And With Two Dinners, You Get Gewurztraminer

Who ever heard of Chinese wine? With purists arguing that the proper beverage to drink while eating regional cuisine is the regional beverage, beer has come to be considered the drink of choice with Chinese food.

Actually, there is a thriving wine industry in China; there is even a Chinese wine being imported to this country. It’s called Spring Moon Imperial Cuvee, a delicate white wine made from a muscat-type grape in a dryish style, and it’s aimed specifically at Chinese restaurants.

The wine comes from Tsingtao Province, which actually has more wine grape acreage than the Napa Valley (if somewhat less worldwide acclaim). Spring Moon is a modest little wine with some obvious affinity for the mushroom/water chestnut/bamboo shoot things you often find in the chow.

In fact, there are lots of other wines that go well with Chinese food.

To start with the obvious, I always love a dry Gewurztraminer when I’m dining a la Orientale. The spice aroma and intense flavors of the wine marry well with most Chinese dishes, and even though the wine is supposed to be bone dry, most of these have a trace of sugar to match with the small amount of plum sauce or soy sauce often found in this cooking.

The best in the state annually is from Navarro in Mendocino County, but often that’s unavailable (not much of it is made). In that case, those from Chateau St. Jean, Clos du Bois, Davis Bynum, Monticello, or Adler Fels are excellent.

Fetzer makes a lovely Gewurztraminer that’s a little on the sweet side, for very hot or sweet and sour dishes.

If sweet and sour dishes are on the menu and no off-dry Gewurztraminer is handy, an off-dry Riesling would be a delight, and if the wine has no more than 1% residual sugar, the same wine could also serve as the palate cleanser.

For lighter chicken and pork dishes, I find Sauvignon Blanc to be a better match than Chardonnay (which often has too much alcohol for the food). However, a Chardonnay would be fine for many Chinese fish dishes, especially those that come in a rich sauce that demands the richness of the wine.

Mu shu pork, with its hoisin sauce, and other dishes that are similarly sweet are fine with Gewurztraminer (or a dry Muscat), but my choice is a young Beaujolais, lightly chilled. Nouveau Beaujolais now on the market from the 1988 vintage is a good choice.

Lively, light Zinfandels and Chiantis are always nice complements to most of the non-spicy meat dishes, and to many bean curd dishes. However, as the spice rises in the dish, the dryness of the wine becomes more challenging, so I back off to the Beaujolais, or even to white wine.

Sauvignon Blancs with a touch of residual sugar (such as Kendall-Jackson, Buena Vista Lake County, Parducci, Beaulieu) are as good an all-purpose wine as you can find, and all are reasonably priced--no more than $7 a bottle at retail.

Another alternative would be an Italian Pinot Grigio or a German Riesling, preferably a Spaetlese-- essentially dry with a slight honeysuckle edge in the finish.

And don’t forget sparkling wine with Chinese foods. Two striking successes with such food are Culbertson Cuvee de Frontignan, a floral wine with very slight residual sugar, and Chateau De Baun Romance, even spicier than the previous wine with just enough sugar to mask heat in the food.

Cabernet Sauvignon, though fine with steak and potatoes, is a hard match with Chinese food because too many of these wines are rough, astringent things when young. If you prefer Cabernet, try one of the more accessible ones, such as Martini, Krug, Inglenook, Pedroncelli, Fetzer Lake County.

As for serving classic old Bordeaux with such food, well, that’s like drinking a glass of Chateau d’Yquem and smoking a cigar at the same time--a contradiction in elements.