Sherpa’s Pairings

Ordering in for the night? Shanghai’s most popular delivery service not only has the food, there’s also a load of wine that they’ll bring straight to your door. Sherpa’s wine consultant Michelle Ozier dishes on what wine pairs well with your order.

The new Sherpa’s menu book for Puxi is out now and is a bumper-packed edition with offerings from 101 restaurants, with more variety than ever. It also features plenty of new wines at superb value and is well worth a try as you wade your way through all the new menus available this season.

Two of the newest additions are the Californian Bandit label Merlot and Pinot Grigio varietals that come in 1 Litre Tetra-Pak cartons (both RMB 91). At this point it is worth noting a few of the excellent features of Tetra-Pak cartons for those who baulk at their wine not coming in a traditional bottle.

First, the carton is lightweight and portable and reduces packaging waste in comparison to glass bottles by 90%. Second, and most importantly, the state-of-the-art aseptic carton locks in freshness and flavour and remains airtight until the sealed cap is broken, eliminating oxidisation or “corking” of the wine. Finally, a bit of a moot point in my household, but another nice aspect is that as with a screw cap bottle of wine, you can dip in and out of your wine and easily screw the cap back on to save the wine for another day.

The Merlot that we tried mirrored the dark berry hues of its blueberry-coloured carton and has a large round fruity mouth that ends with notes of vanilla toffee. Fruit-packed Merlots with a medium tannin structure that are typical of the Californian region go very well with grilled meats and tomato-based sauces, but are also a good compliment to omega 3-rich fishes such as salmon and tuna.

We decided to sample a selection of sushi rolls (RMB 28 upwards) and tempura (RMB 88) from Celebration Palace (505 Zhongshan Nan Lu), a new Korean restaurant addition to the Sherpa’s listings, and found that the plum and caramel notes in the wine were particularly pleasing against the beautifully fresh raw salmon. The fruit in Merlot can be comprised by highly spiced and salty foods, so we veered away from anything too powerful, but we still enjoyed a good helping of kimchi pancakes and used the white rice as a balance.

This month Sherpa’s are giving away an extra 500ml carton for every purchase to the first lucky customers for a limited period only – go to www.sherpa.com.cn for more details.