The Far East and China have always tantalized the French. In the 1930s, the famous graphic artist, Villemot, created a poster promoting the Foire Internationale et Gastronomique held in Dijon honoring the artisans, traditions and gastronomy of China. And of course, the French ruled Indochina before being driven out of the region by the Vietnamese in 1954. French influence is still very strongly felt in the architecture and food of Southeast Asia.
But at this year’s recently concluded Vinexpo in Bordeaux, the French showed new ways of mounting a Far East campaign.
Etienne Hugel presided over his stand at a lunchtime buffet everyday with a staggering array of sushi and dumplings to accompany his stellar line-up of Alsace wines from Hugel et Fils. It
reminded me of the clever slogan, “Just Add Food,” crafted by Deussen Global Communications, a New York-based public relations firm, to promote the wines of Alsace. That’s precisely what Hugel did. But he went a step further, emblazoning Hugel-marked chopsticks with the phrase, “the chopstick’s favorite wine” and cutting his corks in half lengthwise to use as a chopstick holder. Hugel has also created websites specifically for the Japanese and Chinese markets.
It was brilliant marketing because it showed the perfect affinity of this type of Asian cuisine for his wines, from the bright and focused 2010 Riesling to the richer, but still dry, 2008 Pinot Gris. Hugel’s late harvest wines turned out to be a surprisingly good match with the food because they were concentrated and balanced without being overtly sweet. Hugel’s 1988 Riesling Vendage Tardive, long and penetrating, was a great foil for salmon sushi. And the 1998 Gewurztraminer Sélection de Grains Nobles (SGN), with its emphasis on spice rather than sweetness, opened my eyes–and palate–to how well these wines go with something other than foie gras.
Sauternes and Barsac producers held a lunchtime seminar moderated by Bill Blatch, a prominent Bordeaux négociant, showcasing their wines with Chinese food. Famed chefs Tommy and André Chan of Le Bonheur du Palais, which Gault Millau described as “without doubt the best Chinese restaurant in Bordeaux,” prepared a different Sichuan dish for each wine and showed the enormous spectrum of flavors and spice offered by this branch of Chinese cuisine (which is only one of many branches–a fact overlooked by those who recommend pairing wines with “Chinese food”).
For the most part, the matching of individual dishes with the wines was a great success. The younger, more vigorous Sauternes went especially well with the spicier fare. Although in one instance, the fiery peppers on prawns overwhelmed the gloriously elegant 2005 Château Haut-Peyraguey, whereas the just-starting-to-show-maturity 2004 Château Coutet went perfectly with the subtly spiced caramelized Tchasui pork because of the wine’s bracing acidity.
Jenny Cho Lee, the Hong Kong-based Master of Wine, pointed out a critical difference between dining in the East and the West. In the West, courses are served sequentially with a new wine with each course. In the East, all the food arrives at the same time. Selecting a single wine for a wide range of dishes is all but impossible. But that’s one of the beauties of Sauternes. Its sweetness complements the spice of the dishes and its signature mouth-watering acidity keeps you coming back for more.
Bérénce Lurton, owner of Château Climens summed it up nicely, “These wines are hard to make, but easy to drink.”
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