The art of pairing Chinese wine with food

"Begger" chicken filled with mustard greens and pork,wrapped in lotus leaf and baked in clay.[Photo by Ye Jun/China Daily]

One of the best cold dishes at the table, for example, was "fragrant and spicy dry slices of mandarin fish". The great tasting fish would have been a terrific match with a cup of Chinese baijiu, clear liquor.

The 2009 Semillon-Riesling is easy drinking, and not so dry. But a white wine to match the spicy dish would need to be more refreshing, crisp and sour than the 2009 Semillon-Riesling.

Tasting smooth and fruity, the 2011 red Cabernet Gernischt is a good drink by itself. The restaurant's braised prawn from iron plate tastes perfectly tender and fresh.

But the two didn't match well. The red wine was not sour enough, and instead enhanced the fishy smell of the prawn, which if taken on its own would be undetectable.

Haro admits it can be a challenge sometimes to pair wine with Chinese foods. But he encourages customers to try.

For the Hansen wines, he recommends pairing the white wine with glazed, sweet tasting dishes, and he thinks the red wine is more versatile.

Haro says the reason the restaurant introduces Chinese wines is that the restaurant hopes to present "the best of China".

The restaurant has an extensive list of foreign wines. But if there are two wines, one from France, and one from China, both priced at about 400 yuan ($65), which one would you choose?

"We hope that through the promotion, more customers at the restaurant will choose Chinese wines," says Haro.