The Iron Chevsky Wine Blog

Earlier this year I was invited by the Millbrae Community TV to film an episode about pairing wine with Chinese food. The show aired in two parts during the Labor Day weekend on September 1 and 2, 2012. For the shoot, I had selected a sparkling Cremant de Bourgogne rosé (from Burgundy), a Gruner Veltliner (from Austria), a Cote du Rhone (from South of France), a Cru Beaujolais (France), and a German Riesling. Hope you enjoy this 10-min show.

This interview conducted by Millbrae Community TV with yours truly at the Millbrae Arts & Wine Festival aired live on September 3, 2011 on local Bay Area cable. The topic of conversation was "Pairing wine with Chinese cuisines".

How often do I and my wino friends drink Shiraz? Never! Chateauneuf-du-Pape? Maybe . Same grape - shiraz / syrah. Of course, Aussies had to change the name to Shiraz. Australian version doesn't taste anything like the South of France. Sweet, oaky, high-alcohol, new-world fruit bomb. Right? Is there any redeeming value to it? The craze of ten years ago when Shiraz was cool is gone. But I got a sample in the mail of the Wyndham Estate George Wyndham Founder's Reserve Shiraz Langhorne Creek 2007 (whew, that's a mouthful!), and what the heck - I tried it. And this one was actually quite good, at ~15/btl. Relatively cool tasting 14% alcohol, nice medium body, pleasant acidity, hints of chocolate and cherry, some mint and spice. My in-laws are staying over, and mom-in-law is cooking up a storm of Chinese food, so I try all kinds of non-connoisseur wines on them. We paired the Shiraz with a 5-spice fall-off-the-bone pork shoulder with gelatinous skin on. Nice! Finally a drinkabl...

For Chinese New Year, Rona and I headed to our favorite Sichuan restaurant in the South Bay - South Legend on the border of Milpitas and Fremont in an Asian shopping plaza (where else?!). The food is amazing, and very inexpensive. In fact, in this economy, they've actually been lowering their prices. As my gastronomic preferences have evolved over the years, I've oscillated between a few different types of Chinese cuisine. First, it was the americanized P.F. Chang and Asian-fusion style food. Don't like it anymore. Then I got into more authentic - first Shanghainese - with their delicious soup-filled dumplings, and otherwise heavier meat dishes with lots of brown sauce that pairs well with heavier new-world Pinot Noir and even Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Then I preferred Cantonese - with their dim-sum, fantastic seafood dishes and pan-fried noodles (amongst other things) that pair well with more elegant new and old world Pinots. Eventually, I graduated to Sichuan. There is just s...

Chinese rice wine, of which Shaoxing is the most famous variety, is in the top 10 most important ingredients in Chinese cooking, some claim it's second only to soy sauce. According to wikipedia , over 5 million Chinese live in the US and Canada. Yet there are not many places in North America, physical or online, where one can buy quality Shaoxing wine. Unless you live in a city with a large Chinatown or a Chinese supermarket like Ranch 99, you are out of luck. All the better for ChineseRiceWine.com , an Oregon-based online business that aims to popularize Shaoxing rice wine in the United States. Given my interest in the subject, the founder Scott Thurman , an American ex-Intel business development manager turned into Shaoxing rice wine guru, sent me a sample of his portfolio of three rice wines - a 5, 8, and 10 year aged, manufactured by Shaoxing Dayue Wine Co. Ltd of China. A hi-techy turned a wino is a kindred soul, so I promised Scott to put his babies through their paces and p...

This is part 3 of the Shaoxing rice wine series. Click here for Part 2. While the in-laws are staying with us, our neighbors Vicky and Wu-Chung invited us for lunch to their famous restaurant Ming's - one of the oldest in Palo Alto, named after a powerful 14-17th-century Chinese dynasty. Originally from Taiwan, which according to Vicky is a melting pot of a variety of Chinese and other Asian cuisines, she comprises her menu mainly of Cantonese recipes, but with creative touches that extend beyond, and with the modern sensibilities of organic and more health-oriented diet. With a few dishes from the menu and some "owner-only" specials, they graciously presented me with an opportunity to continue my Shaoxing wine research against a variety of flavors. I brought the 20-year aged wine by Kuaijishan company - the best one I was able to find in the Bay Area so far. It's been mellowing out open for a few days now, and we decided to serve it warm - the traditional way. Tast...

Did you know that Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi, the longest tenured Iron Chef in the history of the legendary Japanese television series Iron Chef , has a restaurant in Tokyo? Sure you did. Chinese food is popular in Tokyo - seemingly the only foreign cuisine more popular than that is McDonald's. (Ok, well, maybe I am exaggerating... but only slightly.) As the son of Chen Kenmin, regarded as the father of Szechwan cuisine in Japan, the 53 year old Tokyo-born Kenichi is often credited for exceeding the skills of the father, likely fueled by the international exposure he got from Iron Chef. Combining authentic Szechwan flair with Japanese aesthetics and attention to detail results in the most mouth-watering presentation one can imagine. Rona has been captivated by Chef Kenichi's star performances on Iron Chef so much so that she got his cooking book and started making his recipes at home. What husband would protest such good fortune? Not me. So naturally on our first stay in To...

One of my wine friends had suggested that Chateaneuf-du-Pape goes well with dim sum. Well, obviously that's a generalization because there are so many different dim sum dishes. Practically any small plate of Cantonese food is dim sum, just like tapa in Spanish. On Sunday, a group of Rona's Chinese friends joined us at Hong Kong Saigon Harbor Restaurant in Sunnyvale - where I was clearly the only Caucasian in the house - always a good sign! The restaurant is named after a seafood district in Hong Kong, called Saigon, and has no relation to the famous city in Vietnam. "Dim sum" means "drink tea" in Cantonese. However, this time - surprise, surprise! - I decided to drink wine. Two bottles - one white Chateauneuf-du-Pape, and one red, both full bodied, ripe, and fruity. Authentic Chinese restaurants (i.e. those full of native speakers) rarely see wine. Beer and tea are drinks of choice for the vast majority of guests. Which is goodness to me, since most of the t...

