In 1977, a well-known wine writer of the period, suggesting which wine pairs best with curry, wrote: 'Gewurztraminer can stand up to curry.' He was seconded, thirded, ad infinitum, by a succession of wine and food writers who followed him (including me).
What happened is that three decades of cook-and-cork dorks massaged that ink and we got the axiom: 'Spicy food, spicy wine.'
Never mind that Gewurztraminer can be sweet, dry or in-between. It can be slight of flavor or as punchy as a left hook. If it's from California, it's hugely fruity; if from Alsace, it's hugely fruity and it can be high in alcohol; if from Italy, gruffly acidic.
It may smell of lichee nuts or rosewater, diesel fuel or peach nectar. It can swallow like oil or feel like licking the edge of a razor blade.
One name. Many demons.
And then, there are curries. Curry—not the the ochre-colored 'curry powder'—is less a thing than a think.
Any Asian curry is a complex blend of ingredients, both wet and dry, thickened by a means other than flour, and cooked with meat, eggs or vegetables. And because the ingredients are legion, curries number in the hundreds. To mention but a handful: Thailand's 9-1-1 green curry; Vietnam's and China's turmeric curries; mellow Madras and incendiary Vindaloo of India; and Indonesia's sweet-with-coconut yellow curries.
How can one wine serve so many masters?
I'm sorry, but 'Gewurztraminer can stand up to curry' is as feeble a rule as 'Don't step on a crack.'
The wine-with-curry game doesn't often get played in Southeast Asia because alcohol is not a common beverage. For example, tepid water (cold water is thought to create mucus) is the normal Indian mealtime beverage. Fruit juices or limeades hit the mark in Thailand and Vietnam.
We Americans (and British) opt for dry, lager beer with our curried fare, although some curries can make even the driest pilsner seem bitter.
But why not wine? The heat in curries derives, by and large, from chiles. Chile heat comes from capsaicin, a powerful alkaloid in the seeds and veins of chile peppers. Capsaicin is soluble in alcohol but insoluble in water, which is why drinking water to help alleviate the burning doesn't work.
So, as a solvent, the alcohol in wine disperses capsaicin and intensifies it for a short while. It's a good idea, then, to avoid white wines high in alcohol (say, many a California Chardonnay—and certainly many a Gewurztraminer) when dining on spicy-hot curries. The booze will boost the fire (and the dish's saltiness, if any).
In general, the better sorts of wines to accompany curry dishes are white, low in alcohol, with high acidity and relatively low flavor profiles. These wines do what they need to do in the presence of curry: They refresh, clean up the palate and don't go mano a mano with an already aggressive flavor on the plate.
So, good white wine choices for curries would include German Riesling, perhaps some with a tad of residual sugar; dryish Chenin Blancs from South Africa, America and France; leaner, lighter, non-oaky Sauvignon Blancs with lower (11-12 percent) alcohol; and wines such as Vinho Verde, Arneis or Torrontés (from Argentina).
As for red wines with curries such as Thai red gaeng panang or lamb Andhra (like Vindaloo but slightly milder), the same rules apply: light, fresh, lower in alcohol. Well-made Gamays work, as do both Zinfandels or Mourvédres, but only those with moderate alcohol.
Dolcettos from Piedmont, Merlots from Chile or Argentina, even well-made and classy Bardolino or Valpolicella fit the bill. It helps to serve these reds slightly cooler than expected, especially with the more fiery curries.
Gewurztraminer? Maybe a lighter, fresher, drier one from California or Washington State. But that's all.