Pairing Wine with Spicy Food

When we think about what beverages to serve with spicy food wine is not often the first beverage to come to mind. As our culture has been recently introduced to some of the wonderful ethnic dishes new to us, wine has a place with these fantastic spicy recipes. It can be a challenge but it’s not as difficult to match wines with spicy food as you might think. There are wines that go extremely well with spicy food.

An easy rule to consider when choosing the wine is to avoid tannic wines like cabernet blends as the spices in the food will make the tannins more pronounced and this causes a bitter taste and the same goes with oaky wines as the spices tend to increase the oak flavors. There are two basic methods when pairing wines with spicy food; choosing light bodied wines and choosing wines with noticeable sweetness. Alcohol will inflame the burning sensation of hot foods, while sugar will tame it.

There are two schools of thought regarding the choice of wines with spicy dishes. You can attempt to join the spicy flavors with a spicy wine or contrast the spicy flavors with sweeter wines. But in order really join up the wine with the spicy food avoid high-alcoholic reds because in this battle of tastes it won’t be a pleasant experience. If you choose a really mellow wine to serve with the spicy dish you won’t taste the wine and if you choose a high alcoholic wine you won’t taste the spicy food.

When serving Mexican or Tex-Mex favorites tomatoes are often at the forefront of the base ingredient and Zinfandel matches wonderfully with the acidity of the tomatoes and doesn’t decrease the fire power of the food. Zinfandel and Riesling are terrific with cheesy enchiladas, burritos and even tacos. Dishes that include pork, beef or chicken like Chipotles and mole sauce are earthy in taste and the best wine choice for these dishes are fruity Zinfandel or Cabernet Sauvignon. You will find that the fruitiness of these wines lightens the heavy sauces and leaves the spicy unique tastes of these sauces. Some of our favorite dishes are green tomatillo-chili sauces and earthy red chili adobo sauces. And for the really spicy Tex-Mex dishes choose the softest, freshest type of red wine or rose and this brings a perfect balance tot the palate.

Blush wines have light, cool, refreshing fruit flavors and with a touch of sweetness that is very soothing with the hottest dishes. Another aspect of the low alcoholic wines is you can take larger swigs instead of the normal small sips. And this is good when taking on spicy foods! Young red wines like Zinfandels and blends can be chilled and makes them soothing to the palate especially with milder spicy foods as meat curries, fajitas and some chicken dishes. Also try sparkling wines and Champagnes: the bubbles are important, but Champagne also has high acidity and this is especially good for dishes that are aggressively spiced. Sangria is another great choice as it is fruity and low in alcohol; this is a good choice for all Asian and Mexican food.

With mild Indian curries try a fresh, fruity white such as a Sauvignon Blanc. With moderately hot Indian curries Merlot is a great choice. And Riesling is perfect with yogurt based hot, spicy curries. Rieslings are effective at soothing the spicy burn from very hot or spicy foods. Thai curries and stir fries are often aromatic with the inclusion of spices such as basil, cilantro, ginger, limes and lemongrass. For a memorable pairing serve a bottle of aromatic Rieslings wine with any fragrant Thai curry or stir fry.

Choose very cold, off dry, fruity or red or white sparkling wine with Japanese fare. Light merlot is good with Mexican, Indian and Tex-Mex. Roses are excellent with Vietnamese, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Thai and even barbeque dishes.

So when you are deciding what kind of wine you want to pair with spicy dishes, go for white wines with their fruity sweetness or fruity red wines that are low in tannin.

The last thing we want to happen to our meal is not for the spiciness to hide the taste of the wine nor do we want the taste of the wine to hide the taste of the spicy dish.

About the Author: Judy Patterson is a staff writer for SpicesInc.com and also heads up our merchandising efforts. She has more than 25 years of experience in sourcing out the some of the greatest and most innovative products across many various categories. When she isn’t busy writing articles or sourcing out new products for us she is tooling around town with her Black Standard Poodle Pepper. You can reach Judy at JudyPatterson@SpicesInc.com

Here are a couple of related articles on this: