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Food pairing

What wine goes with thai salads?

Som tam, larb and their relatives — raw, fiercely hot, sour and salty, with almost no fat to soften anything.

The short answer

Moscato d’Asti

excellent

The lowest-alcohol sweet option there is, which on the mechanics is the best defence available.

Mosel Riesling

good

Acidity matches the lime and the sweetness helps; it will still be a fight.

Kabinett

excellent

Very low alcohol and clear residual sugar — the two things that actually reduce the burn.

Vouvray

Works because the dish is acidic, and a lower-acid wine would taste flat beside it.

Auslese

Works because the dish is acidic, and a lower-acid wine would taste flat beside it.

Szamorodni

Works because the dish is acidic, and a lower-acid wine would taste flat beside it.

Why it works

These are the hardest dishes in the catalogue. Maximum chilli, maximum acidity, high salt, no fat whatsoever — nothing in the dish buffers anything.

Sweetness and low alcohol are the only real defences, and it is worth being honest that no wine handles a properly hot som tam especially well. Beer exists for a reason.

The tricky part

Heat, acid and salt at maximum with no fat to soften them. This is a dish where the honest answer is that wine struggles.

The reasoning

These are the pairing principles this dish triggers. Every recommendation above was scored against them.

Match acidity with acidity

The wine should be at least as acidic as the food.

Triggered because this dish is high in acidity. But: Very sharp vinaigrettes exceed the acidity of almost any wine. Sometimes the right answer is to change the dressing rather than the bottle.

The wine should be as sweet as the food

With a sweet dish, the wine must be at least as sweet.

Triggered because this dish is high in sweetness. But: It must also keep its acidity. Sweetness without acidity is cloying, which is why great dessert wines are high in both and why a simple sweet wine palls after half a glass.

Salt loves acidity and bubbles

Salty dishes suit high-acid and sparkling wines, and clash with tannic ones.

Triggered because this dish is high in saltiness. But: Very hard aged cheeses are the exception: their fat and protein content is high enough to offset the salt and let a tannic red work.

Chilli heat is amplified by alcohol and tannin

For spicy food, choose low-alcohol, low-tannin wine, ideally with a touch of sweetness.

Triggered because this dish is high in chilliHeat. But: Mild spice is a different problem from genuine chilli heat. An aromatic dish that is fragrant but not hot can take a dry, full-bodied wine perfectly well.

Umami sharpens tannin and bitterness

Very savoury dishes suit lower-tannin wines, or wines whose tannin has softened with age.

Triggered because this dish is high in umami. But: Umami arriving with plenty of salt and fat — as in aged Parmesan or a rich ragù — offsets much of the effect, which is why those dishes handle red wine better than mushrooms alone.

Match intensity with intensity

The weight and flavour intensity of the wine should roughly match the dish.

Triggered because this dish is high in flavourIntensity. But: Intensity is not the same as body. A Mosel Riesling is light-bodied but aromatically intense, which is why it copes with strongly spiced food that would flatten a heavier but quieter wine.

The sauce usually matters more than the protein

Pair with the dominant flavour of the finished dish, not with the headline ingredient.

Triggered because this dish is high in flavourIntensity. But: Where the protein is genuinely dominant — a plain grilled steak, a piece of sashimi — it does lead. The rule is about which element is loudest, not about ingredients as a class.

All pairing principles →

What the engine sees

The structural profile WineHQ holds for this dish.

DimensionLevelWhat it means
SweetnessNoticeably sweetPerceived sugar in the dish, from a savoury main to a dessert.
AcidityVery highTartness from citrus, vinegar, tomato, pickles or fermentation.
SaltinessVery saltyPerceived salt, including cured, brined and fermented ingredients.
UmamiDominantSavoury depth from mushrooms, aged cheese, soy, cured meat, tomato or stock.
Chilli heatVery hotCapsaicin heat, which interacts strongly and unhelpfully with alcohol and tannin.
Aromatic intensityIntensely aromaticSpices, herbs and aromatics — how loudly the dish smells.
Flavour intensityVery powerfulOverall power of the dish on the palate, regardless of its character.
Protein and structureModerateChewy protein content. Matters because protein and fat soften the perception of tannin.

What to avoid

Oaked whites and any red with tannin

Lime, fish sauce and chilli together — the wine needs acidity and a touch of sweetness, and oak has nothing to offer here.

Something more adventurous

Canadian Icewine

Intensely sweet wine from grapes picked and pressed while naturally frozen on the vine.

Sources

Sources consulted