Pairing Wine with Food

Wine and food, food and wine, everyone knows that they are supposed to pair wine with food, or vice versa. Unfortunately, very few people know how to actually do it. Oh, they have heard the white wine with white foods and the red wine with red meat rule of thumb often enough, but they really don’t understand it.

In the interest of getting all of our readers up to speed on the whys and how to do its of pairing wine with food I have asked a local wine guru to give us his take on the age old question – “What wine goes with this?”

To that end I submit the following articles from Clyde Woode -- Veritas International Wine Institute.

Be advised that the "Vino Foodo" articles are in reverse order so, if you haven't read the first one you might want to scroll down to and read the original Vino Foodo article before you tackle Vino Foodie Part Deux.

Vino Foodie Part Deux

Chicken Pot Pie is about as American as it gets so we will start here. The classic pot pie is a combination of fat laden pastry puff (one can only hope), milk, carrots, peas, plump chicken, egg, salt and pepper. Food and wine pairings can be complimentary or contrasting in some respect and still work quite well. If you recall from part one from our saga, several factors like texture, saltiness, sweetness, spiciness, flavor amplitude, tartness etc. must be kept in mind. Chicken Pot Pie has a fair amount of texture due to the pastry puff, and the chicken makes it a natural pair for Chardonnay but not an oaky one nor lean one. A lightly oaked version with moderate fruit would pair nicely here, matching the amplitude and complexity level of the dish, as well as the texture.

Now to cut through the cream and pastry puff fat one could go the contrasting route and choose a more citrus toned Chardonnay with lemony acidity to counterbalance the doughy quality of the dish. Many such Chardonnay's are appearing out of the South of France, South America, New Zealand and the USA. Many are unoaked or unwooded styles and most are not put through malo-lactic fermentation and therefore avoid that “buttery” texture while showing off some nice lemony acidity and bright fruit, preserved by stainless steel temperature controlled fermentation.

Another Chicken dish that is popular in many versions is the Herbed Cream sauce type. My recipe involves onion, garlic, white wine, chicken broth, chives, peas, heavy whipping cream, tarragon and served over a bed of egg noodles. Here adding the herbs to a creamy sauce and egg noodles makes me think of a nice Sauvignon Blanc. Why? Because classic Sauvignon Blanc, whether New Zealander, Northern French or Californian, will display fairly lush fruit, thanks to Global Warming, nice bright acidity, herbal tones and if balanced right, it should be the perfect foil for this kind of dish. Mt. Nelson (NZ), Cotat Sancerre (Fr)or Girard Sauvignon Blanc (CA) fit this bill.

Can a red work? Why yes! A Fruit forward Pinot Noir, Grand Cru Beaujolais, German Spatburgunder or Lemberger. These fairly neutral dishes also match well with Champagne (what doesn't!!!) , Italian Prosecco or...oooh... Brachetto, which I dab behind my wife’s ears for dessert later.

Hey it's summer, how about Maple syrup glazed chicken. In this one you've got Ketchup, cider vinegar, butter, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper, cayenne, olive oil and perhaps a little charcoal grilled action. So we have sweetness, heat spice, acidity and fruit components.

One of the mis-understood and under appreciated great wines is Riesling and I don't mean the cheap poorly balanced simplistic versions you buy in the grocery store or at wine discounters. Many truly great Rieslings are dry to lightly sweet with scintillating acidity to balance and refresh the palette and it is the perfect white match here. The Germans produce, arguably, the best Rieslings (Reece-ling not Rise-ling, the diphthong ie rather than ei and “s” at the beginning of a word is like our “z” but when interior it is like our “s”) in the World due to what we call Terroir (soil, geological, strata, specific weather, slope, aspect and a very long tradition). But some goodies of a slightly different order can be had from the USA, New Zealand, Austria, Alsace and Australia. Here's a few Rudolf Muller Kabinett, St Urban-Hof Qba Estate, Dr. Thanisch Classic, Paraiso (CA), Weinbach, Schlumberger, Ostertag or Zind Humbrecht all from Alsace, Wente (CA).

Would a Chardonnay work? Possibly one like Girasole's fruit effusive version or Spellbound's smoky lush one. Reds? Fruit bomb reds like The Velvet Devil Merlot, Colosi's Nero D'Avola, Charlie Barra's Pinot Noir or Lapis Luna's Romanza Zinfandel.

Well I hope you are starting to assemble your visual palette. Wine and food pairings are intuitive and you can do it with a little effort. Until next time...Manger Bien la boisson bien!(eat well drink well).

