Posted at 09:06h in Wine industry by David Rhodes 1 Comment
While researching an article about which dry wines are suggested to match best with local fare like hummus and falafel (Sauvignon Blanc, Rosé and Pinot Noir wines by the way), I had a thought about trying something that wasn’t suggested by other sommeliers or chefs. One thing about food and wine pairings is that its a journey as much as a destination.
Most people make odd food and wine pairings if they were to be scrutinized by a wine professional. It’s typical for people to pair what wine they like with what food they like even though they may or might not be classic matches. I see it all the time at dinner tables when I’m a guest and there’s countless times when I offer to bring a bottle of wine, I’m requested to bring a red wine regardless of what’s being served.
Yet for some dishes not conventionally paired with wine I can go to great lengths to find a wine that others may have not considered. When I’ve asked many Israeli winemakers what wine they have with falafel or shwarma, I often get as a response: beer!
And truth be told, a cold beer on a hot Mediterranean afternoon or evening is a refreshing accompaniment to many local ethnic dishes but there are other alternatives if you want to mix it up as well.
There are all sorts of reasons why Sauvignon Blanc, Rosés and Pinot Noirs go well with hummus and falafel and I plan to revisit that in a later article but if you like your pita spicy hot, as I do, another alternative is Moscato. Moscato is most often a slightly fizzy (Italians say “frizzante”) sweet bubbly from white Moscato Bianco grapes and it’s most famous example is Moscato d’Asti from Northwest Italy.
By strict wine classifications, it’s considered a dessert wine because it has over 45 grams of sugar per liter registering typically about 100 grams of sugar in contrast to dry wines that have up to 4 grams per liter of sugar or semi-dry wines that have up to 12 grams per liter. It is perceptibly sweet but consider that many dessert wines often have 200 to 450 grams per liter and its on the lower end of sweetness in that category.
I make this distinction because more often than not I have witnessed more people drinking Moscato with their meals than as part of dessert (though I can think of many great dessert pairings). When you compare it to dry wines, Moscato is off the charts with over 25 times as much sugar but if you compare it to another popular pairing with fast food its fares fairly well. Coca Cola which is sold at almost every falafel stand and shop I’ve been to in Israel contains 106 grams of sugar per liter so Moscato is right in that same ballpark and as a result of having so much residual sugar that wasn’t fermented into alcohol it has only about 6% alcohol comparable to another popular choice at these stands: beer.
Given that it’s the conventional pairing to match spicy food with sweeter lower alcohol wines, I think many people will find Moscato a good match the next time they load up a pita with falafel, hummus, tahina and their favorite toppings. I tried it recently with a bottle of 2012 Villa Giovanni Moscato (86 points, kosher) which is similar to the more commonly known frizzante but made “spumante” (fully bubbly similar in pressure to Champagne and Spanish Cava). It’s effervescence and acidity made it seemingly a bit more main meal friendly than many frizzante style alternatives though some frizzantes I’ve tasted were more expressive. Still at only NIS 39 or about $11 at Derech Hayine (The Wine Route) stores across Israel, its a nice wine to accompany Asian cuisine (like spicy curry or sushi with wasabi), salads with fruit or shwarma or falafel in a pita.
2010 Villa Giovanni Moscato (kosher)
If you’re the kind of consumer who likes to support Israel wineries over other alternatives then you might want to try offerings from Carmel, the Golan Heights Winery, Teperberg, Tabor or Dalton that use Muscat Alexandria or Muscat Canelli grapes. Sparkling wines aren’t typically made by boutique wineries in Israel (with the exception of Pelter who make a spectacular dry Blanc de Blanc) but the local frizzante Moscato are typically available for NIS 40 or 3/100 and I only wish their sales people would get some bottles into falafel stands for consumers to try.
Recently I attended a symposium where it was discussed how to get Israelis drinking more wine. So here’s one of my suggestions. I hope one of the five Israeli producers (or even one of the many importers of Italian Moscato ) I mentioned, pick up the gauntlet.
