German Sparkling Wine Vs Dim Sum

I’ve always believed that anyone who attempts to pair dim sum (form those that don’t know it’s kind of like tapas, Chinese style served in small sharing portions, normally from bamboo steaming dishes) must be either mad or a complete alcoholic. Why do I say that? Well, I have always had the impression that dim sum is a brunch type meal that usually is taken before midday and normally (or certainly always in my case) on a weekend morning (most likely with some kind of a hangover for me anyway).

This though is not necessarily true as most dim sum restaurants traditionally serve dim sun until late afternoon and here in Hong Kong, it’s possible to find dim sum restaurants serving this traditional Cantonese food throughout the day and night.

Last week Wine Times attended a dim sum and German sparkling wine pairing lunch that pitted traditional and typical Chinese dim sum dishes with an array of sparkling wines from the Rotkappchen-Mumm, one of Germany’s best known and well respected wineries producing world class sparkling wines.

Organised by local German wine importers S&D German wines and by Amy Au Yeung and renowned sommelier Peter Kwong of Talent State Asia, the lunch served to highlight the versatility of the German sparklings and show how they can, quite easily, be paired with Cantonese dim sum – a style of food more commonly associated with tea rather than alcoholic beverages.

Gathering in the Langham Place hotel’s Ming Court, Hong Kong’s prestigious 2 Michelin starred Chinese restaurant, trade and industry professionals were seated to hear from the winery itself, the importers and to listen to Peter Kwong explain how the winery has evolved over time and how these styles of wine are a great pairing to the style of food.

I have always had the belief that if you are going to pair wines with Cantonese food, and in particular dim sum, then German wines are probably the best as they are such versatile wines and the Riesling grape is one that suits Cantonese food best because of its spectrum of sweetness levels ranging from bone dry to super sweet.

The event, celebrating Rotkappchen-Mumm’s second anniversary in Hong Kong started off with Five Spice Pork Loin with Barbeque Pork paired with Rotkappchen Trocken Rosé sparkling which paired fairly well as the sweetness of the BBQ pork counteracted the acidity in the wine and also complimented the strawberry nuances found in this sparkling rosé. This was followed with a trio of dim sum that included steamed Drunken Shrimp Dumpling (not sure if the shrimp had been drunk on Rotkappchen-Mumm or not – forgot to ask!), steamed Pork Dumpling with Flying Fish Roe and Deep Fried Foie Gras with Taro paste. The wine paired with this trio was the Rotkappchen Halbtrocken (demi-sec) and worked well, especially with the deep fried Foie Gras and Taro as the sweetness cut through the deep fried oil (not that it was an oily dish) nuances of the dish.

Next came a medley of seafood – Shrimp, scallop, crab meat and flying fish roe in a sea urchin sauce. This was paired with the Rotkappchen Riesling Trocken and, as one would expect from a dry wine (and obviously with it being a Riesling), the pairing was excellent with the wine allowing the fresh flavours of the seafood to shine through whilst the wine itself complimented and enhanced the freshness of the seafood. This was swiftly followed by a Pork Terrine with Wolfberry and Home Made Osmanthus Honey that was paired with the Rotkappchen Brut. The dish itself was extremely delicate and the osmanthus honey was divine, especially when paired with the brut as it added a little sweetness on the palate and made for an overall pleasurable mouthfeel. The pork terrine too was delicate and consisted of a lot of jelly that worked nicely with the wine.

Continuing on, we were graced by possibly the most decadent dish (but sadly one that I am not a fan of), the Chilled Silk Bean Curd with Black Truffle and Gold Leaf which was actually pretty good (Mainly because of the truffle – it’s the texture of the bean curd that puts me off). This was paired with the Geldermann Rosé Sekt. I thought the truffle flavours worked well with the fruity nature of the rosé, but I am not capable of saying how it worked with the bean curd as it’s really not my cup of tea. The Giant Garoupa enrobed in minced shrimp was a delightful dish and worked very well with the Geldermann Sekt Brut with the simple yet complex flavours of the mixture of the fish and shrimp were allowed to combine and this was complimented by the dryness of the sparkling wine.

The lunch was wrapped up with a traditional lotus wrapped rice dish containing shrimp and chicken, which is quite a heavy dish and needed something simple and light to compliment it. This we had in the Rotkappchen Trocken sparkling which worked very well to wash the heavy rice down.

This lunch only proves to show that German wines, themselves slowly making a big impression on the drinking population here in Hong Kong, are still (in my opinion) possibly the best wines to be pairing with traditional dim sum style foods here. We are lucky here in Hong Kong to be a tax free wine zone as if this was not the case, we may just not be able to find out how well wines from Rotkappchen-Mumm work with our traditional cuisine here.  Next time you are going for a dim sum lunch in Hong Kong or wherever you are reading this, grab yourself a bottle of German wine (sparkling or still), preferably from Rotkappchen-Mumm (but if not don’t worry, many German wines have the same stylistic properties) and head out for a lunch of discovery.

Rotkappchen-Mumm wines are available in Hong Kong from S&D German wine and can be purchased on line from www.sd-germanwines.com