Spanish reds take moon cakes to heavenly heights
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MY initial impressions of mooncakes were rather underwhelming. I found them heavy and indigestible. Every year I fretted the advent of the Mid Autumn Festival when kind-hearted colleagues generously piled up my desk with mooncakes. They just couldn’t fathom my ambivalence toward their beloved holiday treats. The celebratory cakes simply didn’t appeal to me — until I started pairing them with wines. Suddenly I was a fan!
One of the oldest and most important Chinese celebrations is the Mid Autumn Festival. The first written account of the festival appears in the “Rites of Zhou” a collection of rituals from the Western Zhou Dynasty (c.11th century-770 BC). The first written accounts of moon cakesdate back a mere 1,500 years. In Chinese culture there are many tales associated with mooncakes but one of the most interesting credits them with helping to overthrown the repressive Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).
The Han majority weren’t treated especially well by their Mongol rulers and by the mid 14th century it was time for a change. According to the legend, rebellion leaders hid cryptic messages inside moon cakes instructing the Han people to raise up against the foreign rulers on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar. This was a particularly clever move as the rebels knew their Mongol oppressors had no taste for Chinese mooncakes. Perhaps, like this fellow barbarian, they also needed wine.
The contribution of moon cakes to the successful 1368 rebellion that created the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) has been questioned, but the importance of moon cakes to The Mid Autumn Festival is universally recognized.
There are two major styles of mooncakes, those with sweet filling and savory filling. Preferred wine companions for sweet cakes are sweet and off-sweet wines with a solid acidic backbone. I prefer off-sweet sparkling wines as they have the requisite sweetness to complement the sweet moon cake fillings and also the acidity to facilitate digestion.
Tannins also make wines more mooncake friendly. This is especially true for cakes with meat or nut fillings. Tannins literally melt fats and make them more palatable and digestible. Whether it’s the lard in the pastry or the fat or oils in the meat and nut fillings, a red wine with moderate tannins will make everything taste better. The ideal red wine should also have plenty of fresh fruit flavors.
There are many good wine candidates to accompany your mooncakes next month, but this year I’ll be choosing some nice Rioja crianza wines.
Located in picturesque hills that trace the course of the Ebro River is Rioja, Spain’s most famous wine region. Winemaking in this region dates back thousands of years to the Phoenicians and Celtiberians, but it wasn’t until the mid- to late-19th century that the region gained global recognition for making great wines. By this point in history, the vines in Bordeaux had been devastated by the phylloxera pest outbreak and many French winemakers settled in Rioja, bringing their considerable winemaking skills. Along with the Jerez-Xeres-Sherry in the southwest, Rioja became one of Spain’s two most famous wine regions. In 1991, Rioja became the first appellation in Spain to receive the Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOCa), the nation’s highest designation of quality for wines.
The best wines of Rioja are the Reserva, Gran Reserva and limited edition Real wines that spend a considerable amount of time aging in oak and in the bottle. These can be great wines but they’re too much for mooncakes. Instead I prefer medium bodied Rioja crianza wines that must be aged at least one year in oak and one year in the bottle.
The great majority of Rioja red wines are predominantly made with the Tempranillo grape. This variety features a thick skin that results in plenty of tannins but is low in acidity and sugar. Therefore Tempranillo wines from Rioja and elsewhere in Spain are often blended with other Spanish varieties like Garnacha, also known as Grenache in France, and Carignan and more recently also Cabernet Sauvignon to increase acidity and provide structure.
Rioja crianza reds have the perfect combination of youthful fresh fruit and palate coating gentle tannins that make savory mooncakes eminently more delectable.
The tannins of the wine will facilitate digestion of the fattiness of the lard and meat or egg fillings leaving your palate clean and better able to taste the savory qualities of the meat. The dark fruit, leather an oak flavors of the wine also add intriguing flavor dimensions to mooncakes.
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