Food festivals prove wine pairs well with Asian food

There has been an upswing of food-and-wine festivals throughout the state. Last month’s Hawaii Food & Wine Festival, for instance, organized by local superstar chefs Roy Yamaguchi and Alan Wong, brought to Honolulu top chefs from around the world. An amazing number of them featured contemporary Asian food; this is a good reminder that wine can be very much a part of your Asian meal.

A dish featured at the "Hawaii in a Bowl" luncheon Sept. 7 was a pho creation by chef Charles Phan of the Slanted Door in San Francisco. The 2010 Domaine Fontsainte Corbieres Gris de Gris (about $20), a light, fresh, ethereal southern French rosé (as opposed to common, heavily fruit-driven pinks), was the paired wine. It worked amazingly well with Phan’s version of the classic Vietnamese soup.

Consider this style of wine the next time you go out for pho.

Two other chefs featured contemporary spins on Asian-influenced food: Sheraton Waikiki’s Colin Hazama delivered Firecracker Bigeye Ahi and Kampachi Poke, while Hiroyuki "Iron Chef" Sakai served up Abalone with Kishimen Noodles. In both cases the dry, light, crisp and refreshing CF Muller Thurgau "Eurasia" (about $20) fit the bill.

Another budget-friendly option is the Oroya (sushi wine), which is produced from three indigenous Spanish-grown grape varieties. It’s crafted by Japan’s Yoko Sato specifically for contemporary Asian foods. At about $12 a bottle, it provides excellent value.

The festival also drew top wine experts, including Fritz and Agnes Hasselbach from Gunderloch winery in Germany. Fritz skillfully crafts an interesting portfolio of estate-grown ries­lings, ranging from dry to dessert in style, which capitalize on the uplifting mineral buoyancy created from red-slate soil vineyards. His wines therefore pair with a remarkable spectrum of food profiles.

At one dinner the Hasselbachs paired their 2004 Gunderloch Riesling Kabinett "Niersteiner Pettenthal" with Australian chef Tetsuya Wakuda’s Grilled Big Island Farmed Black Cod with Soy Caramel.

As foodies well know, black cod is a rich fish, and Wakuda’s soy caramel is salty-sweet. It made sense that a slightly sweet 8-year-old riesling, tempered by age and riveting in its minerality, would hold its own alongside the dish.

The pairing illustrates that assertive Asian foods do well with medium-dry to slightly sweet German rieslings. A sip of this style of wine acts like a cold pineapple, countering the salty-spicy components in the dish as well as cooling and soothing the palate.

I suggest taking a well-chilled bottle to your next food outing, especially a Chinese, Korean or Thai meal, and experience the hows and whys firsthand.

The Hasselbachs also grow and craft the CF Riesling Medium Dry "Euro-Asian." At about $13 a bottle, how can you go wrong?

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Chuck Furuya is a master sommelier and a partner in the DK Restaurants chain.