Party like it’s 4706: Wines for the Chinese New Year

Published 2:14 pm Friday, January 25, 2008

The Chinese New Year (Lunar Year 4706) begins Feb. 7, ringing in the Year of the Rat. This most important of Chinese holidays, celebrated by one-quarter of the world’s population, merits an extended 15-day celebration, and its time-honored food traditions are beautifully enhanced by the right wine.

Chinese banquets are known for offering a range of dishes that represent an array of flavors and cooking techniques, not to mention figurative associations. At New Year celebrations, crescent-shaped dumplings, whole fish and turnip cakes are ubiquitous, respectively symbolizing wealth, abundance and rising fortunes.

On their own, such simple dishes can be as two-dimensional as a slab of red meat. But just as we’ve tasted how a great steak is elevated by a great tannic cabernet, so we developed a new appreciation for this cuisine once we experienced how Chinese dishes can be elevated by fruitier wines.

During this week’s tastings, the single food-friendliest white wine proved to be the N.V. Sokol Blosser Winery’s 11th Edition Evolution ($20), a blend of nine grapes creating an off-dry, fruity wine with a clean, crisp finish that managed to hit every note at our table: cutting through richness, enlivening blandness and cooling spiciness.

Almost as versatile was the beautifully balanced, crisp, fruity and minerally 2007 Rudolf Muller Riesling Kabinett ($11), one of the best we’ve tasted at this price point. Riesling is Germany’s most prized wine, and its most prized wine region is arguably the Mosel, from which this one hails, where the slate-based soil contributes rich, focused and minerally flavors to its wines. Attention, lovers of spicy foods, whether Hunan or Sichuan, Indian or Thai: This is one to buy by the case.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with other fruity whites. Our favorite match with a mild dish of chicken and pine nuts rolled in single leaves of lettuce (also popular this time of year, because the term for lettuce, sang choy, sounds like the term for “rising fortune” in Cantonese) was the delightful 2006 Kunde Estate Viognier ($23), with its white-pepper nose and ripe, juicy peach flavors. One of our most pleasant surprises was the 2006 Pertinace Roero Arneis ($16), a fruity Italian white with a refreshing leanness that was crisp enough to refresh our palates after fried spring rolls and other Chinese appetizers.

Peking duck is China’s most celebrated duck dish; it represents fidelity. Served with thin, crepelike pancakes, this specialty is as much about enjoying the bird’s crisp skin as savoring its rich, dark roasted meat. But driving the wine pairing is its accompanying hoisin sauce, a sweetened and fermented soybean paste flavored with garlic, chili peppers, vinegar and spices.

Although drier and even tannic reds such as cabernet sau­vignon can work with duck by itself, the presence of hoisin sauce demands a fruity wine. Fruitier reds, such as merlot, syrah and zinfandel, and even fruitier whites, such as gewurztraminer and riesling, also complement Peking duck, but we find ourselves reaching most often for pinot noir.

During our Peking duck tasting, Andrew found his pick of the week in the 2004 and 2005 MacRostie Carneros Pinot Noir ($30). Each sip-and-bite provided different experiences. When bites of pancake-wrapped duck were heavy on the hoisin sauce, they brought out the earthier, Old World aspects of the wine, with its notes of dried herbs and spices including black pepper, oregano and sage. Those lighter on the hoisin allowed the pinot noir to serve as a fruity New World accompaniment, with the lush flavors of black cherries contrasting with the slightly gamy duck.

Other pinot noirs to watch for are two fruity delights from the central coast of California: the 2005 TAZ Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir ($25), and the even more complex (aided by 12 months’ aging in French oak barrels), black cherry-dominant 2005 TAZ Fiddlestix Vineyard Pinot Noir ($35).

We’ll hasten to add that the West’s traditional beverage choice for ringing in the new year works equally well, if not better, with these foods of the East. Sparkling wine is always a good bet with a Chinese New Year feast. The 100 percent pinot noir-based NV Gruet Methode Champenoise Rose Brut ($16) from New Mexico, with strawberry notes and a hint of vanilla on the finish, was terrific with our Peking duck: rich enough to stand up to the bird and fruity enough to work with the hoisin. The 2003 Taittinger Domaine Carneros Brut ($25), a delicious pinot noir-dominant blend with a notably creamy finish, recently stunned a tableful of Sichuan-food enthusiasts (including us) with its ability to tame the flames of our spicy razor clams and crispy lamb studded with hot peppers.

Whether you choose to celebrate with a fruity white, red or sparkler, we wish you gung hay fat choy.

Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page are award-winning authors of “What to Drink With What You Eat.”