Wine and Food Pairing

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about going wine tasting. This week, I want to talk about pairing wines and food. After all, surrounded by so many great wines, how do I know what I should serve with a meal? I mean, white wine with white meat and red wine with red meat is so old-school. What do I serve with tuna? Does it matter if the tuna is sashimi (and therefore red) or grilled (and therefore white)? What if I'm not serving meat?

Let me start by saying, I'm not an expert. My use of wine terminology isn't necessarily what other people would use, but it's how I think about the wine and what its flavors are. It's also honest. I've come at pairing food and wine primarily from a cook's point of view -- the food is paramount. However, this isn't to say that I haven't built a meal around an interesting bottle of wine.

No matter how much you read about wines and pairing wines and food, there is no substitute for just getting out there and tasting the wines yourself. Everyone's palate is a little different; only you know what you like and why.

Pairing wine and food has two primary strategies: contrast and complement. In theory, these strategies are simple to apply. You either pair a wine and a food with contrasting qualities, such as pairing a sweet dessert wine with a bitter dark chocolate dessert, or with complementary qualities, such as pairing a Szechuan beef stir-fry with a spicy Barberi red wine. The reality of wine pairing is a little trickier.

In general, I tend to pair food and wine by which complements the flavor of the other. So, if I braise a chicken breast in a Chardonnay, I'm likely to serve a Chardonnay with it, sometimes from the same vintner, sometimes from another. For example, I brined two game hens in an oaked Chardonnay for Thanksgiving and served an unoaked Chardonnay with the meal. There was a risk that the Chardonnay in the brine would overwhelm what I served with dinner (due to the oakiness), but I expected the unoaked Chardonnay to help highlight the lightness and sweetness of the meat (which it did admirably).

However, you don't always cook with wine. Complementing the flavors of the wine and food is somewhat less obvious. I like to pair Merlot and Zinfandel wines with strongly spiced beef; I prefer Merlot when beef has heavier spicing (read: lots of spices, but not necessarily hot) and Zinfandel when I have a creamier/fattier sauce. However, when the food is spicy (read: hot), I really like to pair with a Syrah; the Syrah quenches the flames without washing away all the heat like a heavier red would. Sangiovese and Barberi are other varietals that are nice to pair with a spicy dish as the wine highlights the spicy flavor but controls the heat well.

Vegetarian dishes can pair well with red or white wines. In general, the preparation serves as a nice guide. Grilled or roasted vegetables tend to go better with Pinot Noir, Petit Syrah, or a Cabernet Franc, especially when spiced with basil or rosemary. When put in a tomato sauce, such as a ragout or a parmesian, I like Cabernet Sauvignon; the sharpness of the wine plays well with the tomato sauce. However, in cream sauces or cheese sauces, such as a broccoli rice casserole, whites generally work best. Which white works best depends on the effect I want. If the sauce is rich, I might pair it with a Chardonnay to highlight the voluptuousness of the sauce or pair it with a Pinot Gris to refresh the palate during the meal, allowing you to explore the intricacies of the cheese as you eat.

Cream sauces can be fun to pair with a meal. For a cream sauce built around mushrooms or beef, I like a nice red, usually a Pinot Noir or Petit Syrah. For a cream sauce with chicken, veal, or fish, Pinot Gris can be nice, unless the cream sauce is strongly flavored, such as a lemon beurre blanc. Then I would tend to go with a Chardonnay. Grilled chicken pairs wonderfully with a Chardonnay or a Sauvignon Blanc, but barbecued chicken is better with a Pinot Noir or a Petit Syrah.

Sushi is an interesting meal to pair a wine with. I tend to go with a white, not because sushi is fish, but because the flavors are a bit lighter overall (even unagi/eel). I like a Pinot Gris with sushi because it cleanses and refreshes the palate nicely. The lightness of the wine highlights the lightness and freshness of the fish.

Another interesting dish to pair a wine with is dessert. Most desserts are sweet, so pairing a sweet wine with it runs the risk of creating an cloyingly sweet end of a meal. I prefer to contrast my wine with dessert, serving a sweet Riesling, Gewurztraminer, or even an ice wine with a dark, bitter chocolate, for instance. Dry Rieslings work well with sweeter desserts. I'm still exploring dessert wines, mostly because I am not overly fond of sweet wines (unless I'm planning to mull it).

I haven't discussed blends here. The specific characteristics of a blend depends on which wines are used in the blend and the proportions of the wines. As a result, familiarity with a given vintner's blend is the best guide for pairing.

