Mooncakes call for heavenly wines

The Mid-Autumn Festival is fast approaching, and our culinary thoughts are turning toward the delectable mooncakes.

Traditionally enjoyed with Chinese tea, these tasty treats reach even greater culinary heights when paired with the proper wines.

Before we examine the best wines to pair with mooncakes, let's take a look into the fascinating history of the mooncakes.

Ancient cakes

The first written account of the Mid-Autumn Festival appears in the "Rites of Zhou," a collection of rituals from the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-770 BC) 3,000 years ago. Many historians believe the festival is actually older, dating back to the earlier Xia (c. 21st century-16th century) and Shang (c. 16th century-11th century) dynasties.

The first accounts of mooncakes date back 1,500 years, but many believe they were popular holiday treats as far back as the late Western Zhou Dynasty.

How the mooncakes actually evolved through Chinese history is still somewhat a mystery but their importance in Chinese culture is not.

Mooncakes have also been credited with helping to overthrow the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

Loyalists from earlier preceding Song Dynasty (960-1279) were anxious to overthrow the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty and, knowing that the Mongols didn't eat mooncakes, they came up with the creative plan to hide secret messages inside the pastries.

These cryptic notes instructed the Chinese to raise en mass against the foreign rulers on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar. The successful rebellion resulted in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Since then, mooncakes have been an essential part of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Sweet mooncakes

The most popular mooncakes have a sweet lotus seed paste or red bean paste that makes them natural companions to sweet and off-sweet wines.

Whether the outer pastry is flaky or chewy, the dense sweet lotus seed or red been fillings beg for a wine to accent and distinguish the natural flavors and facilitate digestion.

Personally, I prefer a Demi Sec Champagne or sparkling wine that has the sweetness to complement the filling but also the acidity to cleanse the palate. Some good examples of these wines you can find in Shanghai are Gosset Demi-Sec Champagne, Veuve Cliquot Demi-Sec and Caves de Bailly Cremant Demi Sec.

Equally good with sweet mooncakes are the slightly sparkling Moscato d'Asti wines from northern Italy.

These Piedmont charmers feature an abundance of perfumed aromas and sweet fruit flavors to nicely mirror the sweetness of the mooncakes while also providing an underlying freshness to cleanse your palate of the sweet, dense filling.