58 April 2012

Wine and dine

Proper matching ofvino and victuals calls foran understanding oftastes and sensations,says Aloysius Tse

I n the Western context, culinary tradi-tions have developed alongside local drinking habits. Such is the case with

how tomato-based pasta has married well with the reds of Tuscany and Piedmont.

In the past, the practice of “matching” placed heavy emphasis on food items dur-ing the selection process for wines. Modern oenophiles, however, tend to favour “pair-ing,” the art of merging food and wine to enhance the enjoyment derived from the latter. This is often described as a process to discover the linkage between food and wine, giving both items equal footing in the pursuit of a balanced culinary experience.

To understand the relationship between food and wine, we have to look at it from two perspectives: through the qualities of wine and the primary flavours in food.

In wine, four basic qualities are present: bitterness, sweetness, sourness and alcohol. The bitterness associated with wine comes mainly from tannins derived from skins, stalks and pips of grapes and from contact with oak during barrel aging. Tannins react to proteins and are detected in wine tasting as a drying sensation on the gums.

The sweetness of wines is determined by the amount of residual sugar after fermenta-tion during the wine making process. Wines can be classified as bone dry, i.e., with little or no residual sugar as most has been converted to alcohol, off-dry, semi-dry and dessert-level sweetness.

Sourness comes from the acidity of wine and is often described as the mouth-watering sensation in wine tasting. Three main acids are present in wine, each with a different flavour. Malic acid gives a flavour similar to that of green apple, whereas lactic acid gives

After hours

a milky, creamy feel. On the other hand, tartaric acid gives a bitter taste.

A very dominant property of wine is determined by its alco-hol content, which gives a wine weight and body. Typically, the higher the alcohol level, the more weight and body the wine has. Grapes from hot regions normally yield wines with higher alcohol levels due to the ripeness of the fruit and the high level of sugar in the grapes.

Having understood the properties and flavour characteristics of wine, we need to understand how the primary flavours in food affect our taste and enjoyment of wine.

Sweetness in food is one of the main culprits in creating unpleasant wine and food interactions. In French cuisine, sweet-ness in food is almost nonexistent, except in dessert. In Asian cuisine, sweetness is quite common and one has to be careful not to serve a wine that is too dry, or the sweetness of the food will render the wine sharp and astringent. Even very sweet wines can taste thin if served with dishes sweeter than the wine itself.

Sourness or acidity in food will increase the richness, sweetness and fruitiness in wine. At extreme levels, acidic food may render a balanced wine flat and character-less.

Bitterness in food will also increase bit-terness in wine. This can be highly subjec-tive as each person’s sensitivity to bitterness varies. A balance should be struck between bitterness in food and wine to within the tol-

erance level of each individual.Chemesthesis, or spiciness, in food will

increase bitterness, acidity, astringency in direct correlation to alcohol level and indi-vidual sensitivity. It will also decrease a wine’s body, richness, sweetness and fruitiness.

Saltiness tends to decrease bitterness, acidity and astringency in wine. The flip side is that it tends to increase the wine’s richness and sweetness.

Lastly, umami, or the savoury flavour found in asparagus, mushrooms, curries or smoked seafood and meats, will increase bit-terness, acidity, astringency and decrease body, sweetness and fruitiness in wine.

Aloysius Tse is the chairman of Bacchus Fine Wines (Asia) and a past president of the Hong Kong Institute of CPAs.

Red Bordeaux is an ideal companion for lamb dishes.

Here are some particularly successful combinations of food and wine:• Chabliswithoysters• RedBordeauxwithlamb• Light-bodiedredBurgundywithduckor

roastchicken•Rieslingorlight-bodiedredswith ChineseorIndiandishes• Sauterneswithbluecheeses

April 2012 59

All the time in the world

The Rolex GMT-Master, introduced in 1955, was conceived during an era of aviation milestones. Less than a

decade before, U.S. Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier with the Bell X-1 aircraft. Commercial flights became safer and cheaper, thus more accessible to the pub-lic. In the 1960s, Concorde would enable pas-sengers to travel at supersonic speeds.

From a horological standpoint, the trend posed a technological challenge. Watchmak-ers needed to figure out how to account for transitions between time zones, which would eliminate the tedious adjustments common in traditional analogue watches.

Rolex tackled the issue with a relatively simple visual approach, although the extra complication necessitated a reworking of the internal mechanism. On first glance, the GMT-Master looks like any other Rolex with its large, illuminated hands and hour indica-tors, rugged metallic exterior, iconic rotating bezel and chain-link band.

Upon closer inspection, the watch exhibits two key oddities. The first is that the bezel has 24 indicators, one for each hour of the daily cycle, which contrasts with diving watches that typically have 60 indicators, one for each second in a minute. This peculiarity works in conjunction with a second feature, a third watch hand that points to the hour in another time zone.

The third watch hand makes one revolu-tion every 24 hours, as opposed to the typical hour hand that comes full circle every half a day. Such a setup eliminates any potential confusion arising from ante meridiem or post meridiem readings.

Thus, adjusting between time zones becomes a straightforward undertaking for

Horological innovations have allowed specialized watches to indicate information from different regions, says Reno Ong

jet-setters. All they have to do is align the bezel indicator with the third watch hand in accor-dance with the current hour in a particular time zone. The GMT-Master shows the hour in the default time zone with the primary watch hand, and the hour in a second time zone with the third watch hand.

Today, the GMT-Master II has a large fol-lowing among professionals and business people who frequently move from city to city. Other watchmakers have, as a result, addressed the growing demand by expand-ing their ranges to include such specialized features.

Girard-Perregaux takes the idea of a world-time watch further. Its World-wide Time Con-trol Financial range has the standard watch hands for hours, minutes and seconds. How-ever, an outer ring, which bears indicators for each of 24 hours in a day, moves in a counter-clockwise direction. The numerals align with names of cities representing various time zones, written out on the outer-most circle, thereby allowing the watch to simultaneously display the time in 24 regions.

What’s more, a red arrow aligns with a coloured line designating Hong Kong, Tokyo, London and New York, indicating a stock exchange in session at a particular location. The display even accounts for lunch breaks in Hong Kong and Tokyo trading.

Still, collectors are unlikely to find a more complicated world-time watch than Greubel Forsey’s GMT. A section of the timepiece indi-cates the default time through three watch hands for hours, minutes and seconds. To the left is a small dial indicating the hour in another time zone. The lower left section of the front is a three-dimensional rendering of the globe’s northern hemisphere. Surround-ing the half-sphere is a ring indicating the approximate hour in each region.

The GMT’s back side features a large disc containing the names of 24 cities, each repre-senting a time zone. Numerals in the outer ring align with these locations to display the hour in each. Numerals in an inner ring align with dif-ferent regions to display the hour in cities that follow summer time. To top it all off, a tourbillon regulates the mechanism and a power reserve indicator shows the remaining running time.

With a watch like the Greubel Forsey GMT, a person would rarely be left wanting for cock-tail party small talk.

TheGirard-PerregauxWorld-wideTimeControlFinancial(top)andtheGreubelForseyGMT

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