GONG XI FA CAI! CNY WINE TIPS

Chinese New Year is coming and not a moment too soon. There’s always a festive mood in the air when you’re pushing and shoving with the crowd trying to buy the New year sweets and goodies from the hordes of vendors and hawkers between the tiny streets of Chinatown. A sweaty annual affair but fun nonetheless!
With many occasions to invite friends & family for house visits, many have asked me about what sort of fashionable wines would be the best choice for entertainment this year, and what sort of food should they serve to pair with the wines.

I think I’ll touch on a much simpler but very useful wine-food pairing for this Chinese New Year Season. How about :

”How to pair Chinese New Year Delicacies & tidbits with wine”
Some of you might be wondering, “Why on earth do I want to pair my good bottle of wine with Chinese New Year tidbits?” Well, one reason is simply that it’s a lovely combination to do so! Of course a more practical reason is that you can impress your guest with the subtle touches of entertainment, and thus ensuring that your family and you do not have to spend the next 3 months finishing up the remainder of those goodies.

Red dates or hong zao means "prosperity comes early" - Sweet and Fleshy, this is definitely a challenge to pair with wines as the date’s sweetness would tend to overwhelm a wine’s fruit characters, making it seem sharper and bland.
I recommend that you should pair this with a wine that is comparable with the date’s sweetness and texture such as a dessert wine, or you can go for the opposite and open a nice bottle of dry sparkling wine to ease the sweetness into your mouth.
YES : Dessert wines or dry sparkling wines
ADVENTUROUS : Greek Retsina wines or a White Port might be interesting to try, but perhaps only with more adventurous wine drinkers!

Tray of LuckThe "octagonal tray", or the pa kuo ho, is the traditional eight-sided container used for a variety of sweetmeats, cakes and seeds served to visitors. Each tidbit has a symbolic meaning ; the sweetmeats are a symbol of the sweetness of life while "cakes" or gao suggest a higher level of lifestyle. With the different types of makan makan around, its better to have a more generic wine so that it won’t clash too much with the different characters. I recommend the all time famous GSM Blends of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre/Mataro. This blend of 3 grapes gives the wine a more balanced nature and definitely very pleasing to drink for all.
YES : Rhone Valley & Australian GSMs
ADVENTUROUS : Chateauneuf du Pape is the oldest GSM region and their wines would be an amazing experience to all, but might be an overkill for CNY tidbits.

Chinese oranges, or tangerines, symbolise gold, which is why they are the most popular gift and most over-stocked in all Chinese homes during this period. I would definitely have a glass of dry qewuztraminer or a new world chardonnay with fresh oranges, a wine from a warmer climate and showing off its signature fruit characters.
YES : fruity new world white wines like gewuztraminer, chardonnay or Semillon
ADVENTUROUS : A nice bottle of Italian Gavi or an Argentinean Torrentes would bring out the sweetness of the orange, but could taste overwhelmingly dry.