THAI DISH #1: Gruner vs Riesling and Pad Thai
THE FOOD: Carry out Pad Thai from a local restaurant.
THE WINES: Camins 2 Dreams Gruner Veltliner, Spear Vineyards, Sta. Rita Hills, 2022; Chateau Ste Michelle Riesling, Columbia Valley, 2021
THE MATCH: Side by side, we’ll try a dry, citrusy, herbaceous Gruner Veltliner and a medium-dry floral Riesling with Thai cuisine’s most famous dish.
Food: Pad Thai is a fried rice noodle dish with egg, bean sprouts, dried shrimp and/or fried tofu, glazed with fish sauce, tamarind, vinegar, and sugar, and garnished with chopped peanut. There is typically not very much chile heat. It is a popular street food in Thailand and on the menu of every Thai restaurant worldwide. Pad Thai can be made with up to thirty ingredients, can be made vegetarian or vegan, and even cooked to custom order at street carts. If you haven’t tried it and don’t live near a Thai restaurant, larger or specialty groceries often sell the noodles and a pre-made sauce or a kit to make it.
Wine: The Camins 2 Dreams Gruner Veltliner has light citrus in the nose, a round palate with a suggestion of peppercorn, and grassy notes on the finish. The Chateau Ste Michelle Columbia Valley Riesling traces lychee and jasmine on a honeyed palate without leaning hard into a tropical finish. Both wines were stored in the refrigerator overnight from the previous article.
TOGETHER: Once again as in the previous article, the Gruner was a fine supporting wine experience to the featured dish. The citrus character of the wine was a welcome squeeze of lime. The high acidity checked the sweet and salty elements of the dish. With the Riesling, the food became somewhat too sweet since many restaurants add more sugar to accommodate US taste. The Riesling might pair well to a Pad Thai that had more fish sauce character and perhaps some of the pungent ingredients like salted radish and more dried shrimp. If you add a lot of chiles or chili powder to your noodles, this wine will be a more pleasurable partner.
Gruner Veltliner is the ticket for this Thai classic so filled with different textures and small hits of the sweet and salty elements. Riesling will complement a saltier or hotter version of the Pad Thai.