Food and Drink ...

There is little history of drinking alcohol with food in modern-day China. Tea has been the traditional choice of drink, although at banquets and when entertaining important guests, spirits have been used. Even though China is now one of the world’s largest consumers of beer, and has started producing wine on a commercial scale, most Chinese still do not drink alcohol with their meal. Having said this, there are suitable wines which go well with Chinese food. The most often recommended is a gewürztraminer. This is a spicy, aromatic white grape variety which has a bouquet reminiscent of lychees, which can go well with light, delicately spiced Chinese food. From the old world good gewürztraminers are produced in the Alsace region of France, but are also produced in Germany and Austria. Good new world producers are found in Australia, New Zealand and the USA.However, the possibility of other partnerings should not be overlooked. White wine tends to go better with Chinese food, but it needs to be robust and full flavoured to cope with the food, and often a little acidity and residual sweetness help. Good quality German rieslings can be a good choice, but might be a little too sweet for some English tastes. Other possibilities are gruner veltliner, only produced in Austria, and a sauvignon blanc, widely available from the New World, but don’t forget it is also the main variety in white Bordeaux. The ever-popular chardonnay is not a particularly good choice. Red wines are similarly not usually good pairings, but a new world pinot noir, for example from New Zealand, is a possibility.