Pairing Wine With Prawns? Choosing a wine to serve with Prawns is almost as simple as deciding how to cook them. Good prawns are medium-sized and have a rich, firm-textured character.  When they are fresh, they are sweet and buttery - very nearly perfect all by themselves.  If you like Japanese cuisine, try removing the head, shucking the shell and dipping the fresh, raw prawn tail in Ponzu sauce and popping it into your mouth.  Prawn Nigiri ~ without the rice! The light soy and lemon flavours of Ponzu sauce, combined with the sweetness of fresh raw prawns, cry out for a BC Chardonnay.  Light and lively Calona Artist Series Selection Chardonnay (+636035) $9.29 has lots of green apple and bright lemon fruit flavours with not even a hint of buttery vanilla oak. How about a salad?   Shelled and de-veined, the Prawns can be cooked briefly and chilled.  Think about a touch of Japanese “Naked Baby” mayo, a smattering of curry powder, a squirt of lemon and some finely sliced mango and red onion.  Add freshly chopped cilantro and some slivers of cooked ginger.  Voila!

Good fresh Prawns, of course, can be pretty much a stand-alone kind of dish, too.  Lightly sautéed in butter and crushed garlic on high heat, zested up with a sprinkle of grated lemon rind, finished off with a dash of Tabasco and a quarter cup of your favourite white wine and served saucy and sizzling over a cup of basmati rice.  Who really needs salad, anyway? If you are thinking of a more traditional treatment like these zippy garlic sautéed Prawns and you’re going to use some butter somewhere in the recipe - think Oz!  The creamy, peachy flavours of Lindemans Bin 65 Chardonnay (+142117) $10.99 are an exceptionally good example of the great quality to price ratios that Australian wines are capable of delivering.

Do you like spicy?  You might think about beheading the Prawns (but leaving them in their shells) and marinating them in a dab of oil, a squirt of lime juice and a few flakes of chili pepper flakes overnight in the ‘fridge.  Thread them onto skewers the following day, alternated with slices of pre-cooked spicy Italian sausage.  Barbeque until the Prawns are cooked and pink and serve with your favourite potato salad. With the weight and heat of the spices and the extra flavours from the grilled sausages, this is an excellent opportunity to choose a spicy rosé like Marques de Caceres Rosé (+361188) $14.99 from Rioja, Spain.  Tempranillo is the grape, here.  A touch of white pepper enlivens the strawberry fruit notes that drive this dry rosé. Finally, and for strictly red winelovers, think about a pesto and tomato-based treatment for your Prawns.    Run a few tomatoes through the blender or food processor, simmer for an hour or until you have to add a little red wine to keep it liquid.  Try chopping some pine nuts, garlic, basil and ground parmesan and mixing with the best quality Extra Virgin Olive oil you can afford.  A dash of balsamic vinegar would really help finish this Pesto.    Toss the pesto into the tomatoes and then add the prawns.  Serve when the prawns are just barely cooked - turning pink.

This has enough body and complexity to warrant a decent local BC VQA Pinot Noir.  Greata Ranch Pinot Noir (+3713) $16.99 is part of the newest line from Cedar Creek.  This light red has classic beet and cherry aromas and a ripe and earthy flavour all out of proportion to the “weight” of the wine in your mouth.  This wine would be tantalizingly good with the skewered prawns and spicy sausages