Ask Myles

Q: What do you bring to a dinner party when you don’t know what’s for dinner?

Myles: When brining a bottle of wine to a dinner, it does help if you like the wine and can recommend it to the host while handing it across, or, if you’re not confident in your wine knowledge, bringing something recognizable.

The reasons for this are fairly obvious:

• In case your host does the polite thing and opens your bottle over dinner, you want to make sure that it doesn’t reflect badly on your own taste – and, once it’s in your own glass, that it’s not complete plonk.
• If your host is more confident about their wine knowledge than you are, it is nice to be able to present them with a wine about which you are moderately knowledgeable, and can describe.
• If you know little about wine, bring something you’ve heard of: Champagne, Bordeaux, Chianti. All good, safe options, that are designed to be versatile when paired with food.

If you have brought a favoured wine of your own to dinner, the best situation is that the host is delighted, and immediately uncorks/unscrews, intending to serve it with the meal.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen.

A couple of months ago I was invited to dinner by a terribly successful person, whom I’d never met before and clandestinely wanted to impress. I brought along a bottle from my own cellar – a lovely little stunner I had been keeping aside for the right moment (a 2006 Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf. Young, but still yum.). This seemed to be the time.

The bottle was accepted with neither a polite question, nor a glance at the label. While it spent the evening in the chiller, I spent the dinner fuming at the waste, making do with glass after glass of a decent, but, considering the circumstances, unsatisfactory, Indian red.

For all I know it sits there to this day.

Lessons:

• If you are a host, ask your guest whether they would like to open their gift that evening.
• If you are a guest, bring a bottle you like but have not invested too much emotion or effort into sourcing.
• If you’ve brought a wine that you specifically wish to taste, don’t be afraid to prompt the host into serving it. Asking the host to serve the wine you have brought with you to dinner is not impolite.
• Similarly, if you have brought the wine as a gift for the host to enjoy later in more private / intimate surroundings, you must let them know.

If I’d like the wine to be served, what style of wine should I opt for?

An Aperitif?
A good option is sparkling wine, or if your purse is feeling fat, Champagne. Not only is it wonderful as a pre-dinner aperitif and palate cleanser, but it also covers most canapes, and first courses – specifically if the food is either western, or doesn’t contain too much oil.

Another option that could go well with some styles of Indian cooking would be a Riesling or Gewurztraminer (pron.: geh-verts-tra-mee-ner) due to its low alcohol, high acidity, and high residual sugar. You could also bring a sweet wine (to have with/as desert), or an after-dinner drink such as Madeira.

For me, the best of the pre/post dinner options is the sparkling wine/Champagne. It is elegant, and it makes everybody’s life simpler. Owing to its natural effervescence and festive connotations, sparkling wine/champagne is also better for lifting the mood and kickstarting the party.

A Still Wine for the Connoisseurs
If you want to bring a still wine, this is also fine, and with Western food is actually quite easy, but in India can need a little more thought.
If we were in the UK or US, I would advocate a New World Pinot Noir (New Zealand is best, but if out of the price range, try Chile) – rich in flavour, but versatile in texture and with high acidity. Good match for rich seafood, or a large variety of meats of different styles. One could also try a Burgundy Chardonnay – lightly oaked, so slightly richer in texture, but still with that delicate minerality and citrus. Great for fish or chicken, and again, both elegant as a gift, and versatile as a pairing wine.

In India, the style of food makes this a little trickier. Especially the conundrum: what the heck do you bring to a multi-cuisine buffet?

In India, I would bring something that would not be overwhelmed by hopefully 80% of the dishes on offer.

• Reds: For a red, it would have to be fairly robust and richly fruited, with a nice acidity to open your palate, but with only a moderate level of alcohol. Too much alcohol and too much chilly spice, generally turn out to be grumpy bedfellows.

Try a Cotes du Rhone (fleshy, earthy and fruity), a Sangiovese from Tuscany (Chianti will do nicely), or anything with good strong fruit, a healthy backbone of minerals, and some savouries, and moderate alcohol, of not more than 14%. Other options apart from these are Garnacha or Tempranillo based wines from northern Spain – many Spanish wines are oaked, which only helps them to complement a wider variety of food.

If you go New World, try Carmenère from Chile, and some South African Shiraz/Syrah.

• Whites: For whites, a lighter oaked Chardonnay isn’t a bad thing at all. In fact, a Bourgogne Blanc is extremely versatile, even more so than moderately oaked Chardonnay from Chile and South Africa. My personal favourite is to bring along New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc – high in acidity, tremendous, lean fruits, strong grassy/dry vegetal flavours, and other sundry savouries. These are excellent wines for Indian food, but unfortunately are not light on the wallet.

If you prefer something more modest, but with a similar strength and versatility, try an Argentine Torrontes, a white Viura from Spain (whether or not a Rioja) - also an Albarino from Spain – or a full bodied Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa or Australia.

 Recap
Bring something you like, but not so much that you spend the dinner in a rage when the host absently puts it away for another day. Sparkling wine/Champagne is probably best to a small dinner party, unless you have a particular discovery that everyone must try (happens to me all the time).
If you want to bring a red or white to a dinner where you don’t know what is being cooked, or are going to a big buffet style dinner and don’t want to bring anything too fancy, make sure it is a wine that has fruit, structure, acidity and moderate alcohol, like a Chianti, or a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

 

There are loads more out there that merit consideration – if in doubt, or if you have any suggestions or recommendations, please email me. Contact details below.