Rosé Champagnes and a taste of the Orient.

Variations on the finest partnerships of oriental foods with rosé Champagnes

Your appreciation of a rosé Champagne - tender or passionate, subtle or generous - will vary with the time of year, the event and the food it accompanies. These are wines of conviviality: a group of friends enjoying a single dish, a summer buffet laden with little dishes (mezze for instance), an intimate dinner for two or a refined gala occasion.

Rosé champagnes have a flamboyant joyfulness that combines with dishes of unfamiliar flavour and fragrance to create new, warm and refined harmonies, of sweet and sour flavours and the suave, delicate, mellow aromas of coloured spices and mysterious herbs.

Once precious commodities, these spices now form part of everyday cooking. Some of them, including pepper, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg, were first shipped back from distant shores several hundred years ago and were vital ingredients of French classical cuisine.

Others are a more recent innovation as people have come to discover and acquired a taste for more exotic cuisine based on traditional dishes with aromas and flavours calling for wines of expansive bouquet and dazzling colour, like rosé Champagnes.

Currys, tajines, satés and other dishes from the East or Far East go beautifully with rosé Champagnes provided you maintain a sense of balance and avoid overwhelming the palate with 'explosive' combinations. The finest harmonies have a subtle, balanced rhythm based on warm but never fiery spices.

The Comité Interprofessionnell du Vin de Champagne has already presented a range of festive foods that go best with Champagnes. That approach, based on the diversity of Champagne wines, is the basis for this the latest, unexpected but no less seductive suggestion from the CIVC: rosé Champagnes and a taste of the Orient.

Winning combinations and foods to avoid

Winning combinations
Choose mild and/or sweet spices that soften the taste of dishes with delicate aromas: vanilla and cinnamon as well as ginger (powdered), nutmeg, cardamom, saffron, cumin, coriander (grains or powder), curcuma and aniseed. Consider pasta based on seeds such as almonds, sesame, peanuts and coconut

Typical combinations
A mixture of mild herbs and spices: Madras and Colombo curry powder, garam-massala, allspice… Fruit and vegetable chutneys. Soya sauce …

Uncertain combinations
Hot and fiery spices. Use minute quantities of paprika, red and green peppers and caraway. If the recipe calls for whole pepper corns, choose pink corns that are more aromatic than spicy. Be very sparing with garlic, spice in leaf form or as fresh roots: curry leaves, lemongrass, tea, mint, coriander, curcuma and ginger.

Foods to avoid
Herbs and spices with excessively pronounced flavours such as peppers, dill, fennel or celery; dishes based on spicy condiments such as Tandoori pasta, Vindaloo curry and Kashmiri massala; oils based on peppers such as harissa and (Indian) chilli; pickled vegetables.

Foods that go best with 'tender, suave' rosé Champagnes

'Champagnes of the Heart' naturally call for rounded, mellow, smooth flavours, such as sweet and sour sauces and those containing saffron; sweet and savoury dishes, conserves and dishes based on honey or cinnamon and mild spices (pink pepper, nutmeg); tajines with dried fruits such as apricots and prunes; white meats, either glazed or made into dishes containing suave fruits such as pineapple, figs and coconut; caviar or conserve of summer vegetables (tomatoes and aubergines); fish and shellfish, either curried, wrapped in brioche or made into stuffing; nuts and seeds (almonds, pistachios and sesame). 'Tender, suave' rosé Champagnes go well with the warm dishes typical of the Middle East, North Africa, India and China.

Foods that go best with 'fresh and light' rosé Champagnes

'Champagnes of the Spirit' reveal themselves through rather more flowery, lively fruit aromas. They go best with deep water fish that tastes of the sea, either steamed or lightly fried then seasoned with the freshest spices (aniseed, ginger and cardamom) and served with crystallised fruits such as lemon or with crispy vegetables (carrots, courgettes, radishes, bean shoots). 'Fresh and light' rosé Champagnes also go beautifully with Far Eastern foods such as sushis, sashimis and tempuras from Vietnam, Thailand and Japan.

Foods that go best with 'powerful, fleshy' rosé Champagnes

'Champagnes of the Body' need robust foods, packed with flavour: tasty 'red' meats such as duck, pigeon, beef and lamb seasoned with warm (cumin, saffron) or 'hotter' spices (white, grey or black pepper) and served with pulses (chickpeas beans or lentils). Also stews, marinades, saté and tajine seasoned with more pronounced spices such as coriander and chervil. 'Powerful, fleshy' rosé Champagnes go best with Middle Eastern or North African cuisine.

Foods that go best with 'complex, mature' rosé Champagnes

These accomplished, refined Champagnes that we call 'Champagnes of the Soul' need practically no accompaniment. Bring out their special nature with dishes of delicate simplicity, subtle fragrances such as orange flower water, rose water, rare fish such as Japanese fugu, spices of indefinable flavour such as ginger, lightly marinated shellfish as kebabs or simply lightly sautéed with salt and pepper, thin slices of lightly sautéed whitish meats sprinkled with mild spices. 'Complex, mature' rosé Champagnes call for oriental dishes of the most refined kind.