Wine for Pad Thai

As I mentioned yesterday, a reader, Kiki asked for a suggestion for a good wine to drink with Pad Thai.

I actually have two suggestions for this, depending on whether you want to go the complimentary route or the contrasting one.

This simply means that you can choose a wine that is going to have some similar flavor notes to the food that you're eating, or else choose a wine that provides a contrasting element to the food.

In the case of Pad Thai, if I was looking for a complimentary wine, I might go with something like the Kim Crawford 2009 Sauvignon Blanc. This New Zealand wine has a lot of nice tropical notes like grapefruit and pineapple, but it also has a very strong green, grassy component to it as well, and since many Pad Thais have a strong green flavor from lemongrass and scallions, the green in the food and the green in the wine will go nicely together.

Plus, this particular vintage of the Kim Crawford is lighter than the one I tasted from 2007, so it will be refreshing and won't overpower the food. And I just last week bought a bottle of the 2009 at Trader Joe's for $14.99!

If, however, you want to try a contrasting wine, I would suggest an off-dry, or slightly sweet Riesling. Since some Pad Thais can be quite spicy, a slightly sweet wine will help cool the heat, and the acid in the Riesling can be a nice way to clean away some of the oiliness that can linger in some Pad Thais.

A nice one to try is Willi Schaefer Riesling Graacher Domprobst Kabinett Mosel 2007. It has some nice minerality combined with honey, nectarine and pear. And it retails for $24. If you go to Trader Joe's though, they have a pretty decent selection of Rieslings, and if you want to try a slightly sweet one, just ask someone who works there which ones are off-dry and they should be able to point you in the right direction.

Let me know what you try, Kiki!