The best bottle for your next Japanese feast? Here’s everything you need to nail the match.
Japanese cuisine spans a beautiful spectrum of flavours. At one end, you have intensity in dishes like katsu curry, tonkotsu ramen and okonomiyaki with all the trimmings. At the other, you have subtlety and understatement in iconic dishes like sushi and sashimi. This cuisine is totally worth your time, and it only gets better with a good wine pairing. But for subtle sushi – where it’s all about just-caught seafood, lightly seasoned rice and the gentle salty hits of nori and soy sauce – pairing the right wine can seem a little tricky.
So, how do you pair sushi with wine? Turns out, it’s not as hard as you might think – and the pay-off is truly delicious. Here’s how to take your next sushi night up a few notches with some easy wine pairings – and we’ve even got a cheat sheet of go-to wines for you, too.
Sushi isn’t one thing, as much as it might seem so to us catch-all Aussies. We might be talking about hand rolls (AKA maki), nigiri (hand-formed rice with fish on top), onigiri (filled or unfilled rice balls) or sashimi (specially prepared raw fish). Even then, they could be simple and traditional or the sorts of sauce-covered modern interpretations that have become so popular. Figuring out what your own menu looks like is a great way to prepare for a wine pairing.
For instance, if you’re having a mixed platter, you might opt for a reliable all-rounder – like a crisp sparkling or zippy riesling. But if you’re on the saucy katsu chicken or California rolls, you might consider something with a little more body like chardonnay or fiano. Or, if it’s a plate of delicate sashimi, something soft and light like pinot grigio could be ideal.
This means that if you do want to drink red wine with your sushi, you need to find something very light on tannins like gamay (with the French examples commonly labelled as Beaujolais). Gamay is naturally thin-skinned, meaning it’s both easy to insult and low in tannin (well, maybe not the first one). Other options include light styles of pinot noir or wines made in that ultra-light, chillable red style.
Riesling
Dry, crisp, bright and light, riesling really is one of the great food wines. We love it with sushi because it does everything you need without having to think too much. There’s acidity that’ll cut through the richer or fattier dishes, it’s light-bodied so it won’t overpower the subtlety, and (as long as you don’t get a sweet version) it finishes dry, which is perfect for refreshing the palate between mouthfuls of sticky sushi rice.
Try: Eden Valley is one of Australia’s key riesling regions and few can top Pewsey Vale for the price. It’s vibrant, zesty and perfect with everything from fatty tuna sashimi to spicy salmon onigiri and everything in between.
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Sparkling
Bubbles might seem like the ideal celebration wine, but don’t sleep on sparkling as a food match. The carbonation, soft acidity and stone fruit flavours in most chardonnay-pinot noir sparkling wines all add up to refreshment, which is ideal when you want to stand up to everything from raw scallops to oily mackerel.
Try: Tasmania does some of Australia’s finest sparkling wine and Jansz Tasmania Premium Cuvée is one of the best of the lot. This is clean and crisp with a touch of toasty richness to round it out.
Pinot grigio
Pinot grigio has become a bit of a crowd-pleaser in recent years, and it’s easy to see why. It’s an approachable style – usually dry but still flavoursome, crisp but not overly bright, fruity but not intensely so. Pinot grigio works especially well with a variety of sushi, too, because it won’t overpower anything and will still feel fresh between bites.
Try: Trust the King Valley to bring us another killer Italian-style wine. Pizzini Pinot Grigio is light, crisp, fresh and full of apple and pear flavours that will complement rather than cover anything on your sushi platter.
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Chardonnay
Chardonnay might be the greatest food wine in the world, suiting everything from crackling-covered pork roasts to the most delicate sushi. Ideally, you want something on the lighter, crisper side of the chardonnay spectrum so as not to dominate the more subtle flavours (so leave those butter bombs for your next risotto).
Try: Margaret River chardonnay is rightly lauded, and they don’t give much better bang for your buck than Xanadu Fusion. Crunchy green apple flavours, citrusy acidity and a little texture make this a real winner on the dinner table.
Gamay
If you want to drink red wine with sushi, go ahead – just save the shiraz for another time. Instead, grab a bottle of gamay, which will bring juicy acidity and lovely berry flavours without much of the tannins that define most red wines. Gamay might still muscle out the most delicate of sashimi, but it’ll do well with just about everything else at the sushi bar.
Try: Fringe Societe Gamay is exactly what we’re talking about. It’s light-bodied, has nice acidity, is low on tannins and it pops with juicy fruit flavours. A perfect chillable red, too, which is great for those hot days when sushi is better than cooking.
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