Red wine with sushi

[Fat Guy]

Twenty years ago, Daisuke Utagawa had a revelation over a bowl of gumbo in Texas. The son of a Japanese journalist and Burgundy collector, Utagawa had been schooled in both Japan and Bethesda, Maryland, and later studied traditional cuisine with Japanese masters. In 1983, he took a job as a sushi chef at the venerable Sushi-Ko restaurant in Washington, DC. Soon after, at a party in Texas, his host sprinkled raw scallops and shrimp into a bowl of gumbo in the final moments of cooking. Utagawa, who had been sipping a red Burgundy, had a bite of gumbo, and then a sip of wine.

Now the owner of Sushi-Ko, Utagawa has devoted his professional career to making the argument for the marriage of red Burgundy and Japanese cuisine, particularly raw fish. It has not been an easy road. But he has made some incredible progress.

Utagawa's basic argument is that the tannins in pinot noir are the ideal foil for the “umami” flavor that typifies much raw seafood specifically and Japanese cuisine in general. To his way of thinking, the umami flavors and the tannins interact with one another in what is essentially a mutual subtraction, thus allowing the palate to enjoy thoroughly the fruit flavors of the wine. He also believes that, in their space, the pinot noir tannins shape and define the elusive umami and make it more comprehensible to the taster.

Not entirely satisfied with the inroads he was making in Washington, DC, and in the media, Utagawa decided to go to Burgundy to argue his case. With the help of the wine exporter Becky Wasserman, who hosted Utagawa and several leading Burgundy winemakers at a dinner at her 17th Century home in Bouilland, he presented his cuisine in combination with Burgundy reds, at the source.

Utagawa left Burgundy triumphant, with the support of many key industry figures. He has since made annual pilgrimages to Bouilland and the home of Becky Wasserman, where more and more winemakers are becoming familiar with his theories as he pairs Japanese dishes with their favorite wines.

Last night at the James Beard House in New York, I had the opportunity to dine with Utagawa at a meal intended to capture the essence of his annual fall Burgundy dinners. The cuisine was prepared by Sushi-Ko head chef Koji Terano (Utagawa today devotes his efforts to managing the restaurant and traveling for culinary and oenological research purposes), and Peter Wasserman, Becky's son, was on hand with an avalanche of red Burgundies from the Selection Becky Wasserman portfolio.

As I steeled myself in preparation for testing Utagawa's theories against my own palate and sensibilities, I reflected on the number of artificially forced pairings I've endured over the years. A particularly painful red-wine-and-chocolate tasting event a few years back convinced me only that going to such dinners is a high-risk activity: not only do you have to contend with potentially unpleasant food, but if you're forthright in your commentary you wind up looking industry people straight in the eyes and telling them you think they've failed. And, while I am no staunch traditionalist in matters of wine, I do have a fairly difficult-to-surmount threshold of credibility when it comes to novelty pairings.

The Eel Tatsuta-Age looked like a good dish: squares of eel, battered and fried like tempura, and drizzled with a balsamic syrup, were accompanied by a bright, acidic cucumber salad. And it was a good dish, which at Beard House events can be a bit of a surprise: too often the visiting chefs find the poor kitchen facilities and banquet format insurmountable. This appeared not to be a problem for the Sushi-Ko team, which put out restaurant-quality food at the Beard House, albeit slowly. The moment of truth, however, was still to come: tasting this dish with Domaine Sylvain Pataille Marsannay la Montagne 2001.

I was a convert after one sip. Although I developed some reservations about the enterprise later in the meal, there was no question upon this first taste of umami-rich eel with a young, fruity Burgundy that more was going on than just an acceptable pairing. The tannin-derived synergy that Utagawa promises can easily be detected, and this seemed to be the mood around the entire room. I found myself settling in, as I alternated bites of eel and sips of Marsannay, to one of the most sensuous wine experiences I can remember.

Peter Wasserman chose wines from young winemakers in an attempt to add an extra level of intrigue to the pairings, though I wouldn't go so far as to say I could taste any particularly youthful attitudes in the wines – indeed most were made quite conservatively.

The next dish, Flounder Sashimi with Black Truffle Vinaigrette, came topped with shredded crispy fried sweet potatoes, and was paired with Domaine du Comte Armand Pommard 1er Cru Clos des Epeneaux 2000. Again, a beautiful pairing, though my focus was on the truffle aromas (truffles are an extremely umami-rich food, it should be noted) and how they played against the tannins. In my distraction, I failed to perform much of an evaluation of the taste of the flounder alone against the red wine. Luckily, there were several more chances.

