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Decanter

Champagne and umami

August 2005

I first discovered the affinity betweeen champagne and umami four years ago on a trip to Japan. Richard Geoffroy of Dom Perignon had set out to show that DP was ideally suited to Japanese food and in dish after dish he proved his point.

At the time I put it down to a whole range of factors such as the lift champagne gives to ultra-smooth foods such as tofu or raw fish, the quality of the seafood and the age and complexity of the bottles we were tasting but it didn't occur to me at the time that the magic ingredient in many of the dishes was umami.

Umami is the so called fifth taste, identified just under 100 years ago by a Japanese scientist Professor Kikunae Ikeda according to a fascinating small book Umami: the World (see below). The word means ‘delicious' but is best described as the intense savouriness you find in many Japanese dishes and in ingredients such as dried mushrooms, shellfish, ripe tomatoes and savoury broths, stocks and chicken jus. Its best known commercial manifestation is MSG.

Since then I've come across more evidence of the champagne - umami love affair - a risotto with wild mushrooms, another with white truffles, with jamon iberico (another inspired DP pairing) and slivers of well aged parmesan. Was it just the evolved, complex flavours of DP and other vintage champagnes that triggered this delicious sensation, I wondered, or would it work with other champagnes?

To put the theory to the test I conducted a highly pleasurable experiment at one of London's best new Japanese restaurants, Umu, lining up a range of champagnes that ranged from the non-dosage Drappier Nature (one of my favourite finds from last year) to Krug, including a non-vintage rosé (Lanson) along the way. To help me out I invited award-winning cookery writer Sybil Kapoor, who has written a book on primary flavours, Taste ( £20 Mitchell Beazley), to come along. We deliberately chose the most umami-rich dishes from the menu (much to the chagrin of chef Ischiro ?xxx? whose exquisite kaiseke menus would never reflect such an unbalanced choice.

As usual with these exercises some prejudices were confirmed, others overturned. Deep fried oysters with a light tempura-style batter and a lemony dressing with a touch of umami proved the perfect partner for champagne especially with a Pommery Wintertime Blanc de Noirs. Grilled toro teriyaki with yuzu flavoured radish we expected to go well with the more complex vintage champagnes and it did, particularly with a Joseph Perrier ‘96. On the other hand the most umami-rich dish of simmered quails with edo potatoes and winter mushrooms was surprisingly good with a light creamy Deutz 96 Blanc de Blancs and the simple strawberry fruit of a non vintage Lanson rosé.

Overall the champagnes we felt performed best were the Pommery, the Deutz which proved particularly popular with Sybil for its palate-cleansing quality and Krug Grande Cuvée which slid down effortlessly with a very tricky dish of tofu with a sweet miso dressing. The only dish that wasn't enhanced by any of the champagnes was a dish of red mullet and shitake mushrooms in a delicate broth - overwhelmed by even a Laurent Perrier ultra brut. Only to be expected said sommelier Guillaume Glipa. "I never serve wine or sake with a soup." Chef xxxx couldn't resist sneaking in a cleansing plate of sushi at the end of the meal - not particularly umami but a great match with the lighter champagnes lincluding the Laurent Perrier and the Deutz.

The success of the exercise corresponded with Glipa's own view that champagne is an ideal partner for Japanese food, a belief reflected in his superb (and very expensive) champagne list. "Japanese food is very subtle. For a really fine match I would always go for sake but champagne is the wine I would chose. The best styles with delicate dishes are austere champagnes without too much sugar. With richer fish and meat you need a more powerful champagne."

Maybe there was some scientific basis for the synchronicity between champagne and umami? That champagne's long period of maturation in contact with its lees gives it an affinity with other fermented products such as soy and bonito (dried tuna flakes), for example. Richard Geoffroy, when I asked him, agreed. "Champagne is richer in amino acids than any other wine - the same acids that are present in umami-rich foods."

For Sybil, though, the experience was much more about pure taste sensations. "I can see sake is complementary to Japanese food but it's not challenging. When you introduce champagne it's very exciting and stimulating. It hits your palate in a different way, intensifying the flavours. It's almost like tasting food for the first time."

Umu is at 14-16 Bruton Place, W1J 6LX (off Berkeley Square) Tel 020 7499 8881. Umami: The World and Japanese (the first volume of Umami world recipes) is available for £2.99 from www.eat-japan.co.uk.

Other umami-rich foods that work with champagne

Obviously the more simply these foods are presented the better. Champagne wouldn't work so well with roast chicken for example if it was accompanied by a typically English selection of vegetables although, oddly, peas would be OK. They're also surprisingly umami-rich.