With the festive season almost upon us and the old rules about only drinking red wine with meat and white with fish no longer applying, pairing wines with delicious dishes may seem a bit confusing, especially when the menu is Thai.

In fact, it's delightfully simple.

"Matching foods and wines is all about balance and personal enjoyment," explains Robert Raffa, international business manager of wine distributor Pernod Ricard Pacific. He was in Thailand recently to attend a Jacob's Creek tasting featuring a selection of Thai dishes prepared by food connoisseurs ML Parson Svasti and Anantroj Thangsupanich.

"First set out your food and choose the wines accordingly," says Raffa.

"Since Jacob's Creek wines are one of the best sold and most-consumed wines in the world because they're fruit driven and food friendly, they are not that difficult to match with Thai or any other cuisine."

Raffa stresses that wines should elevate the taste of the food, not destroy or overpower it.

"Always begin the meal with light food and light wines, adding more substantial tastes and some powerful wines later."

Parson and Anantroj prepared a traditional meal, choosing not to tone down the tastes to match the wines. ML Parson, referring to his father, Thanadsri Svasti, one of Thailand's best-known food critics, points out that foreign wines are no stranger to Thai food, although the preference has always been for reds.

He adds that MR Thanadsri recalls matching a well-structured red with nok krajaab (red bird) curry as well as with the northeastern staple, pla ra sab (spicy salad with preserved fish).

Last year, Jacob's Creek demonstrated that their wines go well with simple Thai dishes such as phad thai and staples like phad si-ew and beef curry served with crispy roti.

This year, Pernod Ricard Thailand's director of marketing and development Cyril Legrand wanted

to raise the bar and show people

that Jacob's Creek wines can also match royal Thai cuisine.

Appetisers poo jah (crab meat patties), dok khae sai goong tord (battered white acacia blooms stuffed with tasty minced shrimp), laab pla salmon sod (raw salmon with spicy and herbal dressing) and giew grob sai tab gai (deep fried ravioli stuffed with chicken liver pate) were accompanied by Chardonnay Pinot Noir Brut Cuvee and '05 chardonnay.

The easy-to-drink sparkling wine is fresh with fruit flavours, while the chardonnay contains subtle nutty and toasty flavours thanks to French oak fermentation.

The meal began with yam hed orngii sye hoy (spicy salad of oringi mushrooms with seared scallops) served with '05 Semillon Chardonnay, a vintage collection sourced from a variety of Australia's selected grape growing regions, giving lemongrass and citrus melon aromas and soft flavoursome palate.

Tom kha kluk-klik goong maenam (blue river prawns in herbal coconut cream with young galangal) was served with '04 Chardonnay Reserve.

The more powerful courses - spicy grilled veal tender loin in fresh herb dressing and crispy fried herbal duck with som tam and sticky rice - were accompanied by '04 Shiraz Cabernet and '06 Shiraz Rosé.

"When you move on to the more powerful dishes, it is better to choose powerful wines," explains Anantroj. "My rule of the thumb is the more powerful the dish, the drier the wine. Dry means sour in white wines and tannic in red.

"The sour taste of the white usually elevates the taste of strong seafood such as salmon, deep-sea fish or big prawns. Also, when you serve meat as strong as veal or lamb, the structured tannin flavours of the red wine will subdue the meaty tastes of the dishes."

The final course, lamb shank in mussaman curry served with saffron rice, was served with '02 Shiraz Reserve.

The dessert - banana compote with coconut milk sorbet - was enjoyed, again, with the sparking and fruity flavours of the Brut Cuvee.

"When matching the food and the wine, I first sip the wine, then taste the food, then sip the wine again. If there's a trail of bitterness, then the match doesn't work," says Anantroj.

"Also, since Thailand is a very warm country, I recommend that you put the red wine in the fridge before serving. The red wine should be at about 18 degrees Celsius. The whites should be served perfectly chilled and kept in the ice bucket throughout the meal."

Anantroj says that most Thai-style spicy salads with fresh lime and chillies go well with most white wines, particularly chardonnay, while curries, poultry, beef and lamb always match well with shiraz or shiraz cabernet.

"But don't try and match very spicy dishes with wine, because the heat of the chillies usually destroys the palette and that is not good for the wine.

"Don't even think of matching the extremely spicy Southern Thai dishes such a gaeng tai pla (spicy fish kidney curry) or klua kling (spicy pork stir fried with kaffir lime leaves) with any wine."

Jacob's Creek wines are available in leading supermarkets nationwide.

Sirin P Wongpanit

The Nation