What wine is best for a Chinese meal?

Question

My family is having a Chinese inspired dinner on Christmas day. I don't know what type of wine to serve.

Answer 1

OK, right up my alley. I was 40 years in the wine business and one of my projects was development of a standarized wine list for American chinese restaurants.

In most of the wine growing or wine savouring world, the type of wine drunk by most knowledgable people with Chinese (or Vietnamese or Thai or Burmese) dishes is a dry, DRY rose. Such wines tend to bring out each aspect of the spices and other ingredients in the sauces while simultaneously highlighting the taste of the whole. In North America, however, except in Quebec (where they know better) the prejudice of wine critics and afficionados has been and is toward white wines, especially
gewurztraminer (the argument being a spicy wine for spicy food)and sauvignon blanc. The latter actually is quite good with Oriental cuisines and I choose when in the States if it is on the wine list about a dry rose is not (99% of the time, alas), but gewurztraminer is just horrible: it is cloying and it's flowery spicyness just overwhelms the food.

If you are American good dry rose has just begun to become more popular again after 20 years of being decimated by the "white zin" debacle (and similar candy-sweet wines made from other red grapes) when dry roses became often impossible to find, even at better wine stores, and most California wineries stopped making any. The growing but still small numbers now available are mostly from Spain, Italy and southern France, with a couple from South Africa.

Answer 2

In my opinion you should stay traditional to the region of origin of the dishes (in this case, asia). Warm sake is a good one (rice wine). Another good one is Plum Wine.

my personal recommendation for western style wines: Dry red for peppery or non sweet dishes, dry white for spicy dishes, and I'd go with a sweet red like lambrusco for the sweeter dishes. It all depends on what you plan to serve.

EDIT: Hank, the reason most afficionados stay away from blush or other "rose" wines is because most are a mixed wine... which we all know is blasphemy to purists such as myself. I do agree, however, that gewurztraminer is a bad choice with spicy chinese... though I've always been a fan of minor contrasts rather than perfect matches, as i feel they lend breadth to a meal that is otherwise one dimensional.

Answer 3

I'd go with a dry red. Like a Chianti or Shiraz. I think that will go well with most Chinese dishes. You should probably have some white on hand though just in case.

Answer 4

traditiona would suggest saki. but i would probably go with a nice gewurztraminer, maybe a riesling, or a nice dry rose as somebody suggest above. Rose is not White Zin. Roselle is a nice domestic rose.

you need sweet to balance spiciness of chinese food.

Answer 5

Port wine with 7-up

Answer 6

Red wine - a Montepulciano (normal aged ones)

Answer 7

the on the spot you positioned down your glass and comprehend " wait a sec, i will't practice dinner", then seem interior the pot information that you actually were casseroling your socks. whats up, chinese language is the most ideal nutrition interior the international, so extra power to you guy.

Answer 8

Sake

Answer 9

mabe a sweet red wine i forget the name but its really good

Answer 10

Bourbon