Wine Meets Spice

By Angela Mount

Does wine go with Indian food? And if it does, which wine does go with Indian food?  Questions I’m asked time after time, and the reason that lager is normally the default choice when you’re in an Indian restaurant.

Roll up, award-winning New Zealand winery Yealands, who took up the challenge to host a wine dinner at Bath’s top Indian restaurant, the Mint Room, last week, to dispel the myths and prove that fabulously spiced Indian food is enhanced even more with the right wine.

Hosted by Yealands’ brand ambassador Giles James, it was a sell out evening showcasing the very best of  their exciting range of wines, with a truly spectacular feast, prepared by the Mint Room’s Executive Chef Mamrej Khan.

Matching wine with Indian food is all about a balance of flavours, and levels of spice and heat.  It also depends on the style of the Indian cuisine – the rich, tomato and onion based dishes of the north work with very different types of wine from the creamy, milder, coconut-milk based dishes of Kerala and Goa.  The stronger the spice and the heat, the richer the aromas and the flavours of the wine need to be. Balance is the key.

The evening was a match designed in heaven – beautifully crafted, aromatic wines, with spectacularly-presented, fragrant and spicy Mint Room cuisine.  We started with a glass of Yealands Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2013 – vibrant and fresh, with zingy passion fruit and gooseberry flavours, and a mouth-watering finish; delicious with baby sized onion and lentil bhajis, and the spicy, yet tangy freshness of tiny spiced seekh kebabs.

Yealands is perched about as close to the coast as you can get, in New Zealand’s Marlborough region, and is able to produce a wide range of different grape varieties, which were all on show this evening.  A line up of 3 white wines heralded the arrival of the starters, all carefully chosen to complement the wines and vice versa.  An elegantly arranged platter of 3 signature dishes matched up perfectly – a melt in the mouth piece of chicken tikka, marinated in yogurt, ginger, chilli spice and the chef’s secret tandoori masala spice mix, worked perfectly with the fleshy, soft, style of Yealands Estate Pinot Gris 2012, full of ripe, peach and ginger flavours.

Riesling is usually my top choice with Indian food, and tonight didn’t disappoint. Yealands Estate Riesling 2011 is a wine of supreme elegance and style, which is only just starting to come into its own. Exotically aromatic, with hints of honeysuckle, lemon peel, and wild flowers, it’s an intriguing mix of floral fruitiness, but with a searingly bone dry freshness.  One of the most versatile wines, and spot on with a crispy little samosa parcel, filled with fresh vegetables, blended with chat masala, turmeric, chilli, ginger and garlic, served on a spiced up, sweet tamarind sauce.

Finally, a crunchy, succulent tiger prawn, marinated in yoghurt, lemon, ginger and black pepper and fried in spicy breadcrumbs, worked nicely with the exotic Yealands Estate Gewurztraminer 2013, a real amalgam of intense aromas and flavours of lychees, rose petals, Turkish delight and ginger – all tempered, with a delightful freshness and zippy edge. On its own, it’s opulent and rich – but put it with a spicy dish, and it comes into its own, with a zesty freshness and zip.  It was delicious with the tempura prawn, but I tasted it with the main course of Sea Bass Moilee, and thought it was just about the perfect match possible. If you’re local to Bath and go to the Mint Room, please try this dreamy combination.

There’s a new wine on the block for Yealands – Tamra Washington, their head winemaker, has very cleverly taken all of the 3 wines we tasted with the starters, and blended them up into an intriguing wine, simply called Yealands PGR 2013 – still aromatic, and sumptuous, it’s exotic, yet mouth-tinglingly fresh -  it has an incredible zestiness, and citrusy edge, with a creamy, peachy delicacy, which worked very well with the Sea Bass Moilee – one of my favourite dishes on the menu, and exquisitely presented; a tender piece of sea bass with a crispy skin, set atop a bed of cumin-spiced spinach, with a gloriously edgy sweet pineapple chutney, and served with a rich, yet balanced Keralan sauce of coconut milk, curry leaves, mustard seeds and mild chilli.  In my view the rich intensity of the sauce was a better match for the Yealands Gewurztraminer, but both worked well.

Finally we moved on to red wine and red meat – once again, it’s crucial to get the balance of flavours, and levels of spice and sweetness.  The last course was from northern India, a Kashmiri Rogan Ponje, - sweet, juicy lamb chops, cooked in an onion, tomato, black cardamom and chilli sauce, but with an intriguing smokiness, which I couldn’t identify.  I quizzed the chef after the dinner and found that whilst the lamb chops were gently cooking in the sauce, a little bowl of burnt charcoal and whole spices was placed over the pan, and covered, resulting in a smokey infusion, which added another dimension to the dish. Clever.  What to serve with spicy, smokey red meat dishes? Avoid big, tannic reds, go for soft, scented reds, such as Yealands Estate Pinot Noir 2013. Carefully crafted, with super ripe, juicy berry fruit, it’s a very silky, elegant red with ripe, bright cherry and raspberry fruit, velvety smooth, with a hint of chocolate – but light, stylish and soft.

The evening was a resounding success, and dispelled many myths – there’ll be another chance to  discover how to partner wines with the Mint Room menu, at a follow up dinner in the Autumn.

If you’re uncertain what to drink with Indian food, stick to fragrant, aromatic whites, and gentle, low tannin reds.  The Yealands wine matches for this dinner ticked all the boxes.