Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- “We want everyone to look at Sauternes in a new way,” says Berenice Lurton, owner of Chateau Climens, which makes one of Bordeaux’s most dazzling sweet whites.

She and six other top producers were pouring their golden- hued vintages with Indian-Latin fusion food in New York’s At Vermilion restaurant recently to show the wines aren’t stuck in the glorious past.

Lurton, president of an association that comprises the region’s 26 classified growths, looks pretty modern herself in skinny black pants, short purple shirt and rectangular red designer glasses.

Hedonistic Sauternes, once prized by Russian czars, has been a hard sell for decades. Only famous Chateau d’Yquem is exempt. Like all super-luxury products, it never goes totally out of style, but at $600 and up a bottle, it’s more a collectible icon than a wine to drink.

Victims of the vogue for dry whites and reds, just about every other wine in the region has long flatlined in fashion status. Most end up as dessert afterthoughts. In Bordeaux, they’re the traditional aperitif with foie gras, but for most of us, a glass of a $50 wine with goose liver isn’t a typical starter.

Can a match with popular Asian cuisines rescue them from chronic neglect? I’m waiting to discover if ginger, chilis, sesame and other spicy ingredients really pair that well with these rich, complex wines.

Red Flowers

The sleek upstairs dining room overlooking Lexington Avenue traffic seems a suitable backdrop for a Sauternes-meets-India match, with its floating pools dotted with red flowers, two- story rain waterfall and huge, contemporary fashion photographs on the walls.

Before lunch, I speed-taste a lineup of recent and older vintages as their producers give a crash course in why they’re so difficult to produce.

“We’re one of the only wine regions in the world to find this beautiful,” Lurton says, pointing to a screen showing a picture of revolting-looking grapes covered with whitish fuzz.

That mold is beneficent fungus botrytis cinerea, which shrivels the grapes, concentrates their sugar, and gives the wines powerful aromas and an unctuous texture. It appears only in years when damp autumn mists are followed by warm afternoon sun -- in 1991, 1992 and 1993 for example, Chateau Suduiraut, a first growth, didn’t release any wine at all. Since 1997, odd- numbered years have been superb vintages for almost every producer.

Hand-Picked

Hand-harvesting is the rule because botrytis develops unevenly. Pickers sometimes make six passes through a vineyard. In Sauternes and tiny neighboring village Barsac, success is a blend of luck from nature plus lots of money.

I favor the mineral, lemon-cream character of Barsacs like elegant 2004 Climens ($75), vibrant 2005 Doisy-Daene ($55), and savory 2006 Coutet ($50). Sauternes are rounder and sweeter. I’m a fan of the rich, balanced 2005 Clos Haut-Peyraguey and very sweet, saffron-scented 2005 Chateau Suduiraut ($80). Zingy acidity keeps the sweetness from cloying.

“Sauternes has several lives -- when they’re young they taste of fresh fruit, but you can forget them for 50 years,” explains young, bearded Jean-Jacques Dubourdieu, whose family owns Chateau Doisy-Daene. With a decade of age these wines begin developing hints of buttered nuts, burnt honey and brown sugar, like liquid creme brulee.

Sweet and Spicy

At lunch, I decide these producers are on to something with my first bite and sip. The spiky ginger in the crab salad on seasoned vermicelli brings out a similar tang in the bright, fresh 2007 Doisy Daene ($45). Its tingling acidity and sweetness tame the hotter spices.

Not every pairing works. Chili mint water adds so much searing heat to a crisp pani puri that it wipes out the splendid 2005 Guiraud’s ($55) flavors. Ice-cold beer would be better with the hot spices in the Brazilian seafood stew “with an Indian kick” than the very-ripe and heavy 2001 Chateau de Myrat ($40).

But a lightly sweet, blue, corn-crusted scallop and goat cheese puree echoes 2001 Sigalas Rabaud’s ($40) creamy texture and highlights its apricot flavors. I’m surprised that succulent, meaty lobster with sides of coconut rice and hot tomatillo chutney is so harmonious with the dried-fruit flavors of 1998 Chateau Coutet ($70).

As I savor the deep 1986 Chateau Climens ($175) with sticky folded mango sheets, I’m thinking it may take more than pushing Asian food and wine matches to make unsung Sauternes into a fashion star, even among wine enthusiasts in China, South Korea, and India.

Maybe that’s why, this autumn, Chateau d’Arche is putting its second wine, La Perle d’Arche, in a hip 100 ml test-tube- shaped bottle. The first batch is en route to nightclubs in Singapore and the chateau is releasing a box of five vintages in tubes in time for Christmas.

Sauternes is easy to like, very easy. The wines are in- your-face delicious. The problem is getting people to try them.

(Elin McCoy writes on wine and spirits for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer of the story: Elin McCoy at elinmccoy@gmail.com.

Last Updated: October 8, 2009 00:01 EDT