Paircraft / Wines

Wines

PairCraft-Tested Wines

Our sommeliers taste thousands of wines, making detailed notes on all of them. *Perfect Pairing* wines were chosen by our experts as a top match for a dish
Color
Type
Sustainability
Country
Price

Vouvray "Clos du Bourg" Sec, Huet

Vintage Tested: 2018
Type: White, Still
Varietal: Chenin Blanc
All the fruit gets washed out. That wine wasn't neutral, but the fruit didn't survive. The wine is a balance-driven wine and when you put a complex flavor--the food--next to it, the wine struggles to maintain its balance and the subtle earth aromas and complexity get lost, it's off balance.
Pairing for: Chicken Vindaloo
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Flavor

really ripe citrus, orange blossom, fresh peeled orange peel, a little pineapple, melon and melon rind, mango, some minerality, a bit of phenolic texture but not tannins. honey

Texture

slight graininess

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Oak: Mild
Oxidation: Mild

Vouvray, Champalou

Vintage Tested: 2019
Type: White, Still
Varietal: Vouvray
Bitter! It's like I put an aspirin in my mouth and chewed down on it. Hammers you with the bitter, from start to finish, not in an attractive way.
Pairing for: Chicken Vindaloo
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Flavor

really tasty, apples, green apple, Granny Smith, Welch’s white grape juice, little bits of floral, azalea pungent floral, but not terpanic, more honey and honeysuckle, fresh raw clover honey quality, bit of clean minerality

Texture

grape skin texture

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Oak: Extensive

Wiemer Semi-Dry Riesling (Finger Lakes)

Vintage Tested: 2019
Type: White, Still
Varietal: Riesling
Too sweet for the dish, kills the heat, leaves behind not much. The vindaloo almost can't come back at the end. Wipes your palate of the food completely. Less respectful of the dish. Why would you spend the time to make that dish and then put that wine next to it to annihilate it.
Pairing for: Chicken Vindaloo
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Flavor

clean, sweet fresh-cut apple, a llittle white peach, lemon candy quality, inorganic broken rocks, slate quality, slight petrol quality, lots of mineral, texture of big old-format wood, sweet cut chive and parsley, everything really ripe, a little honey underneath

Texture

touch of texture

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Oak: Mild

Xarmant Txakoli

Region: Spain
Vintage Tested: 2020
Type: White, Still
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Aroma

canned pears
unripe citrus
herbal

Flavor

canned pears
unripe citrus
herbal

Xavier Gérard Côte-Rôtie

Region: Côte-Rôtie, Rhone, France
Vintage Tested: 2017
Type: Still
Varietal: Syrah
The flavors are complementary, but there's too much density to the wine to pair well with the steak.
Profile
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Aroma

smoked meat
bacon
plum
violet

Flavor

kirsh
lavender
incense
pencil shavings
cedar box
pine

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ABV: 14.5%
Oak: Some

Zelinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese Trocken, Schomann (Mosel)

Vintage Tested: 2019
Type: White, Still
Varietal: Riesling
I didn't get Brett notes (barnyard notes) at first, but tasting with the food the Brett is obvious. The wine is a bit bitter with the dish.
Pairing for: Chicken Vindaloo
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Flavor

green apples, lychee nut husk, Marcona almond, dried hay and fresh wheat, a bit of phenolic bitterness

Texture

lees influence

Zweigelt, Erdenlied

Vintage Tested: 2018
Type: Red, Still
Varietal: Zweigelt
It just turns bitter. The depth, texture, and heat in the vindaloo are gone, no favor to the dish. The wine upset the balance of the spices, you lose the richness in the middle of the sauce, the heat is still there. The dish turns awkward.
Pairing for: Chicken Vindaloo
Profile
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Flavor

black raspberries, black currants, black cherries, the red side of black fruits, cocoa powder, fresh-cut green bell peppers, spicy minerality, broken rocks, slight volcanic minerality, touch of wet dog and Brett

Texture

crisp

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Oak: Mild