Irish (made) wines for a St Patrick's Day Indian feast

St Patrick's Day. We have been invited to an Indo-Pakistani supper with some friends, cooked by one of them. The choice of wine with Asian food is always difficult for me (I generally have a good lager with curry rather than trying to come up with a less than ideal wine to pair with it) so I took some Domaine des Anges to go with the Irish aspect of the evening (quickly forgotten but the wines went down well). The 2005 Blanc is fruity but dry, probably what a decent Chablis should be, quite juicy and crisp like a good apple. The 2004 Rouge is very well defined, a good food wine as any well-made Rhône red should be (but not all are). The Asian food turned out to be delicious, from the superb samosas and pakoras to the assorted meat and vegetable dishes that were presented to us at the table. None were very hot, so wine turned out to match them well, but all were expertly spiced and cooked to perfection. I had intended to pinch a copy of the menu so I could write about each dish with seeming knowledge but one thing I can say is that a good, medium red with not too much in the way of tannin, good acidity (but, again, not too much) and mature fruit character does go well with this sort of food. The DDA red is such a wine.

Anyone in south Norfolk or Suffolk interested in having an Indo-Pakistani meal cooked for them in their own home (and you could pick up a few tricks along the way if you want to pitch in as sous-chef) should definitely call Ayesha Manto of Mazedaar (07984 544005 or e-mail manto@doctors.org.uk - website coming soon). She has an à la carte menu and some set menus as starting points but if you have any particular dishes you want, my guess is Ayesha will be able to produce something rather special.