Japanese Salmon Dishes

I invited some colleagues over from work for a casual wine tasting at my place. Everyone brought one bottle, which would be served blind, and the theme was Salmon pairing. Mizuki prepared a variety of Japanese salmon dishes to try with the different wines, including salmon sashimi, nigiri sushi, shiozake (grilled salted salmon) and misozuke (grilled miso-marinated salmon).

The wines

We first tasted through all the wines blind and uncovered them before moving on to the salmon pairings.

The first wine was a 2011 Pouilly-Fuissé, a Chardonnay from Burgundy’s Mâcon sub region. While it didn’t shine much on its own, the salmon sashimi and sushi revealed hidden talents in the wine. It showed more white fruit and a comforting softness with the fish, whereas it seemed a bit imprecise and awkward on its own with a powdery chalk feel on the palate. The best match of the evening!

The second wine was a very atypical Savoie white, a 2009 Chignin Bergeron by Louis Magnin which came off as extremely hot. The alcohol and honeyed fruit required a bit more acidity in my opinion, and this overpowered the salmon a bit during the meal.

Next came a juicy German Riesling from the Mosel that brought a smile to everyone’s face. With its immediately recognizable warm slate aromas, the 2011 “Dr. L” Feinherb offered a very nice balance of sweet fruit and crisp acidity. This off-dry white was a bit too aromatic for the sashimi and sushi, but was a nice partner for the salted and slight sweeter miso-marinated salmon dishes.

One of my colleagues had the same idea as me, as we both contributed a bottle from the southern french Cassis appellation. The 2011 Domaine du Paternel showed a bit better than the 2011 Domaine La Ferme Blanche, with a bit more focus and a nice saline minerality. I expected these crisp coastal whites to work better with the salmon, but they lacked a bit of fruit and some body, and got a little lost in the background.

Finally, I had also opened a semi sweet rosé (about 80g of residual sugar) from the Anjou region in the Loire. With its ripe strawberry aromas, I was surprised to find a very pronounced honey and molasses sweetness on the palate, which was however balanced by a fresh acidity. The miso-marinated salmon was the best match for this, though I think a slightly drier version would have worked better.