Beat the Heat!

What to pair with every type of spicy food

- Lucy Simon

CHOOSING A WINE to go with a specific dish is usually all about flavor. But when it comes to pairing wines with spicy food, you need to consider more than your taste buds. The foods we tend to categorize as spicy don't just impart flavor-they cause a physical reaction.

Which wines work best with spicy dishes-whether it's mapo tofu with its tingly heat, sushi with a dab of nose-zapping wasabi, or tacos liberally doused with Cholula-depends on what type of spiciness you're working with. Chiles gain their heat from capsaicin, a naturally occurring chemical compound. Numbing spiciness-think Szechuan peppercorns-comes from an entirely different source. And the pungency you encounter in ingredients like mustard and horseradish comes from yet another compound. Each elicits a different physical response, which in turn impacts what kind of wine will go best with the experience. One overall rule: Avoid tannic wines like red Bordeaux and Napa Cabernet, which can taste bitter and astringent and feel thin on the palate in combination with any of the types of spiciness to the right.