These wines can stand the heat
I used to be such a Luddite where Indian food and wine matching was concerned. Only lager - or a lassi - would do. What's the point in drinking wine, I used to think, when there's a chilli or three firing up a dish? Most wines' subtle nuances are lost, drowned in a sea of saffron, coconut and curry leaves, I believed.
Thanks to the Cinnamon Club, I stand corrected.
Not only does wine stand up to Indian food, it can add a whole new dimension to its often-complex flavours, adding a twist of lime here, or a honeyed note there, not to mention helping to cleanse the palate ready for the next mouthful. It also helps you digest the richness of Indian food rather better than an ordinary pint does.
Of course, not every wine will complement Indian dishes. When choosing wine to go with Indian food, more thought is required. The Cinnamon Club's wine buyer and sommelier Laurent Chaniac has given it more thought than most - and you don't have to visit the restaurant to pick his brains. Simply pick up a copy of The Cinnamon Club Cookbook (Absolute Press £20) put together by owner Iqbal Wahhab and chef Vivek Singh, and you'll find a weighty contribution on the wine front from Chaniac.
You'll discover, for example, that spices such as peppercorns, chillies, cloves and cardamom work very well with fragrant whites with a little residual sugar, such as Riesling, Tokay Pinot Gris, dry Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc. The heat from the spices is neutralised by the acidity in the wine, and the fruit has all the space it needs to show off on the palate.
You'll learn that it's best to avoid barrel-fermented whites, as the oak will give you a bitter aftertaste when chomping on hot spices.
You'll read how the presence of onion, carom seeds and turmeric will play interesting tricks on the character of a wine (carom and turmeric are traditionally used in medicine to fight acidity problems in the stomach), so choosing a red wine with upfront, juicy fruit will soften the palate while the fruit becomes even more opulent; and how a more tannic wine will soften up when glugged with a dish that includes ingredients such as onion seeds or ajowan (a close relative of dill, caraway and cumin).
"If you take a classic pickling mix composed of cumin, onion, fennel, carom and mustard seeds and then mix it with star anise and then combine it with a grape such as Cabernet Franc from a very hot climate, a wonderful alchemy will take place," writes Chaniac. "The grape will tend to release aromas of eucalyptus and liquorice, which then marry perfectly with the flavours from the pickling spice mix."
I ate at the Cinnamon Club the other day just to test out the theory. Chaniac sure has some great ideas. He wasn't quite satisfied with the Plantagenet Riesling (1998 Museum Release) he had paired with the Travancore-style crab rasam soup - which worked brilliantly, by the way. "You know how sherry works so well with consomm‚? Well, I had this idea about serving a Bloody Mary-style drink with this soup - a blend of fresh cherry tomatoes and a slug of amontillado rather than vodka."
This is also the man who likes to pair Austrian Grner Veltliner (from Willi Brundlmayer) with warm pickled beef with rice pancake, unoaked S‚millon (Brokenwood) with dry spice-crusted bream wrapped in banana leaf with raw mango chutney and rice vermicelli, and Condrieu (Domaine du Monteillet) with Malabar-style chicken. Magic.
shorts
Scandinavian wines?
If you're Scandinavian - in fact, even if you're not - and you're into wine, you might be interested in a unique event taking place in Paris at the Swedish Club on the Rue de Rivoli (00 33 1 42 60 76 67) on 7 February. Called the Scandinavian Wine Fair, the event draws together 22 Scandinavian winemakers, showcasing more than 100 wines and Cognacs. And no, global warming hasn't suddenly gone mad quite yet, these are wines made by Scandinavians, not made in Scandinavia, with participants flying in from all corners of the wine world. "It's an excellent and different way of promoting Scandinavia," reasons Swedish Club director Pia Nordstrom. "Most people think we just drink aquavit."
It's a steel
Wine storage cabinet maker Transtherm announces that it now produces a stainless steel-clad version. Hand-built in France with solid beech shelving, the cabinet capacities range from 60 to 229 bottles and cost between £1,790 and £3,340. The cabinets are available through Vin-Garde (01608 676267).
Girls' lager
Organic supplier Vintage Roots (0118 976 1999) has teamed up with brewer the Hepworth Company to produce an organic lager aimed at women drinkers. Called Cool Blonde, it combines English malt, German yeast and New Zealand-grown Hallertau hops. Expect "a powerful brew with a firm body and luxuriant head".
Says Lance Pigott of Vintage Roots: "Most beers are male-orientated, but Cool Blonde will also appeal to women who are not normally into beer."
