Discuss Bourgueil and Thai food...

[lsanderson]

"Thai food is generally ceded to the beer camp. It's hard to beat a great pilsner with a spicy Thai curry, but you know what? A good Bourgueil comes awfully close. Bourgueil, a village in Touraine on the Loire, produces reds from the cabernet franc grape that can be raspy with acidity, but when the acidity is balanced by sufficient fruit you have a delicious wine. Are Bourgueils, along with similar wines from the neighboring villages of Chinon and Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, great wines? No, but they are great food wines.

"If you don't believe me, have a meal at Holy Basil, a Thai restaurant in the East Village. Pimnapa Suntatkolkarn, the chef and an owner, has constructed a wine list that I wish could be a model for every moderately priced restaurant, and she always offers a good Loire red. At a meal there I tried a 2002 Bourgueil "Les Galichets" from Catherine and Pierre Breton, as well as a 1995 Rioja Reserva from López de Heredia. The Rioja is wonderful, and about twice the price of the Bourgueil, but with a pungent, tart yet balanced dish like crisp duck with panang curry and kaffir lime? The Rioja had no business on the table. The Bourgueil, though, was perfect - refreshing and stimulating. The Rioja no doubt would receive a higher score in a blind tasting, but at a Thai dinner, the Bourgueil blew it away." by Eric Asimov in today's NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/dining/17pour.html?8hpib=&pagewanted=print.

Comments

[von-krag.livejournal.com]

Many of the wines I've had in tastings are made to match the relatively spice-less Euro cooking styles. Asian foods and mixing of wine is in it's early days, less than 50 years working on them in combination. Whereas wine and food in Europe 3000 plus year history. Eric is right tho it's fun to try new combos out.