Curry and heavy spice, flavouring profile

Curry and heavy spice, flavouring profile

With curry the heat and the meat both steer the wine, so a prawn curry and a lamb curry want different bottles, and the hotter the dish, the lower the alcohol should be.

The compounds that matter. Capsaicin, the heat in chilli, is made fiercer by alcohol, calmed by a little sweetness and scattered by bubbles, so it sets the first limit on any wine. The warm spices such as cumin, coriander seed and cardamom carry aromatic oils that a scented white or a spicy red can echo.

What it demands of a wine. Moderate or low alcohol, fruit that stays ripe under the spice, and little or no tannin, because heat and spice make tannin taste bitter and hot. A touch of sweetness helps as the heat climbs. Oak adds bitterness and should be light or absent.

Seek

With fish, prawns and vegetables, a light white with bright acid and a little sweetness works best, such as a Mosel Riesling Kabinett, which is off dry. For a bone dry glass, a dry Grüner Veltliner from the Weinviertel brings white pepper to meet the spice, with alcohol modest enough to keep the heat in check. For milder, creamy or coconut curries, an Alsace Gewürztraminer in its drier style echoes the ginger and warm spice. For dals and vegetable curries with layered spice, a skin contact Rkatsiteli in the orange wine style from Kakheti, Georgia, gives grip without red wine tannin. With chicken, a darker rosé such as Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo has the body for tandoori and tikka and the fresh fruit to stay bright. With lamb and beef, the red should be juicy, fresh and soft in tannin, such as Lambrusco Secco from Emilia-Romagna, Italy, from a serious producer, ideally a Grasparossa di Castelvetro or a Sorbara, whose bubbles and acid cut fat and spice. The Lambrusco category is unreliable enough that the producer matters: most of what reaches export shelves is sweet mass market stuff, so seek a serious dry secco bottling.

Avoid

High alcohol reds such as Amarone, Barossa Shiraz or Zinfandel with a hot curry, since alcohol turns up the burn. Firm tannin, as in Cabernet Sauvignon or Nebbiolo, which turns bitter and hard against spice. Heavily oaked whites, where oak and chilli together taste bitter. Very delicate, neutral whites with rich lamb or beef curries, which the spice erases.

Three to reach for. For fish, prawns and vegetables, Riesling Kabinett, off dry, Mosel, Germany. For chicken, Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo, a darker rosé, Italy. For lamb and beef, Lambrusco Secco, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.