What to pour with sushi.

The quickest way to spoil good sushi is a tannic red, which together with raw fish can leave an unpleasant metallic aftertaste. The best wine with sushi is the opposite: fresh, precise and made with little or no oak. Champagne (especially blanc de blancs), Chablis, dry Riesling and Muscadet all fit.

The same qualities serve most of the Japanese table. The exception sits at the far end of the menu, where marbled wagyu is rich enough to take a structured red. In between sit tempura, yakitori and sweet miso glazes, each with its own logic. Some dishes are better served by sake. Knowing which ones is part of pairing well.

What Japanese food asks of a wine

• Umami. Dashi, soy and miso are built on it. Umami makes a wine taste harder: more bitter, more astringent and less fruity. Salt pulls the other way, which is why a well-seasoned dish is easier to match than one that is savoury but low in salt.
• Delicate raw fish. Oak, tannin and high alcohol cover it; acidity and freshness frame it.
• Rice vinegar. Sushi rice is seasoned with vinegar, sugar and salt. An acidic dish needs a wine at least as acidic or the wine tastes flat, which makes acidity in a wine the quality to look for.
• Fried textures. Bubbles and acidity refresh the palate after batter and oil.
• Sweet glazes. Sweetness in food makes a dry wine taste thin and sharp. Tare, teriyaki and sweet miso want fruit or a touch of sweetness in the glass.
• Fish oils. A tannic red with raw or oily fish can leave a metallic, fishy aftertaste. Iodine and tannin usually take the blame. Research has traced the effect mainly to iron in the wine reacting with the oils in the fish, though the chemistry is not fully settled. Heavy tannin dries the palate and flattens delicate flavours in any case, so tannic reds are the wines to keep away from the fish.

Wine with sushi and sashimi

Sushi and sashimi want the cleanest wines you have.

• Champagne, especially blanc de blancs. Made from white grapes only, it brings fine bubbles, high acidity and a citrus edge that suit white fish, scallop and prawn. A Champagne label tells you which style you are buying.
• Chablis. Chardonnay from the cool northern edge of Burgundy, often unoaked, with the taut acidity that raw fish likes.
• Dry Riesling. Lime, green apple and a streak of acidity make it a natural partner for sashimi and anything dressed with citrus.
• Muscadet. Light and lean, from the western Loire near the Atlantic, with a salty tang that suits shellfish.
• Koshu. Japan's own white wine grape, pink-skinned, grown there for centuries and centred on Yamanashi Prefecture. It makes light, delicate, dry whites that sit easily beside raw fish.

Richer fish change the picture. Fatty tuna belly (otoro) and salmon can take a fuller Champagne, such as a vintage one. Grilled eel brushed with sweet tare belongs with the wines for yakitori below.

At an omakase counter, if the sequence builds from lean white fish towards fattier cuts, let the wine build with it: Chablis or a blanc de blancs first, a fuller Champagne later. A single bottle of good blanc de blancs will also follow the whole sequence.

Wasabi, soy and pickles, from gari (the pickled ginger eaten between pieces) to the tsukemono served with rice, all push the same way. Keep the wine crisp and unoaked and use soy lightly, since the wine has to meet the soy as much as the fish.

With raw fish, freshness beats power.

Tempura and fried dishes

Tempura is seafood and vegetables in a light batter, fried and eaten with salt or dipped in tentsuyu, a sauce of dashi, soy and mirin with grated daikon.

Sparkling wine is the natural partner, since bubbles and acidity cut through the oil and reset the palate between pieces. Champagne is the classic choice. A crisp, unoaked white such as Chablis or dry Riesling does the same job without the bubbles. Japanese fried chicken (karaage) follows the same logic.

Yakitori, tare and sweet glazes

Yakitori comes seasoned in one of two main ways: with salt (shio) or with tare, a sweet, soy-based glaze.

Salted skewers suit the same crisp whites and sparkling wines as tempura. Tare changes the pairing. The sweetness and caramelised soy of a glazed tsukune (chicken meatball) or a negima skewer of chicken and spring onion want a red with fruit and little tannin. Pinot Noir and Beaujolais are the obvious choices, served cool.

Miso and sweet glazes go further. Black cod marinated in sweet white miso and grilled is sweet and savoury at once, as is anything cooked teriyaki-style. An off-dry Riesling meets the sweetness; an aged Champagne, with its notes of toast and brioche, meets the savoury side. A German Kabinett without the word trocken on its label is a good place to start; the Prädikat ladder explains the rest.

Wagyu

Wagyu is where Japanese food asks for a red with real structure. Its marbling is rich enough for the fat to take tannin; the tannin in turn cuts through the richness.

Syrah, a Pinot Noir with some structure or a mature Bordeaux all work. Match the style to the preparation. A seared steak seasoned with salt takes the full range. Sukiyaki, simmered in a sweet soy broth and dipped in raw egg, leans sweet, which favours Pinot Noir over a more tannic wine. Shabu-shabu, thin slices swished through hot broth and dipped in citrusy ponzu or a sesame sauce, is lighter again, so a Pinot Noir served cool or even a crisp white will do. The portions are small and rich; one good glass goes a long way.

When sake is the better choice

Some dishes are built so precisely around dashi and subtle seasoning that any wine feels loud: a clear soup, simmered vegetables, chawanmushi (a savoury steamed egg custard). Sake has gentle acidity, no tannin and umami of its own. It rarely clashes with food and is at ease with dishes that trouble wine, eggs among them. Many sakes can also be served gently warm, which softens them and suits simmered dishes.

At an izakaya, where small plates arrive together, sake is often the thread that runs through them all. Mixing is perfectly sound too. Champagne with the sushi, sake with the dashi courses and a red with the wagyu make a good evening.

Choosing for the whole meal

If you bring one bottle to a Japanese dinner, make it a blanc de blancs Champagne or a dry Riesling. If the meal ends with wagyu, add a red with some structure. Ask for the whites properly cold and the red cool. A wine served too warm tastes heavy and alcoholic, which delicate food exposes at once; the right serving temperature for each style is easy to reach.

For Cantonese cooking, with its sweeter sauces, see pairing wine with Cantonese food. When you would rather leave the matching to someone else, our fine dining dinners build the wines around the menu.