Thatcher's Food Series: Pairing Wine With Japanese Foods

Thatcher's Food Series: What do we crave with Sushi, Tempura and Yakitori?

Autumn brings on a lot of feels for so many - you're schlepping the kids to school, breaking out your rakes and pulling down those dusty boxes with all of your varied holiday decorations inside. The days are getting shorter and you just seem to run out of time every...single...day. 

That's probably why the restaurant scenes get more packed all over our country every fall; you've buttoned up the vacation house and returned to the cities, and with that you return to your regular spots - be it in person or helping fund your favorite delivery guy's mortgage.

We wanted to pitch in, as our team has been lucky enough to spend countless years both working in and dining at restaurants of countless different cuisines, forming our own strong beliefs of what kinds of wines go best alongside. 

One of our favorite go-to cuisines is Japanese - obviously sushi, but yakitori, tempura and so many others come into play; it's basically comfort food and the pinnacle of dining, all rolled (sorry) into one. 

Diving Deeper

We're super passionate about Japanese food, be it for lunch at the warehouse or later that night at a sushi counter - sometimes both. OK, often both. 

From all over Kyushu and the surrounding smaller islands, Japan's food is incredibly wine-friendly, despite the nation not being a historical wine-producing region; generally with food pairings, we start with looking at what grapes the region's producers grew to make their table wines to accompany their meals. Japan, of course, is probably most famous beverage-wise for their production of sake and beer. 

We're always happy to talk sake or beer, but since this is Thatcher's Wine, we're going to get crazy and actually talk about what kinds of wines we like with the food. We will, however, take cues from the structure, tastes and textures of our favorite sakes and beers, and weave that into our reasoning behind the pairings. 

Sushi

Starting at an incredible sushi restaurant in New York in 2015, I reached out to all of my sushi-loving friends and asked each, "What would YOU pair with sushi?" The answers were generally pretty predictable, especially if you know how we wine dorks like to drink: Riesling, Champagne and some shouts for Alsatian varieties like Gewürztraminer with the spicy stuff. 

That gave me a good start - I happen to be obsessed with Champagne, and that obsession grew seemingly daily through my two years running the beverage program. Chef used to raise an eyebrow every time I would bring out another Champagne to a guest, until I started making him taste some of my favorites. Soon enough, he would ask for some Champagne in lieu of a beer.

It makes sense, honestly, if you think about how beer was a classic pairing to sushi - the little gaps between the rice grains allowed the carbonation to slide between and almost latch on to the perfectly-seasoned starch, allowing an even greater interaction between the fish and the beer. Champagne, having greater acidity than beer, heightened the experience further with fattier and oilier fishes, the acidity providing the perfect foil and allowing the natural sweetness of each morsel to unveil itself. Aged Champagne would provide a yeastier, nuttier and more complex experience; Chef's eyes once shot open wide at the taste of a 40+ year-old bottle of Dom Perignon: "UMAMI!", he shouted. 

Consider the NV Domaine Nowack Sans Annee - delightfully ripe but with enough snap and yeastiness; taking this up a notch is too easy with the 2015 Pierre Peters Les Chetillons Blanc de Blancs , a world-class wine from a stunning vintage - enough richness to carry through an entire omakase while still having enough lift and brightness for more subtle fish.

This just screams sushi, doesn't it?

Outside of Champagne, Rieslings - both dry and off-dry - provide a terrific accompaniment to sushi. I personally prefer something with a dollop of sweetness to add that aforementioned texture a la sake; I'm not saying sweet with a capital "S", but I won't judge you if you go that way - it's just delicious either way. On the dryer side, don't go too sharp and lean - try something like the 2021 Wittmann Westhofener Morstein Riesling GG, from one of my favorite producers when I want a slightly bolder and outgoing style. Julian Haart is known for creating world-class off-dry wines, even with his less-expensive labels like the 2021 J.J. Riesling Kabinett from the Mosel.

Thinking outside the box a bit, I want to harp a little on "texture" for a minute - wines I think of as "textural" include things like Grüner Veltliner, White Rhône (namely Marsanne- & Roussanne-based blends), and...wait for it...Red wine!

The best versions of those white Rhône grapes have this natural unctuous texture without being too "hot", and they play so nicely with sushi pieces like Hotate (scallop), Ika (squid) and other less oily fish. The 2020 Rene-Jean Dard & Francois Ribo, Crozes-Hermitage, Blanc is a fantastic example of this match.

But wait - red wine, you say? Absolutely. I came to a realization after much trial and success (very little error, as I'll explain) that when you match great wine with great food, it's really hard to screw up. Of course, we all have our own preferences, as well, so why shouldn't you pair your favorite red wine with the sushi you love so dearly? One of the most fun mistakes I ever made was pairing a piece of uni, which was dressed with soy and wasabi along with the seasoned rice, along with a Syrah. Gross, you'd think, right? It was earth-shattering. 

Red Burgundy and Cru Beaujolais are obvious winners in this equation to me, since they're just about perfect food wines no matter what the food - 2020 Jerome Galeyrand, Gevrey-Chambertin, Billard comes to mind, as it's a perfect ruby-red but light on its feet and wildly complex. But think deeper about Syrah and Grenache - it's wild when even the slightest bit of tannin - which we are whipped to believe will destroy all fish in existence - becomes absorbed by that beautiful rice, and both the wine and the fish taste even sweeter in their beautiful harmony. An otherworldly producer such as Jamet should be considered - the 2019 Domaine Jamet, Cotes du Rhone, Equivoque is sure to be a stunner.

Check out some more of our sushi recommendations here! 

Tempura

You could say that Tempura is more outgoing than sushi - I mean, fry anything up and it's delicious! To get deeper, though, and really push the envelope, the best pairings are often with broad, aged wines that have both salty and nutty characters. This means things like aged Champagne, Burgundy, or Spain. Think about Champagne producers that use a Solera system, or older bottlings, like a 1982 Duval Leroy, Fleur de Champagne Brut Vintage.  Even a little bit of age does a bottle of Burgundy wonders, and with Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey you naturally have that flinty, nutty essence in a wine like the 2012 Meursault Premier Cru, Charmes

These bottles are in great shape, as well!

Check out some more of our Tempura favorites here!

 Yakitori

I think the name just always seemed intimidating to me, but Yakitori is unquestionably delicious. You don't want to skimp on a wine's body with this kind of food, though, as the grill will naturally add body and smoke to the flavors of the dishes. There are enough salty-sweet flavors within to just go nuts with your wine, as the intertwining of the structure of the two facets of the pairings will just explode when you do it right!

Personally, I find such joy in the white Rhône varietals when a master like Julien Cecillon is at the realm - take his 2020 Saint-Peray Gemini , where Marsanne and Roussanne have enough depth and texture, as well as a natural smoky quality from the soils to take on the match. In Burgundy, staying with the idea of a smoky backbone, I like Morey-Saint-Denis - something like a 2019 Domaine Castagnier Morey-Saint-Denis Premier Cru, Aux Cheseaux,

Red Rhône, specifically Côte-Rôtie is almost too obvious (Côte-Rôtie = "Roasted Slope"). Try a younger, riper style like the 2018 Christophe Billon Elotins, or better yet, treat yourself to something with some age like  Marie et Pierre Benetiere's 2013 Cordeloux

Check out some more of our yakitori go-tos!