I developed my first doubts when I got an unpleasant metallic hit off the pairing of the Suimono, a clear broth with white fish, yamaimo, and egg whites with Domaine Fougeray de Beauclair Bonnes Mares 2000. I couldn't get past it, and thought it was particularly odd that such a weighty wine had been paired with what was surely the lightest course of the meal.

Two wines were poured with an assortment of nigiri sushi (maki had been served as hors d'oeuvres, but with Champagne): Domaine Lignier-Michelot Clos de la Roche 1999 and Domaine du Clos Salomon Givry 1er Cru Clos Salomon 2001. Here I thought the combinations worked much better, as I tasted each wine with each piece of very well made sushi. Particularly when it came to the sweet shrimp, which was topped with a little dollop of caviar, the umami-tannin interplay was explosive.

The final course didn't make much of a point, because it consisted of oxtail and foie gras wrapped in savoy cabbage and served in the style of sukiyaki, but the accompanying Domaine D. Mugneret Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru les Boudots 2001 was tasty, as was the dish itself. I should also note, the chef pulled off a terrific espresso panna cotta for dessert.

Throughout the meal, Utagawa thoroughly impressed me with his seemingly endless knowledge of fish, wine, and everything in between. He held forth at length about freezing and storage of fish, an issue that came to the fore recently in the New York Times. He is keenly interested in aquaculture, has many relationships with farmers on land, and has developed a whole language of colors and symbols that he uses to make his written tasting notes. He is tremendously well traveled and has met and talked shop with chefs ranging from Ferran Adria of El Bulli to Chef Hashimoto of Ryozanpaku in Kyoto. He has a thorough intellectual concept of a minimalist “cuisine of subtraction” that he strives to implement at the restaurant. But I avoided any direct discussion of the wine concept until I had finished my last taste of wine.

I ran through my notes with Utagawa, making my presentation as frank and clear as possible – which is my modus operandi under such circumstances (most food writers, I have found, will clam up when faced with industry people, and will save their criticisms for the safer medium of print; I don't believe in writing what I wouldn't say to a chef, restaurateur, publicist or producer's face). Utagawa processed my critique, and concluded that he felt I could, albeit with some difficulty, be educated.

[Florida Jim]

Utagawa processed my critique, and concluded that he felt I could, albeit with some difficulty, be educated.

Steven,

Masterfully done.

The "cuisine of subtraction" is a concept that interests me greatly. Is Utagawa its originator and are their any texts available that discuss it? I too, wish to be educated.

BTW, being from FL, I have had several red wine pairings with cooked fish and seafood that worked nicely; one in particular, baked swordfish with Cotes du Rhone, was an epiphany.

Best, Jim

[Fat Guy]

If you google "cuisine of subtraction" the first several hits you get refer to Utagawa, including materials from the Beard House from an earlier Sushi-Ko dinner and a Steve Klc article from Pastry Arts (he only beat me to this story by a few years; I wish I had found it last night before I wrote, because it seems he already did a lot of the pain-in-the-ass research and fact-checking). So I think, nomenclature-wise, it does seem that Utagawa is the guy who is out there using this language to describe his cuisine. But I don't think, conceptually, he owns the concept of subtraction. For one thing, the literature on minimalism in the arts is heavily oriented towards these themes of subtraction and creation through negative spaces. And for another thing, I think Utagawa is primarily using the phrase "cuisine of subtraction" to describe the body of thought behind the Japanese culinary aesthetic, rather than a cuisine totally specific to him. In the Klc article, by the way, there's an interesting parallel drawn between Japanese culinary minimalism and Burgundian minimalism:

"The honest subtlety and simplicity of flavor found in the best Japanese food," he believes, "parallels the approach that the best Burgundian winemakers take in crafting their wines. Like in Ikebana and Japanese cuisine, these vintners remove or avoid elements in the winemaking process that obscure the beauty and character of the fruit."

I don't know of any larger repositories of information on this whole "cuisine of subtraction" line of argument, but I have a feeling I'll be seeing more of Utagawa over the years now that he's on my radar. So if nobody else gives it a fuller treatment, I will, eventually.

On the red-wine-with-cooked-fish point, I've long been a convert. It has been a decade now since Andrea Immer was doing pinot noir tastings as sommelier at the Sea Grill here in Rockefeller Center. I remember a particularly stunning meal of about a million different types of fish paired with West Coast pinot noirs all made by women winemakers. Talk about seductive! But I found that the species of fish involved, and the saucing strategies used, all tended towards the "meaty." The Japanese aesthetic seems to be at the opposite end of the spectrum, and so even as a red-wine-with-fish convert, I was hard-pressed to imagine how that would work. I'm glad I hauled myself out for dinner last night.

