Apartment Therapy The Kitchn | Oroya: Wine Created For Sushi

When you hear "wine for sushi," you think "Sake," right? Well, Freixenet USA wants to retrain your brain, so they have released a wine from Tierra de Castilla, Spain, that is made specifically with the intention of being paired with sushi. It is made by a Japanese winemaker named Yoko Sato from 60% Airén, 30% Macabeo and 10% Muscat grapes.

We recently gave it a try on a cool summer night with some fresh slices of salmon sashimi and wasabi. (Being pregnant, I sniffed the fish and had one sip of the wine, so the following thoughts are synthesized from the comments of those who imbibed.) This little appetizer combination was the great conversation piece and although the wine didn't hit us over the head with how perfectly suited it was for the fish, it certainly was a nice combination.

The wine was light-bodied, and low in alcohol, so it was easy to keep trying. We lamented not going to the effort of making some sticky rice, since the wine does have a fairly vibrant fruit quality, it would have been nicely rounded out by the rice. The perfumed quality from the Muscat grapes balanced the heat of the wasabi nicely.

This would be a great wine to try if you were having a make-your-own sushi party

In New York, you can find Oroya at Park Avenue Liquor Shop (292 Madison Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets) for $10, although the national price is more in the $8-$9.