Last night, HB, her bf and I went to Union Square Wines for a wine tasting event: USQ Presents Great Juice and Gui Zhou: Exploring the Compatibility of Riesling and Chinese Cuisine. I was intrigued by its description of pairing Chinese foods with wine; as I’m sure I’ve mentioned countless times on this blog, I have not yet mastered the art of pairing food with wine very well. I like wine; that’s a step up from years ago, when wine just tasted acrid on my tongue. I like food; well, duh. But putting the two together is a skill that has eluded me. I drink, I eat, I drink again, and the entire taste of the wine has changed, and usually for the worse.
I’ve even gone to restaurants that boast a compatible wine tasting menu with their tasting menu; still, nothing. One of those wines echoed back flavors of rosemary, which was found in the dish as well, but that woodsy aroma turned me off and wasn’t quite a smooth complement.
This event was especially intriguing for its subject matter- to pair wine with Chinese food- really fascinated me. Chinese food? Wine? Most Chinese restaurants don’t even serve wine (maybe a random pinot grigio, or plum wine, but generally, wine lists of any depth are not to be found).
I was especially excited by the price: $40 got you into the event, with 8 wines to taste, 6 dishes to go with them, and a $25 voucher towards a purchase at the store that night. Basically, $15 to drink and eat well, plus a bottle or two of wine. Hello? I’m sold.
the cucumbers dressed in scallion oil on every table to “reset” our palates
Very refreshing.
When I’ve been posting about these events, I’ve mostly focused on the event, how well-run it was, and whether or not it’s worth it. This is because honestly, when you come here to read about an event like this, do you really want to know that I liked #5 the best? Your tongue is different from mine, right? (Which I guess negates the point of me telling you if I liked food during my normal reviews, too, huh?) I mostly talk about these events to tell you a bit about the place, how they ran the event, and whether I’d recommend the place again. But this time, I’ll talk a little bit about it, if only because I was surprised by some of the wines and their pairings.
***Please note, the food was catered by Grand Sichuan International.
Our first dish, asparagus dressed with scallion oil, was served with Hiedler 2007 Gruner Veltliner Loss (Kamptal, Austria). HB (who has admitted to the same issue with pairing food and wine together) and I both remarked that while the taste of the Veltliner didn’t change much with the dish, neither was it elevated to new heights, something I was hoping to experience. Tasty, but nothing extraordinary.
Second was Prieler 2006 Pinot Blanc Seeberg (Burgenland, Austria) with sauteed spicy Chinese broccoli. I didn’t find this dish spicy at all, and again, the wine didn’t change much – which is better than my attempts at food/wine pairings – but neither did it become something better.
Our third dish had two wines to go with it – Jamek 2006 Jochinger Berg Riesling (Wachau, Austria) and Hirsch 2006 Riesling Gaisberg (Zobing/Kamptal, Austria) both to go with the prawn with citrus sauce. This was an interesting pairing. First, I tried the snow pea, and a bit of each wine, and jotted down for the former wine: “echoes citrus back nicely and complements flavors” and for the latter wine: “not so much”. HB said she didn’t like the Jochinger that much, which surprised me, but then she told me to try it with the prawn. After I did that, the taste makeup changed drastically and the Gaisberg became much better. Still, nothing overwhelmingly yummy had popped up or been formed from these pairings.
The Reuscher-Haart 2007 Piesporter Treppchen Riesling (Mosel, Germany) paired with the sliced pork belly and garlic sauce. This was the first dish of the night that was actually spicy, though not too much for me to handle. Just a slight tingle on your tongue to let you know that there was a heat to follow, which I found appealing. But. This pairing. THIS was what I’d been looking for. On its own, the wine was tasty enough, probably something I’d drink happily and watch a movie or snack on something salty. But once my mouth was sufficiently coated with some of the spicy oil from the pork belly, I took a sip, and was blown away to discover that the flavor of the wine had suddenly become sweeter. More pronounced and much like pears. This was … amazing. My mind (now blunted by 4 glasses of wine) struggled to comprehend this. This was AWESOME. The more spicy food you eat, the sweeter it was.
Another dish with two wine pairings: tea smoked duck to go with our Muller-Catoir 2004 Scheurebe Spatlese (Pfalz, Germany) and Donnhoff 2006 Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Spatlese (Nahe, Germany). Though this was just last night, I can’t actually recall my feelings in the moment, so I’ll quote from my notes: Muller-Catoir: changes w/food but sweetens. great w/duck. and Donnhoff: bland – sweet but no depth. I know HB didn’t agree with me, but at this point, I was fairly buzzed. I do recall really liking the duck on its own as well, very yummy.
Our final dish, spicy mild chicken gui zhou (that’s what it says…) was paired with A.J. Adam 2005 Hofberg Riesling Auslese (Mosel-Saar-Ruwer). The most amusing part of my notes is that first it says “too spicy!!!” – with three exclamation points and a double underline. Then next to it, in definite caps-print, “OK.” with the period at the end. So what happened was I ate a piece and thought it was super spicy. I cried about it being too spicy, then got up to use the restroom, and when I came back, I took another bite and found it wasn’t that spicy at all. I’m still not sure why this happened, but there you have it. The wine was alright with the dish, but it wasn’t another wonderful revelation like the Reuscher-Haart had been.
Now, back to the event. I love the idea of a sit down event like this; it ensures everyone gets to try everything, and no one is fighting anyone else for scraps of food or dregs of wine. However, the space was a teeny bit cramped – oversold, perhaps? or maybe they should expand the wine class area 😉 heh. The people running the class were very knowledgeable on the wines, but we didn’t have anyone to explain the food portion (a few times, the wine guy would try to explain something about the food, but would give up and say “I don’t really know, actually” which was a bit of a disconnect with how knowledgeable and passionate he was about the wines; also “gui zhou” – I speculated that in Mandarin, this might mean “expensive alcohol” but we don’t really know, and no one was available to explain this).
The most interesting thing I learned that night right off the bat, without having tasted any of the wines, was that a high alcohol content will spread spiciness and not do anything to douse the flames of spice. This explained why we stuck with low alcohol content wines.
I have to say, I loved the concept, and it was mostly well executed. The wine voucher we received for $25 off a purchase that night? All three of ours were used – I bought two bottles of the Reuscher-Haart at $13.59 a piece, which made my total $2 and change. HB and her bf purchased a few bottles of wine that I didn’t catch the names of (I was having trouble seeing at this point). Well worth the $40 entrance fee: 8 wines to taste, 6 dishes to eat, and 2 bottles of wine? Totally great value.
Yvo says: The passion and dedication to their wines was evident in the way the instructors spoke. I already patronize this store to purchase wine for various occasions, but I would also definitely return if they do a similar sit down wine and food pairing event like this one. I’m still learning, right? And the value in an event such as this can’t be denied. Education, wine, good food, and good value all in one: that’s awesome.
highly recommended
USQ Wines
140 Fourth Avenue at 13th Street
New York, NY
(212) 675-8100
Swan says
Gui Zhou is an area by Sichuan and Hunan. They could have easily served Hunan cuisine as well but Sichuan cuisine is more distinctive due to the spiciness.
Yvo says
Ahhh thanks Swan! HB’s BF said that it would make more sense for Gui Zhou to be the region since “Great Juice and Expensive Alcohol” doesn’t make sense, so “zhou” obviously meant province, but he didn’t know what to say when I said “Where’s Gui province though?” You’re so smart 🙂