"The Raw & The Red," Steve Klc in Pastry Arts:

http://www.pastryarts.com/Articles/New%20F...wAndTheRed.html

Don Rocks on Sushi-Ko recently, in the DC forum:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=44480

1995 Wine Spectator piece on Andrea Immer at the Sea Grill:

http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Archives...275,531,00.html

[Florida Jim]

But I found that the species of fish involved, and the saucing strategies used, all tended towards the "meaty." The Japanese aesthetic seems to be at the opposite end of the spectrum, and so even as a red-wine-with-fish convert, I was hard-pressed to imagine how that would work.

Steven,

Good point.

Many thanks for your inclusion of hyper-links.

Best, Jim

[Craig Camp]

The affinity of certain red wines for certain fish - most notably salmon and tuna - is well-known and long accepted. In fact, matching salmon with red wine (pinot noir and merlot) is a foundation of the marketing of Washington State and Oregon wines. There is no longer any debate over matching red wines with these fish and it is in fact now the fashion not the exception.

It is also true that not all fish does taste good with red wine and the interaction of tannins and halides create that nasty metallic taste that is best avoided. There was a real reason for the old saw: white wine with fish.

In between great red wine matches like salmon and bad matches like shell fish there is the vast majority of fish that tastes OK with red wine - in other words it does not taste bad, but it neither is a match made in heaven. The preparation itself makes the most difference for these fish. For example a fish prepared with a lemon sauce will clash with red wine while the same fish cooked in a tomato or a mushroom sauce is an excellent match.

The problem with sushi and red wine is that a meal would usually include many types of fish some that match with red and some that don't. The question that presents itself in this case is why risk a perfectly good (and expensive) bottle of Burgundy by pairing it with a meal where some of the interactions with food are highly likely to taste downright nasty? This does neither service to the wine or the food.

With all of the wonderful wines made in the world today these "stretches" like cabernet sauvignon with chocolate and Burgundy with sushi seem strained and pointless. Although they make for a pleasant afternoon of debate at the Beard House, when faced with dropping about $100.00 of my own money on a bottle of wine in a restaurant I think I will take a pass on ordering a Burgundy with my sushi.

Another question would be is why when there are readily available great matches for sushi like riesling would you work so hard to match it with Burgundy?

[Fat Guy]

That's certainly the argument I'd have made two days ago. Maybe I'd still make it today. But my pleasant debate at the Beard House convinced me that there is more here than just a novelty pairing. Utagawa has a theory that is based on the umami taste, an issue that has essentially been neglected in Western culinary thinking and wine pairing literature. His argument is that umami-rich foods are not simply adequate when paired with red Burgundies, but actually create synergy that improves both the food and the wine -- the hallmark of the best pairings. The point being that a riesling would not provide that experience, because the interaction of the tannins and the umami taste would be absent. And through his tastings, he has convinced many Burgundy winemakers that he's right. That's not to say he is right. But neither can he be so easily dismissed. I assure you, Craig, my threshold of disbelief is just as high as yours on issues like this. It will be interesting to see what happens if and when sushi restaurants start proliferating in Beaune.

Incidentally, I would like to do more thinking about the metallic taste traditionally used as the argument against tannin-and-fish pairings. No question, it's there. But I wonder if it isn't a bit of a red herring. It actually reminds me very much of the taste I get -- absent any wines or other distractions -- from very oily fish like mackerel and sardines. In other words, I know of at least one context where something very similar to that metallic taste is considered to be a desirable flavor note when plugged into a larger picture. I also noted that, while I did get the metallic taste, it was much less aggressive with Burgundy tannins than it would have been with most any other red wine. Sometimes when sharing plates in restaurants I wind up tasting shellfish with some residual cabernet or syrah or zinfandel or whatever on my palate, and that can get pretty brutal. The Burgundy hit is different.

[Craig Camp]

I won't deny the fact that some sushi has the potential to taste very good with some red wine. What I would debate is the selection of Burgundy as THE bottle to match with your entire meal. Perhaps in a restaurant with a very good by-the-glass selection it would be fascinating and delicious to experiment with different matches. I find it hard to imagine the wine working throughout the meal.

I will admit that my focus on the wine is different than most. When Burgundy is on the table my attention is more likely to be on the wines with the food playing a critical supporting role. That means I don't want anything on my plate screwing up my Burgundy. I am more concerned by this than having the Burgundy screw up what's on the plate - something that is highly unlikely to happen anyway.

