The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, whether it is a reunion with family or a meeting with friends, it is indispensable to accompany mooncakes and fine wine. Mooncakes in Chinese culture have a special meaning, it has a long history, a wide range of categories, in addition to sweet and salty taste, there are cantonese, Beijing-style and Su-style and other factions of differences, in recent years, more developed the taste and shape of the new school of mooncakes. How should these mooncakes of different styles be paired with wine? What is the secret of the complementarity and complementarity between mooncake and wine? Take a look at the world of wine!
Egg yolk white lotus paste of Cantonese mooncake
Cantonese mooncakes are thin and soft in skin and varied in filling, among which egg yolk white lotus mooncakes are the most widely known. The sweet and delicate white lotus paste is wrapped in salty and crispy salted egg yolks, which makes the mooncake rich in texture and very full and plump. Paired with egg yolk white lotus mooncake "Door to Door Pair" is Sauternes' expensive sweet white wine.
Located in the south of the Bordeaux graves appellation in France, the Tortoiserie appellation is one of the world's three most famous noble wine appellations. The noble sweet white wines produced here are rounded in taste, with aromas and flavours of honey, floral and nutty, which can be added to the flavour level when paired with egg yolk white lotus mooncakes. In addition, high-quality noble curd wine is usually balanced between sweet and sour, and the high sweetness in the liquor can match the sweetness of the mooncake, highlighting the aroma of the liquor, and the refreshing acidity can dissolve the greasy feeling of the mooncake, thereby refreshing the mouth. Among them, the noble sweet white wine produced by chateau Suduiraut is a high-quality representative of the Suturoy production area, with a strong aroma and complex flavor, which is the tacit partner of egg yolk white lotus mooncake.
2015 Asahi Goldburg Winery Isles Sweet White Wine
The red of The Beijing-style mooncake
Beijing-style mooncakes are the representative of mooncakes in the northern region, and tap red is a classic in traditional Beijing-style mooncakes. Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a serious plague in Beijing, and Chang'e ordered the jade rabbit who was pounding immortal medicine on the moon to save the sick people. After descending to the mortal jade rabbit incarnation rabbit master, he used two kinds of red and white medicines to cure the people in the city, and then returned to the Guanghan Palace, and these two colors evolved into the self-made red moon cake and the self-made white moon cake.
The crust of the taprose mooncake is made of sesame oil and noodles, and is filled with sugar, nuts and green and red silk, and the authentic green and red silk is made of orange peel sugar, which is sweet and fragrant. Compared with the Cantonese-style mooncake, the proportion of the crust and filling of the Beijing-style mooncake is equal. The nutty flavor of the red mooncake is remarkable, the taste is sweet and crisp, and the Riesling sweet white wine with refreshing acidity can be considered when paired.
2017 Rheinhausen Castle Riesling Collection of White Wines
The Schloss Reinhartshausen Kabinett Feinherb Riesling, Rheingau, Germany, rich aromas of brass plum, citrus and peach, accompanied by hints of spices and minerals, echo the nuts and green red silk in the tap red filling, and the crisp acidity balances the sweetness in the filling, which is a very harmonious combination.
Fresh meat mooncake of Su-style mooncakes
The poet Su Dongpo has a poem "small cakes such as chewing the moon, there are crisps and caramels", the mooncake is round like a full moon, and the filling contains maltose and puff pastry, which describes the Su-style mooncake. This kind of mooncake is soft in the skin, shaped like a book page, crispy and loose, as thin as a cicada wing, rich in fillings, salty and sweet, and fresh meat mooncake is the representative of the salty mooncake. Filled with pork and sometimes combined with seasonal shrimp or crab powder, the fresh meat mooncakes are layered, with a crisp crust and a full and juicy meat filling, making it a good choice to pair with Pinot Noir red wine.
Su-style fresh meat mooncake
Pinot Noir red wine is usually lighter, with delicate tannins, and with fresh meat mooncakes, it will not cover up the umami taste of the mooncakes, nor will it make the wine appear dry, and the exquisite acidity in the wine can also dissolve the grease in the meat filling. The aromas of cranberries, cherries and flowers in the wines add to the fresh meat mooncakes, and the mushroom flavors and game flavors developed from aging can add to the flavor layers of the mooncakes. For example, the 2013 Valli Waitaki Vineyard Pinot Noir, North Otago, New Zealand is a good choice to pair with fresh meat mooncakes, the wine emits delicious red fruit aromas, dotted with licorice, pepper and other spices, tannins are exquisite, can increase the flavor level of fresh meat mooncakes, it is worth a try.
2013 Wali Winery Waitaki Park Pinot Noir Red Wines
Yun-legged mooncake of Dian-style mooncakes
In Yunnan, China, there is another kind of meat-filled mooncake, that is, cloud leg mooncake. Cloud leg mooncakes evolved from steamed cloud leg buns, and gradually evolved into what they are now with the popularity of baking technology. The filling is made from Yunnan's unique Xuanwei ham, served with honey and sugar. The cloud leg mooncake has a crispy crust and the filling is blended with the oil and aroma of fat and lean ham, and the entrance is sweet and salty, so consider the same mellow aroma with sweet Amarone wine.
Amarone della Valpolicella, full name Amarone della Valpolicella, is a wine from the Valpolicella region in northeastern Italy. The wine grapes of Amaroni wines usually need to be placed indoors for a period of natural air drying, due to the concentration of sugar, the finished wine is usually dry or almost dry, compared to some other conventional wines, the wine is fuller, more alcoholic, and the flavor is more condensed.
2009 Renault Di Château Amaroni Classic Red Wine
For example, The Classic Red Wine of Amaroni from Cantine Lenotti is rich and sweet, full-bodied, with flavours such as blackberry, cherry, cocoa and nutmeg. The ham in the cloud leg mooncake is pickled, fermented and air-dried, and the flavor is also relatively strong, coupled with the slight sweetness in the mooncake, which just echoes the Amaroni with a slight sweetness in the richness.
The ice skin mooncake of the new mooncake
Compared with traditional mooncakes, innovative mooncakes are bolder in materials, appearance and craftsmanship, and one of the most representative products is the ice skin mooncake. Ice skin mooncake is a kind of mid-autumn festival mooncake that is not baked, its outer skin is made of glutinous rice flour and flour, and the filling is in addition to the traditional bean paste and lotus paste, but also fruits, milk yellow and so on. The delicate and soft texture of the ice skin mooncake wrapped in a sweet filling, the frozen ice skin mooncake can be paired with the sweet, refreshing and citrus fruity Petit Manseng sweet white wine.
Xiao ManSheng is an important variety in southwestern France, with high sugar content and high acidity. The sweet white wines made from Komankatsu are aromatic with aromas of peaches, apricots, citrus fruits and sweet spices. Moderate acidity and the scent of citrus fruits balance the sweetness of iced mooncakes. It is recommended to ice to 6 °C -8 °C when drinking.
2017 Kito Winery Komankatsu Sweet White Wine
Although Xiao Mansheng was born in France, it has crossed the ocean and found a place in New Zealand and other new world countries, such as the 100% Xiao ManSheng sweet white wine produced by Churton Winery, about 90% of its wine grapes are infected with noble rot bacteria, and the finished wine emits the rich fragrance of lemonwood flowers and citrus fruits, with a faint honey-stained olive aroma, and the entrance is sweet and mellow, which is the best choice for ice skin mooncakes.
The taste of mooncakes and the flavors of wine are rich and diverse, and together they are a collision of East and West, tradition and modern culture. In addition to the collocations mentioned in the article, there are thousands of interesting possibilities waiting to be discovered.
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