-- Clyde Woode

Vino Foodo

Pairing Wine and Food in the 21st Century

Pairing wine with food like so many other aesthetically pleasing things in life is a matter of personal perception. Each individual brings a unique set of tools to the table which come to bear on any final pronouncement concerning what food matches better or “perfectly” with any given wine. Among the variables that challenge the concept of a perfect wine and food match are food and wine preferences i.e. our likes and not so likes, tolerance or perception thresholds, mood enhancers whether natural stimuli, environmental or the warm body sitting across from you. So is it an impossible task to pair wine and foods perfectly? Well, relatively speaking, no.

There have always been some great general guidelines for pairing wine with food, the oldest of which is “white with white and red with red”. This still works pretty darn well but for those of you yearning for more specific matches that get you closer to experiencing wine and food nirvana, let me give you a few more basic principals that might help you on your path to enlightenment.

When trying to pair wine with food, you will need to keep in mind things like texture of the food you are trying to match. Lightly textured foods like shrimp or plainly cooked chicken breast don't tend to match well with big burly Cabernet's or Chardonnay's, whereas a steak even plainly done would carry that Cabernet just fine. Seasoning, spice or sauces change the flavor and textural amplitude of an otherwise ordinary cut of meat and requires a correspondingly amped up wine. So a chicken in a rich Marsala wine sauce done with a demi glace and porcini mushrooms screams for a rich smoky Pinot Noir, a lush Cabernet, Merlot, Nebbiolo or Sangiovese. Pan seared scallops or Sherry seared shrimp take well to unoaked wines like many Sauvignon Blanc's, Albarino or a crisp Muscadet. Add red peppers to that shrimp and now an unoaked Chardonnay with all that ripe fruit or even a Riesling may be the better way to go because it will carry the heat better.

Some foods are notoriously bad wine mates but anything can be corrected by modification and preparation. Tomatoes, asparagus, artichokes and vinegar are generally adversarial with wine but only if they are on their own au natural. Vinegar is a reason many European's eat the salad with its vinaigrette at the end of the dinner. Using these adversaries in a sauce, adding sauce to or sweetening something like a vinaigrette can make these items a whole lot more wine friendly.

So then, what is the perfect match? It is the food and the wine that makes you happiest. Eat what you like and drink what you like, that’s what water is for. This is the first rule of the Hedonist. The second is no one knows better than I what I like. If pizza and Zinfandel is not your thing, then drink that Barbera or White Zinfandel with shameless abandon and enjoy yourself.

I leave you with this quote from Lilly Bollinger ( of Champagne Bollinger), who had found the perfect wine for all occasions.

"I drink it (Champagne) when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes, I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it when I'm not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it, unless I'm thirsty, of course."

-- Clyde Woode,

Still confused? Lacking confidence? It's OK! Try the following 3 takes on the same subject - and don't worry.

The following 3 paragraphs including the graphic images, are from The Wall Street Journal Online edition of Tastings, October 31, 2008.

Maggie Smith - Assistant manager, Just Grapes, Chicago

"What I do is look at the texture," she said. "Always ask how it's prepared, if it's grilled or braised or sautéed. A braised meat would be softer" than a steak, for instance, so you'd need more acidity and tannins for the steak than the braised meat. "Braising also brings out the gaminess, the earthiness of meats, so earthy wine works with that." And remember that the sauce also is key. "Even if you have grilled chicken with Marsala sauce, the sauce is ruling the dish, so the sauce would rule" the choice of wine. She also adds this important, general advice: "Try to keep it as simple as possible. Don't overthink it."

Rosemary Gray - Sales associate, Chambers Street Wines, New York City

"Well-balanced wines with lower alcohol tend to do better with food. They don't dominate the food. In general, wines that are medium-bodied, with low alcohol and good acidity, will work well. The acidity is going to be able to handle anything from fatty cheeses to steak. I have Sauvignon Blanc with steak and it works because of the high acid. It's not a traditional pairing, but it works for me."

Lynn Dakoulas - Sales associate, Lush Wine & Spirits, Chicago

"I like to pair in a complementary manner: a sweeter wine like Gewürztraminer with salty or pungent cheeses, or a light-bodied Barbera with high-fat game. This way you can really taste the opposing flavors, rather than following the traditional rules, which may often leave the wine and food blending together. What is most important is to pick something that balances well: spicy food with a light, fruity wine or spicy wine with a creamy dish. There are reds, whites and pinks for every meal, so just follow your cravings."

From Pairing Wine with Food to Wine in Prescott

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