WINE IN CHINESE RESTAURANTS

 

Wine is not a natural accompaniment to Chinese cuisine. In most Asian restaurants, I think it would be preferable to drink tea, light Asian beer, or coke. Coke is actually ideal with Cantonese stir-fried duck, but of course with Szechuan stir-fried duck, because of the increased spiciness, a switch to Diet Coke would be a preferable option! So when I heard about Hakkasan's new wine list (from one of the best Chinese restaurants in the country), created by the wine buyer, Christine Parkinson, I was intrigued to see if this could really work.

 

Christine has created a new wine list for the restaurant. Apart from being very well formatted to avoid confusion, she has categorised the selection of wines by titles which correctly reflect the category she has placed them in for all to understand. Each title is followed by a simple brief explanation, which acts as a catalyst to understand why those wines are chosen and placed in their bracket.

 

Prestige: fine wines

Magnums: double bottles

Champagne large formats: more is more

Exploration: wine by the glass

Signature: wines of Hakkasan

Harmony: wine and food

Rosé: pale wine from red grapes

Purity: the expression of fruit

Terroir: a sense of place

Curious vines: distinctive wines, blends, the art of the winemaker

Age and grace: mature wines

Vieilles vignes: old vines

Biodynamics: spiritual wine

Last few: the end of the line

Meditation: sweet wine

Strength & beauty: fortified wine

 

Christine felt very aware that few customers feel really comfortable with big, traditional wine lists - let alone get pleasure from them. Yet in terms of wine communications the restaurant list is unique - the customer reads about the wine, then drinks it - all with an expert sommelier (hopefully!) on hand to assist. A potent medium, she thought, yet wasted on many people who are bored, baffled or intimidated by a list of hundreds of wines.

She also felt very strongly that some less well-known wines are short-changed by the typical restaurant list. They may have a fascinating story to tell, but the customer is unlikely to ask about them, and sommeliers don't have time to talk about every interesting bottle on the list.

 

She says: "This list is my attempt to push the boundaries. I can't emphasise strongly enough that it is a work in progress (version 2 will be slightly easier to navigate). The headings will evolve and change, according to what we buy, and I intend the sub-headings to tell more of the 'stories' that are so interesting. I should also add that these headings are not meant to be any sort of classification - you'll notice straight away that many wines could reasonably appear in several different places: it's our choice to put them where they are. This list is personal, not scientific."

 

Having seen the contents of the list, my own view was that with another type of cuisine, Christine's method of listing the wines would be of extreme help and a welcome change from the boring old wine lists constructed just to satisfy those customers who need to know "where are the clarets?" When I have been called upon to advise on wine lists, I try to persuade my client to list wines by style, weight and taste and here I use up to 20 headings to describe these. Coupled with food-oriented tasting notes for each wine, the list should convey enough information for the customer to obviate the use of a sommelier. (Restaurateurs, please note how I can save you money!) Another bonus is if the restaurant happens to run out of a particular wine, there are readily-seen alternatives within the same style group of wines to make an informed choice.

 

Following my known propensity for cynicism, I finally furthered my education on wine with Chinese food at Hakkasan restaurant, courtesy of Christine's kind invitation. In accordance with Christine's tasting policy, we tested wines with a mild dish, a savoury dish, a sweet dish and a spicy dish. The acid test was to find wines with sufficient versatility to match all four types of dishes. The mild dish was Fried Soft Shell Crab with red Chilli and Curry leaf. I hasten to add that the quantity of red chilli was minute and didn't take away the overall mildness of the dish, which was coated in "crumbs" made from fried butter and milk.

 

The savoury dish was Stir-fried Ostrich with Preserved Rice and Shao Hsing Sauce - tasty and strongly flavoured. The sweet dish was Grilled Chilean Sea Bass in Chinese Honey - a masterpiece of delicate and accurately cooked fish with the honey obviously apparent but not overwhelming. Finally, the spicy dish was Stir-fried Peking Style Duck with dry Chilli, Szechuan Pepper, baby Leek and Onion, which was pretty hot stuff, especially if you bit into a chilli!

