Unexpected pairing

Tasting of two wines. One white and one red.

Domaine d'Aupilhac Les Cocalieres 2014 is a white wine from Languedoc, France.
Blend of Roussanne, Vermentino, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc.
Relatively high acid with stone fruit. Easy to drink.

Bisceglia Gudarra Aglianico del Vulture 2009 is a red wine from Basilicata, Italy.
Grape is 100% Aglianico.
It had violet and dark fruits, but oak was a little too dominant for me.
Too much coffee and wood flavor tasted almost bitter (next day, the tannin became more integrated and felt much smoother).

After the tasting, it was dinner time.
Goya Champuru (Stir-fried Bitter Melon and Pork) is a local cuisine of Okinawa, the southern islands of Japan.
In this dish, Tofu plays the background for the perfect combination of the bitterness from Bitter Melon and the sweetness of Pork. Delicious!

We had this with the white wine.
The Bitter Melon made the wine taste bitter, but the pork helped this pairing work well.

We tried with the red wine too and they tasted really bitter together.
Then, just for fun, we had Vinegar marinated Cucumber with the red wine. I was ready for the extreme bitterness, but, surprisingly, the bitterness in the red wine was gone and the wine became so smooth!
I thought that the vinegar flavor was the nemesis for wines in most of the cases. Or, was it cucumber, not the vinegar flavor, which made them taste great? I don't know. Only thing I know was that this unexpected combination was the best pairing of the night.
And Aglianico is the wine which tends to give me positive surprises as a result of "just for fun" trial.