Let me make a confession: I don't actually crave a glass of wine when I eat sushi. A Japanese meal seems somehow self-contained, unlike the way, say, an Italian or French dish cries out for wine accompaniment.
But enough of us do want to drink wine with sushi, rather than sake (an ideal, if potent, choice) or beer or green tea with roasted rice.
The various flavours of a Japanese meal combine to create a complex and heady mix: there's sweet rice and mirin rice vinegar, the salty umami from shoyu or tamari, the sinus-tingling zap of wasabi, and the rich oiliness of salmon in nigiri sushi and sashimi.
When you have all of these powerful flavours you need a crisp wine – in most cases a white. Think about something with a clean, fresh flavour, maybe with high acids to cut through the opulent fats of the raw fish. And it would be best, I think, to drink it icy cold for maximum refreshment.
I won't even begin to attempt to match different types of fish to various wines; let's leave that to the serious wine bores.
Sparkling wine
By which I mean the stuff we still know as "champagne", although we've been prohibited from labelling Australian fizz as such for a while now. Old habits die hard. The prickle of bubbles cleanses the palate in a special way, readying the mouth for the next serve of delicate sushi. A truly sensual experience. Of course, actual champagne would be perfect too! You can usually pick up a good domestic sparklie like the one by Grant Burge or a Seppelt Salinger for less than $20, or try something in the Yellowglen range from under $15 and up. I like the biscuity, lip-smacking flavour and fine bubbles of the Yellowglen Perle.
Semillon
When they're young, semillons are simple and neutral - therefore they won't interfere with all of the complex flavours of Japanese food. If you have an aged bottle to hand, its developed toastiness also works a treat, and provides a nice cushion to the dynamite of wasabi. We are blessed with so many semillons from the Hunter Valley in Sydney bottle shops - try one from Brokenwood ($17) or Capercaillie ($19) or Chatto ($17.50) for starters, or go for a Sorrenberg Semillon Sauvignon Blanc ($24) from Beechworth for a cool-climate alternative.
Marsanne and roussanne
Twin sisters from the Rhone, marsanne and roussanne are like a couple of intriguing, rich French ladies, exotically perfumed and discreet to the point of being mysterious. They become more fascinating as they age, and you know they're high-class. These wines don't have much in the way of acidity, although somehow they are excellent with sushi. When young they can be minerally, with a bit of honeysuckle and pear, so they don't overwhelm the delicate fish, yet they manage to taste creamy at the same time. Delicious. Try a Tahbilk Marsanne or a Mitchelton Marsanne Roussanne Viognier.
Riesling
The acidity in a young riesling (one you can pick up right now in a bottle shop) makes it a mouth-watering choice with salmon and sashimi. Try out a Leo Buring Riesling ($14) from the Eden Valley - a supreme site for riesling in Australia. It's lovely and delicate with a hint of lime blossom - true finesse.
Rosé
Don't discount the idea of a red wine with sushi. A dry rosé can be good with the richness of fleshy salmon and has the punch to stand up to a hit of wasabi. And rosés can be absolutely stunning with little orbs of salmon roe. A particularly good match would be a savoury Dominique Portet ($18) - it's less candied than most local rosés, likely because it's made in the Yarra Valley by a French winemaker.
I'd advise against a really sweet wine - whether white or red; the saltiness of the shoyu and miso will only make the wine taste unbearably sweet. Unless, of course, these are your preferred drops - no amount of food and wine matching "wisdom" can ever overpower the affections you hold for (and the happiness that ensues from) your favourite wine.
Let us know how your sushi-wine experiments have gone.
This post originally appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald.
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