Salmon is one of the most wine-friendly foods I know. Its relatively neutral flavour will pair happily with most whites, many rosés and, depending on how it’s cooked, even with some lighter-bodied reds. But a recipe that we tried recently changed all that. We coated our salmon steaks in a Thai-influenced marinade of lime juice, Thai fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar, chilli, fresh coriander leaves, ginger and garlic. With this daunting contrast of salty, sweet, sour and spicy flavours penetrating into the fish, I had to match the wine to the marinade, not the salmon. Quite a challenge as the wine had to have its own character if it was not to be overwhelmed. Tasting the marinade on its own didn’t help although 2 elements of it stood out: the lime juice and the sugar. So, I was looking for a wine with good acidity to balance the one and a hint of residual sugar to take care of the other. And definitely white; I couldn’t see a red or rosé working at all. A Vouvray Demi-Sec? A Riesling Kabinett from Germany? Both possibilities but, as luck would have it, we had neither on our wine rack – my responsibility, mea culpa!
But we did have Paul Cluver’s Riesling from Elgin in South Africa (Wine Society, £13.50) and I opened that. Described as ‘dry’ but, according to the producer’s website, with 12 grams per litre of residual sugar so, technically ‘off-dry’.
It made a delicious aperitif with its vibrant aromas and flavours of lime, green apple and floral hints. A classy wine with real intensity and length and tasting properly dry despite the residual sugar. But then we tried it with the food. The marinade had flavoured the salmon beautifully but it had become much more restrained and subtle with cooking and, really, a fuller-bodied wine would have worked better with the dish – something from southern Burgundy, perhaps.
Proof, once again, that food and wine matching isn’t an exact science, more an art. But we enjoyed the food and left the rest of the wine for a little later in the evening.
Wine talks and tastings 