Lately I discovered a wine especially made for sushi. "I MUST have it!", was my first thought on that. So I went for it a few days later and brought some vegan sushi from the Japanese restaurant in my neighbourhood back home, too, to put it to the test.
Tamashi - the soul of sushi
The Dietrich Winery in Grosskarlbach in the German viticultural area Pfalz grows the grapes for this wine on loess and clay on limestone for Riesling and on clay and chalky sand soil for Pinot Gris. The grapes remain for a short period on must. Tamashi wine for sushi is cold fermented in stainless steel tanks and ages for three months on the lees for more complexity.
The Japanese kanji writing on the wine label says "The soul of sushi". Yes, this wine was made as a perfect compagnion to sushi. German wines - espeacially Riesling - are often recommended with sushi. A low alcohol wine with some good acid and some well balanced residual sugar matches great with Asian food. This character is synonymous for German Riesling wines. But Riesling is not everything. There are other varietals that match sushi or other Asian dishes well...so as Grauburgunder aka Pinot Gris. Well, Tamashi is a cuvée of Riesling and Pinot Gris. And yes, this wine is vegan. 'Nuff said!
This is Tamashi wine for sushi
The look of Tamashi wine for sushi
Tamashi is a clear, medium lemon colour wine. Sorry, on this photo it looks more pale. While pouring the very first glass, I had the impression there is a bit of CO2 in the wine.
The smell of tamashi wine for sushi
I got clear, medium-minus intense flavours of yellow apple, pear, lemon and bee wax. I realized that typical mineralic scent of a Riesling from the Pfalz. The wax note might be some first hint for bottle ripening.
the taste of tamashi wine for sushi
Tamashi is with 11,8 g/l a medium-dry wine. The acidity is 7,5 g/l and it has a medium 12,5 % vol. alcohol.
The taste brought the same flavours like the smell in a medium-intense way with a more medium-minus body. The finish was medium-minus.
The quality of tamashi wine for Sushi
In my opinion Tamashi is a good idea, but just an average wine. It fits its overall purpose. Period. Enjoy it young at age.
Me personally, I would rather look out for individual wines for individual variations and ingredients of sushi.
The Pinot Gris in this blend makes the Riesling more mellow.
Good alternatives for Tamashi might be an almost to medium dry Rheingau or Mosel Riesling. There are some wineries, which offer vegan wines like this. Another good alternative you will find at the end of this article, if the sushi is not that sweet.
The vegan sushi
A selection of vegan sushi was catered by Sato Sushi from Düsseldorf. Basically these sushi were well made, but the itamae (sushi cook) used too much sugar to season the sushi rice. More traditionally they use less sugar and some more salt and mix it with a special vinegar called sushi zu.
Kappa maki sushi and wine
At first I tried the pure sushi. The acid of the Riesling was very present, but not too dominant. With some soy sauce the sushi and the wine basically matched well. Adding wasabi to the soy sauce made the wine somewhat neutral. Taking just a few of wasabi the match for sushi and wine acceptable. All flavours of the wine and the sushi were present.
ninji maki sushi and wine
The carrot (ninji) sushi got a slightly enhanced bitter-sweet taste from the Tamashi wine. It depends, if you like it or not.
oshinko maki sushi and wine
The wine brought out a slight bitter taste of the pickled raddish (oshinko). The wine tasted more like a Pfälzer Riesling like anything else. Again: If you like it...
Red bell pepper maki sushi and wine
It's the same story as for the oshinko maki sushi. Bell peppers are not a classic ingredient for sushi. After every different type of sushi, you may neutralize your gum by eating some gari (pickled ginger).
Inari sushi and wine
The tofu pockets stuffed with rice matched very well with the Tamashi wine. Very harmonic flavours, if you use soy sauce and wasabi not too much.
The tricky stuff: soy sauce, Gari, wasabi & side salads with this wine
- soy sauce emphasizes the mineral flavours of wine
- the wine brings out some bitter flavours of the gari (pickled ginger)
- Although the acid of the wine is something dominant, the wine goes well with the sweetish cucumber salad
- Wasabi makes the wine taste rather neutral, although the wine is fighting hard
My result: Sushi & Tamashi wine
Yes, you can recommend Tamashi with sushi, but there is lots of competition in my opinion.
The official distributor for Tamashi wine for sushi is Wurzelecht Wein in Germany.
A nice and proven alternative for Tamashi wine for sushi is the Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) from the Baeder Winery in Rheinhessen. The slight disadvantage is, this wine is dry and not quite perfectly with sushi which was made with too much sugar. For many Asian dishes the Baeder Pinot Gris or the Blanc de Noir will be a great choice as well.
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