
Food Pairing

Thai/Indian Curry Buffet
- Mushroom Mussaman Curry - yukon gold potatoes, peanuts, coconut milk, lemongrass, star anise, cinammon. Mussaman is said to be the Thai translation of "Muslim." This curry has dried spices not normally used in Thai cuisine, since most Thai curries are driven by fresh root vegetables rather than dried spices.
- Tomato Egg Curry - hardboiled eggs, ginger, garlic, garam masala
- Lentil Dahl - curry powder, black eyed peas, kidney beans, onion
- Cauliflower "Rice" - olive oil, fresh english peas
- Fresh Baked Naan
Mudgee Red Wines
With more than 30 mostly family run wineries, the Mudgee region in Australia features modern tasting rooms along with some of the oldest and highest elevation terroir in the country. Although it has the coldest winters of any growing region in the country, it is still considered a warm climate based on temperatures in January.
The draw of Mudgee is tourism and many of the tasting rooms feature beautiful on site restaurants to entice patrons to their doorstep.
In case you get to visit, there are no traffic lights in town, just roundabouts and kangaroos!
Lowe Family Wine Company - Mudgee, Australia
David Lowe of Lowe Wines has been making wine since 1978. He got his start in the industry working at the famed Ridge Winery in Sonoma County, which developed his love of zinfandels.
In 1993 he started with biodynamic wines because he tasted them from Europe and his winery is certified organic. In his words, organic tells you what you can't do, while biodynamic tells you what you must do for biodiversity.
The winery is a family business with his wife as the chef of the on site restaurant, Zin House, and his son as the sommelier.
2016 Lowe Zinfandel - Organic
Visual: Bloody red, maroon, touch of motor oil, light bodied
Aroma: bramble, olive tapenade, prune, eucalyptus
Taste: tingly, juicy blackberries, bright acidity, cocoa, sweet tarts
Robert Stein Winery
Jacob Stein or Robert Stein Winery is a third generation winemaker and featured as an Australian winemaker of the year.
His family came to country in 1838 as vine dressers from Germany and supervised the planting of vineyards in Sydney.
His grandfather decided on Mudgee and started with 25 acres as a hobby farm. In the 1970s, there was a big resurgence in winemaking, and the farm grew into a full fledged winery.
As a third generation winemaker, was he forced into the industry? As he explains it, he did have a choice. He wanted to be a veterinarian and winemaking was his second choice. However, his grades weren't high enough, so a winemaker he became!
2019 Robert Stein Preservative Free Shiraz
Visual: Inky, dark magenta, brooding, Spectre mysterious
Aroma: Greenhouse, damp cloths, bbq smoke, a rose garden that has yet to bloom
Taste: black tartarian cherries, loamy, velvety texture, black plums
Curry and Red Wine Pairing Takeaways
While these Mudgee red wines are unavailable for purchase in the US, there are many comparable red wines that could pair with curry just as well.
- For curry spice and red wine to make love not war, look for ones with very low tannin and light oak.
- The texture of hard boiled eggs calls for a sparkling red wine, perhaps a dark red lambrusco.
- The unexpected winner of the night = lentils! They were really beautiful with both red wines, coaxing out the sweet fruity note.
More Hard to Pair Food and Wine Pairings
Read about more adventures in difficult food and wine pairings from the Wine Pairing Weekend writers:
- Wendy at A day in the Life on the Farm asks “Difficult? Yes….Impossible? No”
- Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla goes for “Over the Top Taco Night: Pork Carnitas + 2012 Sokol Blosser Big Tree Block Pinot Noir”
- Andrea at The Quirky Cork is “Pairing Wine and Chocolate, Challenge Accepted!”
- Terri at Our Good Life has “Wines to Drink with Ramen”
- Deanna at Asian Test Kitchen advises “Keep Calm and Curry On with Mudgee Red Wines”
- Gwendolyn at Wine Predator gives us “A+ Pairings for Asparagus, Arugula, and Artichokes with organic wines from Alsace, Australia, Austria, and Argentina”
- Linda, your host, at My Full Wine Glass offers “Three wines for three ‘difficult’ foods”
Wendy Klik says
Great article and I'm so glad that you followed the winemakers advice about the pairing. Slammin' is very high praise indeed.
Linda Whipple, CSW says
A journey full of surprises - how wonderful! Great, well-written and memorable advice from someone who's tried it herself. Let's hear it for (certain) reds and curries!
Camilla Mann says
Thanks for this post, Deanna. I don't usually pair curry with reds. I will give it a shot soon!
Andrea says
I love this! I've a friend who treats us to curries all the time and usually I bring a white (and often an off-dry one) but I'm excited now to try a red again. And I love your descriptions, you have such great language.