Should wine be paired with food?

V Sanjay Kumar’s belief that good wine and food don’t go together was put to the test at a wine dinner where international wines were paired with Indian cuisine, course by course, by two experts in the field

I come from a school of thought that says, “If the wine is good, food can be a distraction. Do we really need to pair the two?”

Europe has the concept of table wine, usually from a hardy local grape that needs less tending. An example is the Dolcetto in Piedmont which produces a fruity no-fuss juice with good acidity and low tannins. This is served heartily with food, by the jug even. My question is this: Does fine wine need food pairing? The USA swears by the marriage between steak and Napa Cabernet and Lodi
Zinfandel, Tuscany in Italy has the Chianti Sangiovese, the bottle comes in a basket and it is paired with pasta and pizza. France has steely whites from Sauvignon Blanc that pair well with mussels. These are the traditional favourites.

Modern-day sommeliers have moved on just as cuisine has. For them, fine wine is now fair game. It is far more expensive and pairing it is part science and part art. They study acidity, tannin structure, fruit profile, and the primary and tertiary flavours of the wine and then marry these characteristics with detailed menu notes. Food paired with a tannic Barolo is very different from an earthy Bolgheri or tangy Brunello.

However, in India we have no history of wine pairing. We have no history of wine; period. It so happens that our cuisine is by nature a wine-pairing challenge. Indian cuisine is vast and varied with age-old ingredients and recipes that differ for each community. Common features are the use of a variety of sharp spices, the use of red and green chilli, fatty elements and souring mediums. The flavours are strong and the seasoning is complex. So how does one go about pairing Indian cuisine?

There are many ways to skin a cat, said somebody. No two butchers carve meat the same way, said someone else. And so it is with wine pairing. When it comes to pairing international wines with Indian cuisine there is certainly no safe way. Luckily for a few of us, we had two risk-takers helming an evening at Maya, the Indian restaurant at the Trident in Bandra Kurla, Mumbai.

Sanjay Menon of Sonarys, the wine industry impresario, has a long association with Kamal Malik, the first Master Sommelier from India. Malik passed the test in 2024, and was on a visit to Mumbai at the time of ProWine when the two of them decided to test their pairing skills at a wine pairing Face-off — MS vs SM.

Maya’s chefs have honed their skills in North Indian recipes and have learned to bring in new elements to surprise the most jaded of palates. The interiors of Maya are simple, almost staid, it is the service and the food that brought the evening to life. There were five courses on the menu and each had two wines to go with it chosen independently by Malik and Menon.

Sanjay Menon’s wine experience is one of the deepest and widest in India. His palate has seen numerous vintages of many wines and is hard to duplicate. Kamal Malik is just 42 years old but he has spent intense years in the hospitality industry planning wine lists and pouring wine in many hotels and resorts in India and abroad. The process of preparing for the Master Sommelier exam has taken his palate experience to a higher level. The two of them dug into the library of wines at Sonarys for the pairing.

As guests trickled in, they were served a glass of the Famille Hugel Alsace blend. This pleasant cool climate white was Malik’s introduction to the world of wine. With it came an inventive Dhokla mousse encased in a crisp corn cup. This raised our expectations; the first course tempered them somewhat. The fish on offer was batter fried and it had ajwain, also known as carom seed. Ajwain is a strong flavour, I for one would be lost trying to pair anything with it. What was paired was a Clarendelle Blanc, a Bordeaux blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle, 2022 and a Miraval Côtes des Provence Rosé 2023 from the Brad Pitt (ex- Jolie) estate. The Bordeaux white lacked the chops, it struggled, the rosé strove manfully and had its moments, but the ajwain refused to yield.

I had an opportunity to chat with Malik between courses. I was curious about his blind tasting test at the Master Sommelier exam. What were the wines that he had to taste? Six wines are served, he said, and you must get at least five right. Candidates are not told what the wines are even after the test, but he did get five right. The wines in his blind tasting were single varietals, three whites and three reds. Sparkling wines were not served. He had no problem recalling the six. They were:
Pinot Grigio from Alto Adige
Premiere Cru Chablis
Kamptal Gruner Veltliner
Gevrey Chambertin Village wine
Chianti Classico
Barossa Shiraz                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

How does one distinguish an Alto Adige Pinot Gris from any other terroir, I wondered? How does one differentiate a Premiere Cru Chablis from a Grand Cru? Can most of us declare a Gevrey Chambertin as a Village wine and a Chianti as a Classico? Does this expertise come from practice or is it a gift?

