Spicy food and wine, if paired right can be a delicious experience. There are some wines that can enhance the flavours and spices found in Indian cuisine, while other wines can mask them.
Indian food
Indian food is one of the most complete in flavours, and requires a good beverage to accompany. It can be tricky to find the right wine to pair with curries, samosas or spicy dishes. To help you out, here are some ideas on how to pair wine with Indian food.
Fish curries
In Indian cuisine we can find curries with lamb, chicken and fish. For the curry dishes, we can choose white wines or even Txakolí type, a speciality from Basque Country.
Indian spices
The flavours of traditional Indian cuisine are dominated by many spices such ascoriander, cumin and fennel. They offer tasty blends, both on meat and fish, and can get to be spicy in many degrees. For these, grenache and syrah wines are recommended.
To refresh the palate
If we notice that Indian food is spicy for our taste -quite common, otherwise- we can freshen the palate with white, rosé and sparkling wines and Côtes du Rhône.
Other white wines
White wines that go best with this dishes must be somewhat sweet to counteract the strong flavours of this cuisine. Therefore, Riesling or Albariño wines are emerging among the ones you can try if you eat Indian.
Red wines
In addition to white wines, red can also pair with Indian spicy food. For example, they must be wines with some sweetness, such as Cabernet Franc or Loire.