The Three Wines at an Izakaya: Vinho Verde, Spumante, and a Mendoza Pinot

We are a sake and shochu bar and our list reflects that. But people come in groups, and not everyone in a group wants shochu.

So there are three wines, and each one is on the list for a specific reason rather than to fill a category.

Why Acidity Is the Whole Criterion

Japanese food is difficult for wine in a way that gets underrated.

The problems are salt, umami and raw fish. High glutamate content makes tannic red wine taste metallic. Soy and miso are salty enough to flatten anything delicate. Raw fish plus the wrong wine produces a genuinely unpleasant fishy note, usually caused by iron content in the wine reacting with the fish oils.

What works is acidity, low tannin, and often bubbles. Those three things cut fat, reset the palate, and stay out of the way of umami.

All three of our wines are chosen on that basis.

Lantern Vinho Verde Branco

Vinho Verde is from northwest Portugal, and the name means green wine, referring to youth rather than color. It is meant to be drunk immediately after the harvest.

The style is light-bodied, low in alcohol, high in acidity, and often carries a slight spritz. That combination makes it one of the most food-friendly white wines made anywhere, and it is close to ideal for izakaya food.

Crisp and vibrant, with lemon and green apple, a refreshing spritz and a clean bright finish. It works with shrimp tempura and tuna tataki, cutting through the oil with its acidity.

Spumante Extra Dry Peperino

Italian sparkling wine, in the extra dry style.

The terminology here confuses everyone, so it is worth clearing up. In sparkling wine, extra dry is sweeter than brut. The scale runs, from driest: brut nature, extra brut, brut, extra dry, dry, demi-sec. Dry is sweeter than extra dry, which is sweeter than brut. It makes no sense and it is nonetheless standard.

Extra dry means a small amount of residual sugar, which rounds off the acidity without reading as sweet.

Vibrant green apple and white flowers, a crisp harmonious finish, and persistent perlage, the fine stream of bubbles. Good with crispy shrimp tempura and seared scallops, where bubbles and salt do their usual reliable work.

Zorzal Terroir Único Pinot Noir

The one red, and it is a specific kind of red.

It comes from Gualtallary in Mendoza, Argentina, a high-altitude area with limestone-rich soil. Both of those matter. Altitude means large day-to-night temperature swings, which preserves acidity in the grapes. Limestone contributes minerality and structure.

Pinot Noir is the right red for this food because it is naturally low in tannin and high in acid, which is exactly the profile that survives soy sauce and grilled food. A Cabernet or a Malbec would fight everything on the menu.

Vibrant red cherry and forest floor notes, with a refreshing mineral-driven finish. Serve it slightly chilled, around cellar temperature, not room temperature. It goes with yakitori chicken thigh and mushroom tempura.

Try It at Juraku

All three are on the list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. Check the current menu or ask us what is open.