[Boris_A]

When Burgundy is on the table my attention is more likely to be on the wines with the food playing a critical supporting role. That means I don't want anything on my plate screwing up my Burgundy.

When I saw the wine list, I noticed all wines being Burgundies of considerable weight and rather young. I was really astonished why there weren't any (well made) village burgundies of less weight.

Even when pairing fish with white Burgundies, I found sometimes the results better with rather light wines.

[pirate]

One can hardly expect Burgundian red wine growers not to endorse drinking their wines with sushi. Some Burgundy growers drink red wine exclusively. I remember a conversation with Charles Rousseau. I mentioned purchasing a case of Criots-Batard-Montrachet from Delagrange-Bachelet. He dismissed drinking any white wines at all.

My first choice with sushi is beer and then sake. I have noticed the extensive drinking of red wines with fish in France apart from with the oily fishes like salmon and tuna. For example: classified Bordeaux with sole meuniere.

[Florida Jim]

When I saw the wine list, I noticed all wines being Burgundies of considerable weight and rather young. I was really astonished why there weren't any (well made) village burgundies of less weight.

Even when pairing fish with white Burgundies, I found sometimes the results better with rather light wines.

Of course, if Utagawa's tannin-umami synergy is valid, wines with tannin would be required; hence, the young, weightier models.

Craig I appreciate your comments. As Steven says, that is certainly what I would have thought absent his experience. And that "flip-side" needs to be part of this thread.

But if we keep an open mind here (and I'm not saying you're not), then previous pairing guidelines must yield to new experiences.

I was not in the room and have yet to be convinced. But I have tried some pretty odd pairings in my day and have found a few that meet no guideline I've ever heard of. I plan on exploring Utagawa's theories over the next several months and trying some of them.

I'll post as I go.

Maybe pirate's right; maybe its just a ploy. But maybe this is something exciting that is outside the box. We'll see.

Best, Jim

[Fat Guy]

One issue Utagawa and I discussed at length was what I'd call prioritization of sensory inputs. In some cases, the body does this for us: if we're smelling a rose and our foot gets stepped on, one sensory input will immediately overshadow the other. But in more hedonistic experiences, an especially I think with regard to sexual ones, we have quite a bit of autonomy with regard to what we focus on. Utagawa frames this as looking at the colors in a spectrum: to some people, certain colors will pop out, and to other people other colors will pop out, but as long as you're not colorblind you can choose to focus on purple and purple will then pop out for you. He noted that in all wine-and-food pairings where there is any complexity at all, there are compatible and conflicting flavors -- he actually refers to matches in terms of, for example, "this is about a 95% match" -- and that much of the experience can be interpreted differently based on which colors of the spectrum we choose to let pop out. With umami in particular, because this is not a taste element we're accustomed to focusing on, there may be some palate retraining necessary before the right colors pop. I can certainly see taking that argument too far, but there is a certain fundamental truth to it, I think.

[DonRocks]

Being a Washingtonian and having known Daisuke for several years, I was sold on the red Burgundy and raw fish pairing many moons ago. In addition, he once told me that every great dish needs a certain amount of poison in it. He didn't mean poison literally, of course, but rather some small undertone of conflict that lends an edge of tension to the dish.

There is a small selection of aged red Burgundies on Sushi-Ko's list, but I generally agree with Boris_A that young, powerful Burgundies do not go as well with sashimi and sushi. Case in point: I was there a week ago, and brought a bottle of 1993 Drouhin Griotte-Chambertin which was breathtaking with every single portion of raw fish, from sweet shrimp topped with caviar, through uncontroversial tuna and salmon, all the way to sea urchin at the other end of the spectrum. (The time before that I brought a 1997 Freddy Mugnier Musigny which worked equally brilliantly (Sushi-Ko allows their patrons to bring their own wines for a $15-20 corkage fee.)) Having run out of the Drouhin, I ordered a half-bottle of 1999 Bitouzet-Prieur Volnay ($28) which was consumed towards the end of the meal, and it simply did not work as well because the fruit was too vibrant and the tannis were harder - from personal experience, I can vouch that aged, light-to-medium-weight red Burgundies work much better within this theory.

Cheers,

Rocks.

[SFJoe]

Of course, if Utagawa's tannin-umami synergy is valid, wines with tannin would be required; hence, the young, weightier models.

Jim,

If Utagawa's tannin-umami synergy is valid, why not Pauillac?

