I really love these cool early autumn nights. Daylight saving time has finished but there's still enough daylight on arrival home from work to spend a half-hour to an hour in the garden or in the paddocks grubbing out a few thistles before the sun sets. That is have Neil grub out the thistles - I just point them out to him. It is one of the never-ending chores that a small block hobby farmer has to attend to.

Fortunately at this time of year the evenings are cool, not like a few weeks ago when working up a sweat in the heat of the late afternoon sun was the last thing we wanted to do. A long cool chilled sauvignon blanc or riesling, or even perhaps a chardonnay, sipped on the shaded deck, was far more appealing.

But grubbing thistles is hard work and then having to think about cooking dinner becomes quite tiresome. 'Whose turn to cook?'. It's turns out it is mine - again. 'What do you want?'. I rummage through the fridge. Nothing inspires.

"Takeaways" is the answer. My favourite takeaway is Thai and the restaurant that opened down the road last year is one of the best in the district.

Ask me my favourite wine to accompany Thai and I'll quickly reply 'Gewurztraminer'. But what about other varieties? Would they work as well? The box of samples from Crossroads Winery in Hawkes Bay would provide the perfect opportunity for a wine and food taste test. As well as the Thai-food friendly Gewurztraminer, there was Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Chardonnay to sample.

We grab the takeaway menu out of the drawer.

I love Thod Mun Pla (Thai Fish Cakes) so that is a given while the Mix entrée will provide plenty of different tasty flavours. The combination has Thung Thong (minced prawn, pork and vermicelli wrapped in pasty), Thai Satay (marinated grilled chicken on skewers with peanut sauce), Poh Pia (deep fried spring rolls with vegetables and vermicelli), Ka-Ree Puff (curried chicken and vegetables in puff pastry) and Marinated Chicken Wings with sweet chilli sauce.

For the main I choose my favourite Pad Thai Gai, a traditional Thai Fried Noodle with chicken, egg, peanut, tofu, beansprouts and spring onion while Neil chooses Mou Pad Prew Whan, a sauté of pineapple, cucumber, broccoli, onion and pork in a Thai sweet and sour sauce. We also order Gang Dang Nua, a spicy hot red curry of beef, pumpkin and carrots in coconut milk with red curry paste.

We ring the store and order by number. "We'd like to order E6, E7, 3B, 13P and 22C". She reads the list back to me. "No that's 3B for Bob and 13P for Peter", I reaffirm. "How long". "10 minutes" is the answer.

Neil draws the short straw to go down and pick them up. I open the wines and taste them first without food.

Neil and the food arrive back home. I've placed four glasses at each setting, one for each wine. The food is served and each wine is tasted with each tasty morsel.

First of all we'll talk about the spicy red curry, which turned out to be a definite wine no-no. The hot chilli in the curry was so overpowering it destroyed every nuance of wine flavour. If you are going to eat hot, then find another beverage.

However with the other food selections, the Gewurztraminer was best overall matching to every dish and was simply scintillating as a match to the spicy Thai Fish Cakes.

To my surprise the Chardonnay was almost equally as good with all the foods, the Thai Fish Cakes excepted. It was my preferred wine with my favourite Pad Thai Gai and also came up trumps with the Curry Puff entrée and the Spicy Chicken Satay on skewers. With these three selections the Gewurz came a close second.

The Riesling was the best match to the Marinated Chicken Wings and just scraped a pass with the Pad Thai Gai and the Thai Fish Cakes. It really was a disaster with the other dishes.

The Sauvignon Blanc was a match made in Thai heaven for the sweet and sour flavours of the Mou Pad Prew Whan and was best with the Deep Fried Spring Rolls too. It didn't fare well with the other dishes though.

So the moral of this story is if you are going to eat Thai, you will be pretty safe with a Gewurztraminer, a mellow fruity Chardonnay or perhaps a sweeter fruiter Riesling than the Crossroads, which would be better with fish. If you're bent on drinking savvie, then you will enjoy the wine enormously with the tasty Sweet and Sour.

In this time when most restaurants are licensed and with wine lists than are either Montana brands dominated or else have horrendous mark ups (expect to pay at least 2-3 times the retail price), Thai restaurants are one of the few that allow BYO wine. This gives you the opportunity, if you want to dine out, to choose the wine you want to take.

© Sue Courtney
22nd April 2003.