For Chicken With Onions and Cardamom Rice, Try a Chenin Blanc Chenin blanc wines are among the most glorious and the most underappreciated. I think serving a good demi-sec Vouvray with this chicken dish will offer immediate insight into their deliciousness. Demi-sec indicates that the wine has some residual sugar, but don't fear a wine that's not dry. Chenin blanc, like riesling, has such lively acidity that it will balance out the moderate sweetness, leaving you refreshed while matching the sweetness of the fruit, spices and caramelized onions. What's more, chenin blanc has a beautifully rich texture that not only feels great in the mouth but will also enhance the amplitude of the basmati rice and chicken. A young demi-sec is fine, an older one even better. Other possibilities? Spätlese riesling from Germany. If you can't tolerate a moderately sweet wine, perhaps a barrel-aged godello from Spain, a good California chardonnay or a Meursault. You might even try a rich Israeli chardonnay for a suggestion of ethnic verisimilitude.