New cookbooks are also helping pair Asian food with wines. “Wine With Asian Food: New Frontiers in Taste” by Patricia Guy and Edwin Soon presents a systematic approach to matching food and wines. Because Asian cuisine is characterized by a multitude of spices, the European practice of pairing the wine to the primary ingredient—a full red wine with lamb, for instance—doesn’t work. The trick is to focus on the sauce. Vietnamese shrimp rolls in rice paper call for a light, sweet Austrian Grüner Veltliner. Indian chicken korma takes Australian Shiraz. A Thai green mango salad goes well with pinot grigio.
