Notes on a study table on pairing Indian wines with North Indian food

To borrow a phrase from Barack Obama, I’d like to say, “Yes, we can.” The context is totally different though: the subject here is wine, and its pairing with Indian food.

Reams have been written on the topic, experts have pontificated on it, and chefs have worked tirelessly to devise menus to attempt to create what a wine expert friend likes to describe as an ‘aha’ moment.

Confession: this is a topic close to my heart, though I always approach it with caution and an open mind. I believe Indian food is so complex, so diverse and so incredibly hard to typify that pairings sometimes tend to seem forced or manipulated. Certainly, most Europeans find it hard to tolerate Indian spice levels, and fewer still think to pop open a bottle of their favourite Burgundy with a chicken tikka masala, though many have tried.

So when Kripal Amanna, editor of Food Lovers’ magazine invited me to be a part of a study table he was conducting, which would taste 16 courses from various North Indian cuisines paired with 14 wines, I was intrigued. Kripal and wine consultant for the magazine, Heemanshu Ashar, had already conducted a similar exercise of pairing the pepper-rich spicy South Indian cuisines with Indian wines, and had discovered quite a few possibilities that would work (see the article in Food Lovers). So there was hope for the very popular North Indian cuisines as well (read kebabs, butter chicken, biryanis).

So this evening, scheduled at Riwaz, the Indian restaurant at the swanky new Ritz Carlton in Bangalore, would hopefully throw up several possible discoveries.

The primary reason Indian food is considered tough to pair with wine are the spices which are intrinsic to every variety of Indian cuisine (I make differentiation here among the various Indian cuisines, not lumping them together under a generic ‘Indian food’, yet I confess that the existence of spices in varying quantities and form do exist in all Indian cuisines.)

The wines shortlisted for the evening from the steadily growing list of fast-improving Indian wines included 14 mid-range wines in all: offerings from Big Banyan (Sauvignon Blanc and rosé), Reveilo (Chardonnay, Nero d’Avola and Sangiovese), Four Seasons (Viognier and Merlot), Sula ( sparkling rosé, Satori Merlot), Fratelli (Cabernet Franc-Shiraz, Shiraz rosé and Chardonnay), Pernod-Ricard’s Nine Hills (Shiraz rosé, Viognier). Nine grape varieties representing 6 Indian wineries. (more…)