Blog: Pairing Viognier #wine with @DaringPairings Ginger and Orange Fried Chicken
Those of you who subscribe to our e-mail newsletter recently received an offer for the delicious Viognier wines of Domaine Georges Vernay. Viognier is the white grape variety responsible for the small Condrieu appellation and even smaller Château-Grillet in France's Northern Rhône. It is known for its intoxicating perfume of stone fruit and orange blossoms and is often helped along by maturation in small oak barrels. The ripe intensity of Viognier's fruit is suggestive of sweetness but the wines are classically fermented dry.
Viognier's aromatic exuberance and succulent apricot and peach flavor might at first seem to be limited in its ability to pair well with food. But as my colleague Evan Goldstein MS points out in his excellent Perfect Pairings book, this is not at all true. Goldstein writes, "Viognier is underrated in its ability to pair with food" and suggests "choosing foods that suggest sweetness but are not really sweet, like a Moroccan tagine of chicken, preserved lemons, and cinnamon."
We prepared the Ginger and Orange Fried Chicken recipe found in the book and put Goldstein's theory to a test. The recipe calls marinating the chicken in buttermilk, orange and fresh ginger before coating with a seasoned mixture ground ginger and curry powder. Orange and fresh ginger played nicely with the fruit and spice found in the 2010 Domaine Georges Vernay Viognier Le Pied de Samson of course, but it was the last two ingredients (curry and ground ginger) really sealed the deal. Goldstein suggests pairing Viognier "with curried anything" and the curry and ginger certainly seemed to be the binding element in this pairing.
Our chicken was accompanied by a simple green salad dressed with citrus vinaigrette and garnished with avocado and orange slices.
