Following on from last month’s post about matching wine and Chicken Tikka Masala, I thought we could stick to the ‘Curry House’ themed dishes. So this week is the big one: Vindaloo. How on Earth, I hear you shout, is it possible to match such a spicy curry with wine? Well, it’s possible. First a note from Vivek about Vindaloo. Did you know that it was the Portuguese who first pickled their meat in wine vinegar, chillies and garlic to preserve it on the journey to colonise India. When they reached Goa, the mixture was then cooked up and named Vindalho – vinho meaning wine vinegar and ahlos meaning garlic – now the famously hot Vindaloo which is usually served with an ice-cold lager on hand. Our wine buyer, Laurent Chaniac, recommends a beautiful Italian Sauvignon Blanc with delicate acidity to balance out all the vinegar in the dish. If all those chillies are just too hot for you though, try a spoon full of sugar on your tongue washed down with some water – it works!

Tags: chilli, lager, Laurent Chaniac, Sauvignon Blanc, spice, Vindaloo, Vivek Singh 
Author: Alison

You’ve followed the recipe, warmed the plates, the table is set and the glasses polished – what about the wine? Matching wine with spice has always been an art and certainly quite a complex affair - even for wine buffs. For so many years in Britain, drinking wine with Indian food was, quite simply, an alien concept. Beers and lagers have long been known as a great match to curry but in the past 10 years wine and spice matching a come along leaps and bounds. One of the original objectives when opening The Cinnamon Club back in 2001 was to explore this wonderful world of pairing grape with spice and, along with our food, this objective has developed and evolved over the years into a great appreciation for flavours for both the front and back of house.  

To explain wine and spice matching would require thousands of words, so as a taster, what better way to start than with a match to Vivek Singh’s Old Delhi-style Chicken Curry, the original Chicken Tikka Masala. Laurent Chaniac recommends Alsace Gewurztraminer and comments; ‘The rich sauce will complement an equally rich Gewurztraminer from Alsace, while the smoky flavours and the fenugreek will enhance the wine’s fruit’. Delicious.

Tags: alsace, chicken tikka masala, dinner party, gewurztraminer, lager, wine 
Author: Alison