The second course arrived, a Gilafi Chicken Seekh, crunchy and flavourful, spiced mildly with truffle foam on the side. This was paired with F. X. Pichler Gruner Veltliner Smaragd M 2013 and a Bouchard 1er Cru Volnay 2014 Pinot Noir from Caillerets that was poured from 375ml bottles. The Gruner had added weight with age. It was intense with a sweet tone replacing the acidity and had a hint of petroleum à la Riesling. It matched the flavours of the dish in ways that were different from the Volnay. The Volnay had aged beautifully and the tannins had integrated. There was bright red fruit and some tobacco notes that were in sync with the smoky kebab and the truffle. I thought the pairing was a hit with both wines.

Malik made two interesting observations. Wines in smaller format bottles age faster. So buy magnums only if you can wait longer. And pairing for him is often based on the heft of the wine, the felt density and flavour weight. So, a light red wine and heavy white could be alternatives for the same dish. When I complained about the entry-level Dr Loosen Riesling available in India that tasted like sugar water, Malik asked me to buy another bottle and age it for 10 years. It will be a different wine, he said, and mentioned a very old Gruner that he tasted that had turned brown in appearance and leaned towards a Sauterne in experience.

The red and white theme continued with the next course of Makhmali Paneer. Kumeu River Rays Road Chardonnay 2020 from New Zealand competed with Chapel Julienas Vayolette 2021 from Beaujolais. The Kumeu vineyards produce Burgundian whites and their single vineyard expressions are stellar. The Rays Road is a new acquisition for Kumeu, it was good and it had the creamy balance that suited the paneer dish but for me, the Julienas Cru was an inspired choice. I quite like the gamey rustic, unfined nature of Cru Gamay. The Vayolette was fresh and unoaked, the red fruit had a tingle and some bite. Here, the food highlighted the wine’s qualities rather than the other way around.

Malik is not a fan of carbonic maceration, a personal choice. The process releases certain flavours that are polarising. He also prefers Chardonnays from New Zealand to their more famous Sauvignon Blancs. This was my experience as well with the wines of large brands like Cloudy Bay and Dog Point.

It was now blockbuster time. The first main was a rich creamy Nalli Nihari, the mutton melted off the bone, and the brown gravy had interesting spices. The two chosen wines were reds, the first a Mai Dire Mai Valpolicella Superiore 2013 was a humdinger blend of Veneto grapes like Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, and Oseleta. A complex layered wine, some would call it a meal by itself. The second red was a Langhorne Creek Shiraz from Metala. It was a tad sweet and while liquorice and oak and mocha notes swirled in the glass the residual sugar was a distraction. This was a case of powerful full-bodied reds standing up to an intense Indian preparation. A match made in Heaven.

All through the evening Menon had anecdotes about the wines. Speaking about Valpolicella Superiore, he said the grapes came from a vineyard that used to supply grapes to the legendary Amarone producer, Dal Forno. When the vineyard came up for sale a small family called Pasqua wished to acquire it, which they did against all odds. The owner kept faith saying, ‘Never say never.’
In Italian that means Mai Dire Mai. The grape pedigree showed up in the wine. The Valpolicella Superiore was more powerful than many Amarones I have had.

The second main was a jackfruit biryani, often referred to as the vegetarian answer to mutton biryani. It was paired with two reds. Château Musar 2012 and LZ Rioja 2019 from Telmo Rodriguez. Musar is a vintage-by-vintage experience. It is an interesting Cabernet Sauvigon blend that has Carignan and Cinsault in it and tastes often of stewed fruit and liquorice. This vintage shone with herbal notes riding on an earthy frame. There was no volatile acidity, and the wine unlike some Musars, behaved. The Rioja was a distant second in this faceoff, it lacked charisma and uniqueness. It was an unoaked Rioja, raised in concrete, where the fruit is meant to shine. It could be that the 2019 wasn’t ready to display its wares. On this occasion, it was a spectator more than a
participant.

There were desserts but no dessert wine. By this time the warm glow of good wine and food had taken hold. The anecdotes, observations, random suggestions, and thoughtful asides from the two maestros were still ringing in my ears as I stepped out into Mumbai’s warm November embrace. My ride back to my hotel was thoughtful. Would I still have a good wine by itself? Perhaps. Did I still believe that pairing does not make a difference to a wine experience? Perhaps not.