You first. No, no, I insist: after you!

Perhaps it is no accident that he has chosen a red wine, Burgundy, that depends as much on acid as on tannin for its structure?

Steve,

Do you really feel that truffles bring a lot of umami to the party? Compared to, say, shiitakes or porcini? That has not been my experience.

Cheers,

Joe

[Florida Jim]

Of course, if Utagawa's tannin-umami synergy is valid, wines with tannin would be required; hence, the young, weightier models.

Jim,

If Utagawa's tannin-umami synergy is valid, why not Pauillac?

Perhaps it is no accident that he has chosen a red wine, Burgundy, that depends as much on acid as on tannin for its structure?

Joe,

Good point.

Older Burgs. do make more sense in that light.

BTW, have you ever tried these types of pairings or heard of this "cuisine of subtraction" before? I have no idea why it has caught my eye but there is something, I don't know, "original" in the idea (I think). And original is a rare commodity.

Best, Jim

[Boris_A]

Older Burgs. do make more sense in that light.

Another interesting variant would be old-style Rioja as made by Lopez de Heredia. Sometimes, they release their Tondonia Gran Riservas only after 10-20 years of cask cellaring. I tasted of these several times and they remind of a matured Burgundies preferred by the Brits decades ago.

heard of this "cuisine of subtraction" before?

I'm not SFJoe of course, but I'd like to comment:

I didn't hear that term before, but immediately, the word of the architect Mies van der Rohe was coming to my mind: "Less is more".

I don't know about what exactly this "cuisine of subtraction"is, but my signature (an Albert Einstein quote derivate) is surely aiming at the same circle of ideas and the remarkable complexity of trying to reduce something to the essential.

Edited June 13, 2004 by Boris_A (log)

[SFJoe]

BTW, have you ever tried these types of pairings or heard of this "cuisine of subtraction" before? I have no idea why it has caught my eye but there is something, I don't know, "original" in the idea (I think). And original is a rare commodity.

Best, Jim

I've had wine with sushi at Jewel Bako, where frankly I think the wine choice is poor. Poor for my palate, and poor with the food. Too much oaky New World stuff, including their Burgundies . I had not read up on the subject when I last went (the sushi, btw, was great).

I would like to try it again. I am not enough of a regular at any sushi bar to easily BYO, but I should work on it. It would be a hoot to go to Kurumazushi with a few bottles and do some tasting. Maybe a few evenings this summer spent with Mr. Uezu and we'll chat again.

Edited June 15, 2004 by SFJoe (log)

[SFJoe]

Another interesting variant would be old-style Rioja as made by Lopez de Heredia.

Some of my favorite wines, Boris. A very interesting suggestion.

Of course, these wines also have much more acid than tannin to their structure....

[mjr_inthegardens]

I would like to try it again. I am not enough of a regular at any sushi bar to easily BYO, but I should work on it. It would be a hoot to go to Kurumazushi with a few bottles and do some tasting. Maybe a few evenings this summer spent with Mr. Uezu and we'll chat again.

It's not Jewel Bako but CUBE 63 on the Lower East Side is a decent sushi restaurant that also happens to be 100% corking fee free BYOB/W/Sake...

[sara]

I've been frequenting Sushi Ko lately...The first time, my friends and I brought a Red Burgundy and a White Burgundy with us to compare. I apologize for the lack of specifics here, I don't have my notes anymore, which really sucks. My memory of the meal, however, is that I felt the red went better with the hot plates--such as the eel, while the white burgundy was a spectacular complement with Koji's sashimi. Maybe my palate just hadn't adjusted to red wine with sushi, since I usually have a glass of riesling or sake. It's certainly an interesting way to go tho--and not at all widely known, even in the area around Sushi Ko--for example, we bought our wine at Calvert Woodley, and none of the men helping us there had heard of pair red burgundy with sushi, they were quite skeptical of us. Although, I've heard from Don Rocks that one of the women who works there knows of what Sushi Ko is doing. Anyways, I'm hooked on Sushi Ko and will report after my next sampling of their red burgundies (won't bring my own next time).

ps. Just took a look at the dishes Fat Guy had again; I also had the same eel dish, and the flounder. The flounder, in particular, I found more comfortable with the white burgundy. But then again, maybe it really is a comfort thing. I'll bust out of that mold, for sure!

Edited June 20, 2004 by sara (log)

[tjaehnigen]

Interesting. I'll have to digest this.

Now, what I'd like to know is why most sushi places don't offer up a great champagne list. Sushi and champagne are made to go together IMO.