Five minutes with Laurent Chaniac, The Cinnamon Collection

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 03 October, 2023

As he unveils a new series of Spice & Wine dinners at London’s Cinnamon Club, Laurent Chaniac talks Andrew Catchpole through the challenges of pairing quality wine with spicy dishes.

What are the challenges of matching wines with chef Vivek Singh’s modern Indian cuisine? The challenges are the playground for creativity. We create dishes with many tones of spices, we harmonise the layers of the wine with the spices. Tannins hate the heat of the spices, the fruit disappears and you are left with a dried-out palate and heat on the finish. Complementing and further defining the spice mix is the major challenge. The tuning of the blend in the wine pairing is complex and it needs to be identified within the multitude of spice. We first gauge a wine pairing, then judge it after revisiting it until we are happy. The most rewarding challenge to overcome is to be able to work with complex bitter spices or spice mixes that use bitters – surprisingly, the bitters are major enhancers so we welcome them.

Are winemakers surprised by some of the pairing possibilities? Yes. Wine is not a natural friend to spices, but when it works it can be fantastic. Understanding how to make the pairings work is key and showing winemakers our methods is always a surprise for them.

Who’s featuring in your new Spice & Wine dinners? They are inspired by special individuals who create wines with great substance: Fabre Montmayou, from Argentina; Pascal Chatonnet, with wines from around the world; and esoteric wines from Cantina Marabino from Val di Noto Sicily.

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