Last night for dinner I made roasted butternut squash and sticky chicken thighs with a white miso, brown sugar, black vinegar and sesame oil sauce.
The wine we chose to accompany the dish was Peter Hahn’s Vouvray 2016 which has around 25g of residual sugar. Yes, we wondered if it would be too sweet for the dish but NO, it was perfect. The flavours and components in the dish being mirrored by the flavours and components in the wine. A wonderful match.
When choosing a wine think about the main components of the dish. In this case the dominant flavours were the salty miso paste, the sweet brown sugar (2 tablespoons) and the black vinegar.
There’s an instant harmony between sweet and salt. Sometimes opposites are very attractive together and then of course, the sweetness from the brown sugar was matched by the sweetness in the wine. And the vinegar was matched by the lively acidity that the wine has keeping it fresh and alive.
These days we’re using ingredients from all over the world and often there is a sweet sour combination. Think about choosing a wine with a little sweetness for the best food and wine pairing.
I’m obviously biased towards Vouvray living in one of the Vouvray villages but I could have reached for a Pinot Gris or Riesling with a little residual too.
