Worthy Wines for Thai with Di

Worthy Wines for 'Thai With Di'
by Daniel E. Hoey

If you are fortunate enough to have a friend who enjoys cooking Thai food and, more importantly, who enjoys cooking it for you, you are blessed indeed. Such is the happy circumstance of my wife and me, whose beautiful and kind friend Diana (“Di”) spent the other day in our home preparing an Asian festival for our senses.

It was left to me to pair wines which would be worthy of the Thai feast we were to enjoy. I was exchanging e-mails with my dear friend Jackson Elliott, my fellow wine critic, and asked him for his thoughts.

His recommendation was that we try some Sauvignon Blanc, a dry Riesling (he mentioned Bonny Doon Pacific Rim Dry Riesling as “specifically created for that kind of food”), and perhaps a Pinot Noir. He specified that if the food was hot (adding the qualifier “gut-wrenchingly so”) that he’d consider serving an Australian Shiraz.

We tasted three wines with our meal: 2006 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, 2005 Bonny Doon Pacific Rim Dry Riesling, and 2004 Byron Central Coast Pinot Noir.

Our first course was a Coconut Ginger Soup, made with coconut milk, lime juice, cilantro and ginger. The Sauvignon Blanc was a perfect match – balanced well, and the citrus qualities of this New Zealand Sauvignon picked up the lime and cilantro in the soup nicely.

Next, Di offered a Chicken Larb Salad – lemongrass, kaffir leaves, lime juice – the Sauvignon Blanc also was a nice complement here. By this time, we had also opened the Bonny Doon. The primary reason for a Riesling pairing with Thai food is that the sweeter wine offsets the spice – so we decided to save the Bonny Doon to compare side by side with the Pinot Noir for our entrée.

Peanut Satay Sauce over Shrimp and Sticky Rice – we first tried the Riesling, and the consensus was that it stood up to the dish but there was no magic in the match. But then we opened the Byron Pinot Noir – and there was much rejoicing.

Learnings? The Dry Riesling works well with Thai food, but in our opinion was not ideal for a peanut-oriented dish – the clear winner here was the Pinot Noir. We tried some fresh spring rolls with a spicy chili pepper sauce and found the Riesling a much better fit there – the sugar balanced that kind of spice better than the spicy peanut sauce in our collective opinion.

Thai food is a great pleasure – Thai food lovingly prepared by someone, like Di, who really knows what they’re doing is a privilege – “Thai with Di” paired with “worthy wines” is sheer heaven. If you don’t have a friend like Di, make one – then pull out some worthy wines of your own and let us know what you’ve learned.