Tipple talk

Wines highlight a Beijing feast

Some Chinese winemakers have picked up on a promotion idea popular with their Western peers: Hosting wine dinners to pair their vintages with food at top restaurants. Sommelier Ashley Gao at the Conrad Beijing elevated that idea last week by organizing a dinner with several Chinese wineries at the hotel's elegant Chinese restaurant Lu Yu. Chef Simon Leung made the most of it: The highlight of the menu may have come early, when he matched a steamed prawn with Ningxia wolfberry and a deep-fried prawn in light wasabi sauce with a dry 2014 riesling from Kanaan winery in Ningxia. Gao noted that the parallel levels of acidity in the food and wine - and Ningxia ingredients in both - made the combination work.

About 20 people enjoyed pairings with nine wines from Xinjiang (1421), Ningxia (Kanaan, Chateau September), Hebei (Chateau Nubes), Inner Mongolia (Hansen) and Shanxi (Grace).