Seafood & wine: A heavenly match

By Kris Love
Translated by Angela Cheng

Having just had my taste buds tempted while watching some fantastic-looking seafood being cooked on TV, I now have a craving that needs to be satiated before I can properly concentrate on anything else. Seafood is incredibly popular in this part of the world, so I thought that I'd give you a few tips for matching wines to your favourite seafood dishes this month.

A guilty pleasure most of us share is deep-fried seafood. I love the lightness of bubbles with the heavier, oiliness of deep-fried seafood, and wines with good acidity levels work very well in balancing the fat--just like lemon juice added to your seafood does. Champagne is obviously the most famous sparkling wine in the world and there are some good examples in Taiwan these days. If you are looking for something a little cheaper, or just different, I'd recommend some Cava from Spain, Prosecco from Italy, or a good sparkling wine from New Zealand. Freixenet, with its distinctive black bottles, is probably the best-known Cava and it also features some excellent reserve-level wines, too.

Full-flavoured, oily-surface fish like salmon, tuna, mackerel or swordfish are really the only fish that will work well with any red wines, and only lighter-bodied reds, which can even be very slightly chilled (15-20 min. in the fridge), will work. Think Pinot Noir, Gamay, Sangiovese or even some lighter styles of Grenache wines. These wines will also work well with seafood pasta dishes with heavy tomato-based sauces. Try a Tourraine (region) Gamay (grape variety) from the Loire Valley in France, which usually provides excellent value.

Barbecued or whole-fried fish with their smokey flavours work well with white wines that have a bit of oak ageing and a fuller-bodied style. With the typical whole-fried fish you find in Taiwan, I'd go with a Viognier as the sweet spice and orange peel character with a touch of oak (in a good one) compliment the strong flavours of ginger and corriander these dishes are usually accompanied by. Argentina is making some good-value Viognier wines but for top examples look to California or my favourites, from the traditional home of the grape--Condrieu in the Northern Rhone valley in France.

Enjoy your seafood!

Kris

kris@wineconnection.co.nz
0916-222-336