Fleurie and Fish

 



I had this interesting food and wine match over the recent Chinese New Year. I had always been under the impression that light reds, but particularly young cru Beaujolais are good general purpose red wines to have with a Chinese meal. What I had not realized was that sometimes the match can be wonderful.We were given a traditional food for the New Year, which was a salted dace (or mud carp). It was salted but not dried, so it was a little like a fresh fish which had been seasoned with salt for say a couple of hours. We had it fried, which is the usual way of having this fish. The Fleurie was light bodied, slightly sweet on the attack with fruitiness filling the palate. The fish had a sweetness of flesh complimented by its salting. What was amazing was how the wine brought out all those elements, making the fish tastier. It is true that the wine did not improve with the matching much, at least not as much as the fish, but the fish did not overwhelm it either. As the fish was like a fresh fish having the benefit of a sprinkling of salt for a couple of hours before frying, I guess this Fleurie would also be good with other fishes (be they pomfret, grouper or others) cooked in the same manner. I'll certainly give it a try next time.