 

The wines we had available to taste with these dishes were... Ken Forester's FMC Chenin Blanc 2005, a premium Chenin from old vines and fermented in 400 litre French oak barrels, Cline Cellars Los Carneros Shiraz 2003, from young vines (probably not more than 10 years old) with good upfront fruit, but still showing a little tightness and quite a lot of grip, Caymus "Conundrum" 2004, a blend made mainly from Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Muscat Canelli, with the addition of a little Sémillon and Viognier, (fermented partially in stainless steel and partially in French and American oak) and finally François Mitjaville's Ch. Roc de Cambes 1998, Côtes de Bourg, one of the best wines available from a right bank minor appellation and unmistakably Bordeaux with a dry, cedary finish.

 

All four wines were tasted against each dish as they arrived on the table and Christine and I had to assess which wines went best with each dish. Not only that - but to pass muster and to stand a chance of getting on the wine list, a wine had to be versatile enough to be compatible with all four dishes.

 

My scores on the matchability of the wines against the dishes, marked out of 5, were as follows: (and Christine was generally in concurrence with me on this)

 

Fried Soft Shell Crab

Forrester Chenin 3, Cline Shiraz 1, Conundrum 5, Roc de Cambes 2.

 

Stir-fried Ostrich

Forrester Chenin 2, Cline Shiraz 4, Conundrum 4, Roc de Cambes 3.

 

Grilled Chilean Sea Bass

Forrester Chenin 3, Cline Shiraz 3, Conundrum 5, Roc de Cambes 2.

 

Stir-fried Peking Style Duck

Forrester Chenin 2, Cline Shiraz 3, Conundrum 3, Roc de Cambes 3.

Two obvious conclusions from this:

1. The spicy duck was the most difficult to match, and

2. Conundrum was the clear winner for versatility, (although the Roc de Cambes did much better than I expected without really being a success).

 

Finally, we saved a bottle of Ken Forrester's T-Noble Late Harvest Chenin Blanc 2003 for our dessert of mixed tropical fruits, but I found that some of the fruits were a bit too acid and under-ripe to match well with this honeyed, botrytis affected wine. Maybe we should have tried it against the main dishes, other people have had Sauternes with Chinese food with a great deal of pleasure.

 

Matching food with wine is always a difficult experience, especially in a restaurant where you are trying to attempt this with a variety of dishes being consumed within the party. It applies equally to Western food as well as Asian food, but there is an additional difficulty for us Europeans, because of our general unfamiliarity with Asian cuisine.

 

Whilst it may be considered a good match in general, I for one, would not be very happy to drink Sauternes, as much as I love sweet wines, throughout a meal, although I am perfectly happy to drink either a dry white or a dry red. Perhaps it's a question of habit and old habits die hard, and whilst it is nice to experiment, in the end you have to finish up with what you are most comfortable with.

 

Hakkasan is an extraordinary restaurant with an extraordinary wine list and Christine's extraordinary dedication in sourcing wines to match all the dishes in the restaurant is, after all, an extraordinary achievement. (but be aware, Hakksan is far from cheap - although you may consider it a price worth paying for such professionalism and dedication).

 

So my position on wine in Chinese restaurants has changed to the following:

 

At Hakkasan - drink wine, you will be hard pressed to find a dud.

At all other Chinese restaurants - drink beer, or preferably, tea!

 

The last word is with Christine:

 

"It's worth adding that this is a fairly typical result: we have a team tasting every week, and it's quite usual to taste 10 or 15 samples and find only 1 or 2 wines that succeed with our food. On the strength of this tasting I would consider listing the Conundrum. We never list wines that succeed with 3 of the dishes but fail with the fourth (as happened with the Cline Shiraz)."

 

 

 

 

‘Wine Behind the Label’ is the world’s top wine reference book.

See it online.