Xavier
KOTA KINABALU: Enjoy a glass of wine with your dinner but don’t know what the best one is that suits the Asian cuisine?
According to the brand ambassador of Marques de Caceres for Asia Pacific, Xavier Vicente, the best wine that will suitably go down well with the Asian cuisine is a rose such as their ‘Rosado Joven Seco’.
“A rose goes well with spicy Asian food, salads as well with dishes that are rice-based,” Vincente who was delivering a wine talk at the first Sabah Food and Wine Fair 2012 yesterday said.
It is also an affordable wine and is available from Vino Vino Bistro at the KK Time Square, he said.
Vincente explained that a rose is not wine, resultant to mixing white and red wines, contrary to the commonly held belief.
“You cannot mix red and white wines but you can mix the grapes. A rose is produced with grapes that had no longer than ten hours of contact with their skin. For red wines, the grapes have been in contact with their skins for no less than 28 days,” he said.
A rose should also be served chilled and you get the best out of it if it is served between 16 degrees to 18 degrees, Vincente said, adding that it is best to keep the bottle in an ice bucket after serving the wine so that it remains at the ideal temperature.
On food and wine pairing, Vincente pointed out that it is mostly based on personal preference but the rule of the thumb is red wine goes well with red meat and white wine with seafood.
Based in Thailand, Vincente who has travelled extensively to Malaysia on business, said he noticed that wine drinking is growing steadily as more and more young people are now having a glass or two with their evening meals.
One of the reasons he attributed this growth to is that wines are now more affordable and accessible to the younger generation.