Editor's Note: It's a family get-together on a big scale, the occasion for mega celebrations with fireworks and entertainment, but Maggie Beale says the highlight of the lunar new year season is the festive dinner.

Chinese New Year pudding at Yan Toh Heen, InterContinental Hotel

Food for the festive dinner includes dishes dictated by tradition. The Chinese menu is rich in symbolism of a practical nature: words that sound the same, such as "go" - the word for pudding that also means growth - which could mean children should eat it to grow well, and can also signify "growing with the job" and so on.

With good fortune, longevity and the realization of one's dreams firmly in mind, the traditional basics of the menu are more or less mapped out.

Although there's really no set formula, at least some of the following dishes will be included: roast chicken; roast pork; dried oysters; whole fish; shark fins; lobster; crabs; prawns and other seafood; mushrooms; wind-dried sausage; belly pork and roast duck; loh han vegetable; E-Fu noodles; oranges or kumquats (kum sounding the same as the pun for gold).

If you have to chose only one wine, make it a good Pinot Noir. Family groups merit more than one type of wine. Although the food may appear in no set order, drink the wine that goes well with that particular dish. Which may mean drinking a Cabernet Sauvignon before a Riesling, but don't worry about it, eat a little of the appropriate food and your palate will adapt surprisingly well - it's time to enjoy the party and have fun.

Ginger it up

Roast chicken, fish and seafood such as prawns and lobster with ginger and garlic call for a young Pinot Noir or a lightly oaked Chardonnay. Roast pork flavors develop well over a glass of Riesling (white), with its stone fruit flavors (peaches, apples, pears and apricots), or a red such as a Carmenere from Chile or a smooth Monastrel from Spain.

Duck

On the mainland and in Hong Kong, this upside-down bird (the plump bits are on the back not the breast!) is served in two of the best ways I know of cooking this delicacy. Either roasted in the Cantonese way, which is first steamed then roasted, or crisply roasted Peking style, where it is boiled briefly before being marinated in maltose syrup (malt sugar usually produced from barley), and then very carefully roasted while suspended from a hook in a large, roomy oven.

The ideal wine with duck is Burgundian Pinot Noir or a French Syrah. Avoid big, high-alcohol Australian Shiraz for this dish; it tends to swamp the taste of the crispy skin's marinated flavors. Duck is also suited to Meritage wines.

Meritage

Meritage is a US trademark for top boutique wines of limited production initially made in California, of fewer than 25,000 cases per annum. Red Meritage is made from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot, classic Bordeaux varieties. Proportions may vary, but at least three of the said varieties must be used.

Depending on the winemaker's skills and the blend formula, the basic flavors tend to mirror those of the Bordeaux wines, albeit just a little bit sweeter: cassis (blackberry), ripe black cherries, chocolate, and vanilla with a degree of spice. On the nose, it has rich fruit and cigar box with good weight. The biggest asset of many Meritage wines is that they don't need to be aged for long periods.

There is also a white Meritage, which is far less common. This is made from Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.

Air-dried meats

Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah are two types of red wine that tend to be dark, full bodied, dry, and fairly hard in tannin, making them suitable for ageing. So look for older vintages. They are ideal for drinking with semi-sweet air-dried Chinese sausages and gamey meats.

The prominent aromas and flavors of the best Cabernet Sauvignon wines are quite pronounced, and unmistakable to lovers of this grape. At first nosing, the wine smells of mint, blackcurrants and capsicums (peppers) with some asparagus influences. It is one of five dominant varieties grown in the Medoc, Bordeaux region. It is a small but resilient black grape, a real stalwart of the vineyard that often mellows into a truly great wine when left to age.

Unlike Syrah or the Australian Shiraz, the smaller sized grape Petite Sirah from the Rhone in France and from Napa Valley in the US makes a subtle wine, still with aromas and flavors of ripe blackberry and blueberries but with some black peppercorn nuances, and a lingering finish.

Kung Hay Fat Choy!

Maggie Beale can be contacted at: wineexpert1@hotmail.com

(HK Edition 02/04/2008 page2)