Basically I go for wines that can be summed up in one word - REFRESHING - a refreshing alternative to a gas injected lager. And being cool refreshingly sparkling wines they are refreshing at curry-time, summer-time and anytime

First, my wines are all naturally semi-sparkling. Carbon Dioxide enhances taste and adds natural acidity when dissolved thereby adds to the mouth watering feel. But a fully sparkling wine or beer has too much gas and lager has gas injected producing large bubbles leading to bloating with food.

My wines have natural secondary fermentation in sealed and pressurised stainless steel tanks and then stabilised. This is to ensure that the CO2 produced permeates the wine and is properly integrated into it and will be released gradually and regularly over a period once the bottle has been opened. And being semi-sparkling the UK Customs Duty is as for still wine. So why pay extra tax for superflous gas?

Second, drink the wine cool to ice-bucket cold – So thirst quenching like a cold lager.

Third, a refreshing wine also should have a good level of mouth-watering acidity. Think lemon juice – the classic Indian “Nimboo Pani”.

Fourth, avoid mouth-drying tannin. Whilst tea is drunk in India with food, the tannin is softened with milk and sugar. Furthermore, tannin in both wine and tea is exaggerated at low temperatures.

Fifth, the wines are also free from oak, which clashes with spices such as cumin, coriander and ginger giving a bitter, harsh after-taste. Furthermore oakiness gives a rounded mouth-feel. I want a crisp steely feel in a refreshing wine with curry.

Sixth, moderate alcohol; a good degree of alcohol is required to provide body but excess alcohol over 12.5% can add to the burning sensation of chillies. Take a sip of vodka before and after biting into a chilli to feel this. Furthermore, the wines are so moreish that you will find yourself drinking quite a bit. Wine for Spice™’s range has an alcoholic strength of 11.5% to 12.5% by volume.

And finally, Seventh, aromatics, fruitiness and sweetness in the range rise in relation to the chilli heat of the accompanying dish. This is based on my Goan Grandmother’s trick of adding some sugar to an over hot curry. Suck on a sweet before and after biting into a chilli to feel this. But unlike some wines such as 100% Gewurztraminer or Muscat which can be over-aromatic and too flowery and sickly after a glass, all of these wines are balanced blends balancing fruit with with natural acidity and are refreshingly sparkling. And because acidity offsets sweetness and sparkling wines have enhanced acidity because of the dissolved CO2, the Off Dry wines result in a quite dry mouth feel after allowing for acidity and spice.

best

Warren Edwardes
Wine for Spice
http://wineforspice.com

Steven Kolpan
Professor and Endowed Chair in Wine Studies
The Culinary Institute of America
Hyde Park, NY 12538

As for trash talk, it’s what makes the United States of America the greatest country on earth! Without it we would all be playing (shudder) soccer like the rest of the punks on this planet. If you can’t stand the truth, go watch a cricket match or polo for that matter.

Tea time Mr. May. Will that be one lump or two
(uh…too)? BobZ thinks you desrve more anyway.

I think we should all get back to wine discussions unless, of course……(or is it coarse) you want to push the envelope BobZ, old-buddy-old-pal.

The Count has spoken…..again!

Trash talk belongs where it comes from–the trash.
As to the “compliment” part of wine and food pairing, it is spelled “complement”…adds to in a way that enhances or improves, makes perfect.
Mr. May deserves more.

Thanks for your perspectives on the history of CTM and to the links about spicy food pairing.

Dini - Thanks for the observations about the varieties of Indian food! I’d tend to agree with you that the faint spice of gewurtz is indeed too faint in general. But I’d be happy to put it to the test!

Espen - You’re welcome to have what you like–that’s the key to enjoyment!

Count Rick - Trash talking is the American way? I hope not!

