which pair well with the Pinotage’s ripe fruit flavours. The wine’s vibrant acidity also cuts nicely through the duck meat’s rich texture and fat content. What makes Pinotage an especially good pairing choice for roasted duck are its earthy notes that match the duck’s gamey flavours while the bird’s tender meat in turn, absorbs the South African red’s rounded tannins, making for one indulgent fine dining feast of the senses.