Seems unexpected: soy sauce in Pinot Noir? Standard red Burgundy descriptions of cherry and earth that are present in most red Burgundy tasting notes are nothing to write home about. What's always remarkable and inspiring to me are the out-of-place tastes I occasionally discern in wine, especially when it's paired with the right food. The secret to my pork ribs is gentle boiling with asian spices for 1-1.5 hours, and then quickly baking / broiling while applying several layers of the secret sauce, soy sauce being one major ingredient. The amazing thing is how well this 2005 Domaine Rene Lecrerc Gevrey Chambertin "Les Champeaux" Burgundy complemented the ribs, bringing out the darker "soy sauce meets cola" flavors of the wine. I had already observed that Pinot Noir and Gamay pair well with Cantonese food. Slowly a hypothesis crystallized - I started figuring out that it may be due to the common use of soy-sauce in Cantonese cooking. Last night was the second...

Gamay is typically not something you will find in my wine cellar. Nor are you likely to see me drinking a young Pinot Noir, as I prefer them older. However, lately my take on Pinot and Gamay (that is reminiscent of Pinot, but makes for a lighter and fruitier wine) has changed, after I started pairing them with Cantonese food. In this video, I pair the super interesting and intense Edmunds St. John's Gamay with General Tso's Chicken -- oooh yummeeee! Edmunds St. John "Bone-Jolly" Gamay Noir 2007 Eldorado County - $16. Home-made General Tso's Chicken - $5. Gamay + Cantonese food pairing - priceless!

Great values: Schloss Schonborn 2006 Rieslings from Nussbrunnen, Pfaffenberg, and Marcobrunn vineyards: Pairing with Asian food - in this case the spicy Sichuan: Available at Vineyard Gate for under $20 - incredible!

Those who read this blog know how much I enjoy the pairing of spicy Sichuan cuisine and Riesling. While some perhaps find it typical, and even boring(!!!) and take it for granted as they explore more adventurous combinations, last night once again reminded me of what deliciousness is all about - when you join authentic Asian cooking with a high-quality German Riesling. I am not a German nor a Chinese, yet every time I lean on those pair of friends, it feels like home. If anyone is still not doing this, DO they MUST! Wine: 2004 Dönnhoff Riesling Kabinett - Germany, Nahe. Cost: $20. Food: Mapo Tofu (silky tofu, ground pork, chili and bean sauce, scallions, fresh roasted sichuan peppercorns) and Spicy Tomato Fish (basa fish fillet, Chinese cooking wine, ginger, tomato, roasted chili peppers, sichuan peppercorns). Cost: $10. Pairing: Priceless. Though I had a number of Riesling disappointments in the recent past , this time the wine was excellent. At only 9% alcohol, the two of us fini...

Here is another shout-out to the perfect marriage of Riesling and Chinese food! Ever since my wife and I got introduced to the wine expert Alex Bernardo who runs the Vineyardgate wine shop in Millbrae with Yoda-like aura, our dining and drinking experiences have definitely kicked up another notch.  Not only does Alex carry a great selection of wine (particularly French) at great prices, but also he introduced us to his good friends and customers who share our passion for wine and food. Collectively, I call this bunch "the Alex Bernardo Wine Appreciation Society" ( ABWAS ) of which I am gladly a member. Right, guys? As is Andrew C., who was gracious enough to invite my wife and me to his town-home for a wine & dine experience I won't soon forget. Andrew and Alex Bernardo put on a bona fide Chinese seafood cooking show. But as in pretty much all ABWAS gatherings, food is just the means to drinking great wine . Thus, the whole affair had been fundamentally planned aro...

Last night I skipped Jon. Jos. Christoffel Erben Riesling Spatlese, 2005, in the line-up at Vin Vino Wine . Today, I took out a bottle of the 2004 Kabinett version of the same producer and the same vineyard to wash down some Chinese food my wife cooked up for dinner. She made basa fish fillet in spicy sour pickled cabbage soup, and sweet-and-sour lotus root. The food was amazing. The wine - NOT. Same impression as from the line-up last night -- thick apple wine cooler. A lot of apple juice and grape juice flavor, some minerality, almost no petrol / rubber tire (which perhaps would come with aging). The wine was fat, flabby and not refreshing, failing to extinguish the spice in the food. The moral of the story for me? Don't take your Riesling for granted -- so far it seems most of them do not deliver! The food was great though, especially the lotus root with tomato-ginger-garlic sauce! She is good.

Just wanted to once again point out how great German Rieslings are with Chinese food. My wife cooked a best-ever dan dan noodle for lunch, and gave me another excuse to pop a Riesling I had not tried before - Selbach-Oster Kabinett, 2005, from Zeltinger Sonnenuhr vineyard in Mosel. The noodle was amazing - mixed with home-made spicy chili oil, preserved mustard greens, fried ground pork, shredded cucumber (personal touch from my yard), and home-roasted and ground sichuan pepper, and half dozen salty, sour, savory sauces, including sesame oil.  The wine was a disappointment unfortunately.  Although it tasted like a typical Riesling, full of apple, peach, a little tangerine, minerality, rubber tire and petrol -- it was rather flat, and lacked the focus and brightness I tasted in other German Rieslings .  Still, it made an amazing complement to the spicy sichuan dish.  The sweetness calmed the heat, and the acidity (though somewhat lackluster in this particular wine) refreshed the palate....