Bill Daley: Finding the right wine for Ethiopian spice

Ethiopians have for centuries made a honey wine known as tej. You can sometimes find this meadlike beverage for sale at some Ethiopian restaurants. Or, you could try a mead made domestically.

For most diners looking for that Ethiopian meal out at a restaurant or for takeout, the drink of choice most likely will be beer or a grape-based wine.

The question is: What sort of wine to pour with Ethiopia's highly seasoned meat and vegetable dishes, most of which are served on rounds of injera, the tart Ethiopian flat bread made from teff flour.

Tom Benezra of Sal's Beverage World stores, located in the Chicago suburbs, wants a wine with an "earthy minerality" alongside the fruitiness to enliven the food. That's why he goes with Old World or Old World-influenced white wines. He particularly likes a South African chenin blanc or a French Vouvray to counter the berbere spice paste, a widely used combination of red pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, onion, garlic and other seasonings, that provides zip in many Ethiopian dishes.

"For red wine drinkers, the fruity-spicy combination found in California zinfandel and Australian shiraz will work especially well with beef dishes," he said. "Expect some fireworks in your mouth if the dish is hot."

Natalie MacLean, a Canadian wine writer who runs an online food and wine matcher at her Web site, nataliemaclean.com, likes cabernet sauvignon with lamb-based Ethiopian dishes.

"But stick with New World cabs that are more fruit-forward and can also handle the spices in the dish," she added.

With doro wot, the Ethiopian chicken and egg stew, MacLean recommends an oaked chardonnay for a white or a syrah for a red.

"These deep, voluptuous wines will marry nicely with the richness of the dish," she said.