When talking about spicy food you have to put it into a context. I guess we are discussing Indian food here and not spicy food from all over the world, and as I wrote: spicy enough to give the food a bit edge - I am not talking about burning Thai food for example.
High alcohol, like in Amarone, works more as an understatement to spicy (but not dam hot) and creamy Indian food. I also have to say that I was not the person pairing this for the first time, this food experience was based on a recommendation by Hugh Jones (you might have heard of him). I have always stayed open minded to new experiences, and that has given me a lot of pleasure in the food and wine world. Why dont you try someting unexpected once - it will sure give you a positve moment.

As for the raindeer, Amaraone isn’t a bad choice if you mean a beef. But you dont need to travel to italy to get good wine for that. A good Zinfandel will be even better. But I have to say that raindeer can be served in a lot og ways and I know a lot of raindeer variations where I sure wouldn’t choose amarane:-) Syrah from Rhone would also be excellent for raindeer beef

If you want to drink a tannic, high alcohol red wine with your CTM sandwich or pizza go right ahead. My position is that a well made gewurztraminer and CTM make for a natural complimentary pairing and your suggestion is just rather…uh…unnatural to me. Balance is what most EDUCATED palates are looking for in a pairing. If you need some help in figuring out what constitutes a compliment or a contrast let me know. I’ll be more than happy to get you through any difficult decision you come across. Yeah, right.

I still think that in your case you should go for the beer.

Love and kisses,

Count Mourvedre

Just because you cannot appreciate both a decent red wine and a decent Indian meal doesn’t mean those of us with a palates other than yours cannot.

If you want to tame the heat - eat something else.

What most EDUCATED palates are looking for in terms of food pairings is balance. The tannins in red wine and in high alcohol wine intensify any heat and spiciness (however you want to define spicy). If you like heat, then drink those and miss out on most of the flavor of the food. Well made Gewurztraminer tames the heat, compliments the spice and makes for a wonderful experience.

The Alsatians must be sending a lot of the good stuff to the USA or those poo-pooing the charms of what a great food wine this is need to fork up a few more pounds and see what they are missing.

Otherwise, go for the beer.

Oh, one more thing…

Indian wines although supposedly “improving”
are pretty much crap compared to those from Europe, North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and…who did I forget? Maybe in a hundred years or so…nah.

Lager or any drink will not alleviate the heat because there is no heat — the feeling you get is irritation caused by the chilies. The best way to alleviate it is to put some plain rice in your mouth. If you want a cool drink, then drink water for refreshment — which is what I do — and drink wine for pleasure.

The crux here is the irritation factor — those of use who regularly eat food with chillies in it know that not only do you soon get used to them and a dish that you found to be too hot when you first tried it you now find is bland and mild and you need something with more kick. So you can easily enjoy a dish other find too hot and enjoy the complexities of decent red wine with it.

So personally I drink what I like, and I like red wine with the type of meals I order at my local Indian restaurant. Others may prefer something else and since I don’t have palate I’m not going to disagree with them, but I am not goingto order a wine I don’t want to drink just because it is supposed to ‘match’ with the food.

I dislike this laying down of the law that ‘only lager’ “matches” Indian food, or you ‘must’ have a sweet wine or etc because we all have different experiences of, and acceptance of, chillies.

Does high alcohol raise the heat of chilies? (is that a bad thing? — if so why?) Then how about a sweet fortified wine? I attended a tasting put on by the winemakers of Rousillon (France) who were pitching their vin doux naturels (sweet fortified wines) to go with various Indian dishes and I thought they made a perfect match. (see http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/exaajs/wine/warren_roussillon_may05.htm )

I basically disagree with him, but my friend Warren Edwardes(Goan Indian by birth) has deeply studied matching wine with Indian & Thai foods and is so convinced that he has launched his own range of wines “Wines for Spice” which are sweetish and semi sparkling see http://www.dc3.co.uk/wfs/wines.htm for his 7 factors that such a wine should have.

But the main matching problem with CTM (as chicken tikka masala is known in UK) is the creaminess of the sauce. There’s no chillies in it.