Comments on: Sushi: an impossible food-wine pairing?

By: ChefRob

ChefRob — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:09:16 +0000

Sparkling, fruity wines will also pair well.

By: ChefRob

ChefRob — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:08:12 +0000

A fruity, unoaked Chardonnay or Pinot Noir in general are the best pairings for mild, delicate sushi. For spicy sushi, a dry white such as Gruner Veltliner would pair perfectly. These are your best three wine choices. Avoid Sauvignon Blancs, Rieslings, Pinot Grigios and other reds. Sushi doesn’t pair well with highly acidic wines.

By: ted

ted — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:50:35 +0000

Gruner Veltliner is my favorite with Sushi but a dry New Zealand Sauvignon blanc or a dry French rose would work too.

By: James Koch

James Koch — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:10:54 +0000

PS: Sparklers (perfect!) were not part of our ‘sushi wine collection’.

By: James Koch

James Koch — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:05:09 +0000

Some 30 years ago I set down with the chef of a tiny Sushi restaurant in Palos Verdes, CA, tasting through 40 different wines we both thought would be the ideal wine match for his Sushi.

The wines were not ‘bought/collected’ based on our own wine/style preferences, any particular price points or brand name recognition. We bought these strictly based on certain (terroir) flavors we were hoping would either contrast or match most sushi flavors. (Wine YOU LIKE will go with anything.)

And the winner was:

A 100% Riesling Kabinett from the Middle Mosel with ‘a certain/the right’!! amount of residual sugar.

BTW, it is quite scary to see the type of wines wine distributors unload in most Sushi restaurants. IMHO, the owners of most Sushi restaurants have very, very litle wine knowledge and go along with a sales rep’s wine recommendations.

I was recently asked to go over the wine list of a small local Indian restaurant. The rep had unloaded completely over-the-hill California Chardonnays and other ‘dead’ wines from the distributor’s close-out list. Quite sad and, unfortunately, not really an exception when it comes to smaller ‘ethnic’ restaurant.

James

By: Charlie Olken

Charlie Olken — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:53:03 +0000

Dear Ed–

If the Japanese had invented sparkling wine instead of the folks in Champagne, we would all be drinking bubbly with our sushi and not giving it a seccond thought–except for those of us who prefer Riesling, Gruner Veltliner, Muscadet, Tkakoli, Albarino or Oregon Pinot. :-}

By: Ed from Vine Connections

Ed from Vine Connections — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:47:10 +0000

Geez, even us wine guys need a change of pace. If you’re going to eat your fish raw instead of cooked, I say drink chilled Japanese ginjo sake instead of wine. A thousand years (or so) of sushi eaters can’t be wrong!

By: alberto

alberto — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:17:02 +0000

Wasabi and an off-dry Riesling are great together, so that’s what I suggest there. Sake seems natural, but I like albarino and can’t wait to try that w/ sushi!!

alberto

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:45:23 +0000

Champagne, BdB
Cava
Muscadet, esp. for shellfish
Chablis
Dry Rieling
I’ll skip all of that noise about the bold red, but a cru Beauj sounds fine, esp. a little chilled
Dry Sherry? Sure
Maybe a tawny if not too sweet? Sure.
Sancerre
A nice Soave

And lastly, the Montagny blanc from J.M. Boillot that I had last night would be a wonderful compliment, with light toast and lemon. In fact, I may have to do this today!

By: NicoRiesling

NicoRiesling — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:07:39 +0000

Riesling of course! We’ve created our Dry Riesling just for Sushi!!!!

By: Larry Chandler

Larry Chandler — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:52:02 +0000

Based on the above picture alone, I would suggest a Pussy Fuisse.

By: Amelia

Amelia — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:54:54 +0000

I once had a very sweet, light red called Red Fox, from the Goosewatch Winery at Saranac Lake, with some spicy tuna rolls. And it was delicious!

By: Dermot the laugh

Dermot the laugh — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:23:34 +0000

Hmmm, seems not to be impossible, given the wide range of suggestions.

BTW, Tyler I love gastro-porn and, I have to say, your choice of pics in this and recent articles suggests a naughty side to the East Coast Expert LOL

By: 1WineDude

1WineDude — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:02:15 +0000

C’mon, bro, don’t jump the shark on this series. Sushi = Sparklers. Simple.

By: Weston

Weston — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:20:45 +0000

2005 Château de Varennes Savennières. Had that at a Local High End Sushi Restaurant Fantastic the wine was kinda of simple but went so well.

Also hear Champagne goes great