In the end, the best way to determine what wine to pair a food with is your own taste. You need to taste wines to learn their characters, both of the variety of wine and of the vintner. Like I said at the beginning, these are only my opinions at this time. As I explore new varietals, such as Lembergers and Vignoiers, I may change my opinions about best pairings.

Wine Tasting

I didn't get much cooking done this week. I went wine tasting the weekend after Thanksgiving and had a blast. Unfortunately I also came home with a raging allergic reaction to something -- soap, we think -- on my hands, arms, and legs (the arms and legs are just an overreaction to the soap). However, it's taking a pretty serious steroid cream to bring it to bay, so I've not done much with food.

That's not to say I don't have anything to talk about. Remember, I was on a wine tasting trip; so I've got lots to talk about. I tasted at least 100 wines at 16 wineries in the Tri-Cities region of Washington over the course of two days. Don't worry, I wasn't driving, and generally didn't have more than a sip or two of any wine.

Washington state wines are coming out of obscurity and being recognized as the great wines they are. Washington vintners produce big, buxom Chardonnays; crisp, clean Pinot Noirs; well-balanced, lush Merlots; and subtly complex Syrahs. Do you want me to gush more? I didn't think so.

I noticed some interesting trends in wine production. Viogniers and Lembergers are the two hot new varietals that vintners are producing; at least one third of the wineries were sampling one or the other of them. Historically, these wines have been used predominantly for blending; now they are being recognized as varietals in their own right.

A Viognier is a quiet white wine. Its delicate fruitiness plays well along the tongue with just enough acidity and a touch of spiciness to keep it interesting. A Viognier has more body than a Pinot Gris or a Riesling, but is lighter than a Sauvignon Blanc.

A Lemberger, on the other hand, is a red wine. Elements of cherries and berries combine with a bright acidity to wake up the tongue. Lembergers are great wines when you want a wine that is reminiscent of a Merlot without the ponderousness that a Merlot can have.

Another interesting trend is Rieslings. Most of the Rieslings that Washington wineries have been producing are sweet, dessert Rieslings. Recently, several wineries in the area have been experimenting with dry Rieslings -- to great effect. A dry, crisp Riesling is quite refreshing, well-prepared to complement a cheese casserole (but I get ahead of myself -- that's next week's post).

Speaking of next week's post, it's getting late and I'm getting itchy (again). So I'm going to let you go so I can put cream on my poor itching epidermis. But before I go, next week's post is going to talk about pairing wines and foods -- just in time for the holidays!

Terroir Tasting, continued

To my readers: Sorry I didn't post last night. We went to Canada over the weekend and when I got home from work last night it was just about all I could do to make dinner and go upstairs to bed.

To continue my thoughts regarding terroir, I've taste-tested coffees and chocolates from various regions around the world. And in so doing, I know I've tasted the terroir of these regions. So the question is: why can I taste the terroir of coffee and chocolate, but didn't recognize it in the wine?

Part of the answer lies in the products themselves and how they are treated. With coffee there is a limited amount of processing that can affect the flavor significantly: type of tree planted (robusta vs. arabica), ripeness at harvest, wet/dry processing, darkness of roast, size of grind, and type of brew (drip, percolate, boil). None of these processes affect the fundamental character of the coffee; the most they can do is highlight certain flavor notes the drinker is interested in. Granted which sub-type of arabica that is grown does affect the flavor, but overall, the character of the microclimate/microgeology (I will use these terms for the physical nature of terroir to keep it distinct from the flavor nature) still come through.

In producing a bottle of wine, the vintner makes many more decisions that will affect the flavor of the final product. Not only does he choose the variety of grape, irrigation, fertilization, etc., just as the coffee producer does with coffee, but he also chooses the variety of yeast he uses (and there are dozens, each with their own characteristic flavor they lend to the wine), how long the fermentation occurs, whether he ages in steel or oak barrels, how long he ages the wine, whether he blends wines from different fields or different years, when and how he clarifies/racks the wine, how and if he stops the fermentation, whether or not to add sugar to increase the sweetness (or the alcoholic yield), to name a few. I find that these decisions more strongly affected the flavor profiles of the wines we sampled than did the microclimate/microgeology.

As I said last week, none of those who were tasting were experienced in sampling the terroir of wine. I believe to fully appreciate terroir I will need some guidance from oeniphiles more experienced in discerning its distinction than I am. I'm not surprised by this; I know there's a lot more out there for me to learn about wine.

Terroir Tasting

The terroir tasting party went well. We had 16 bottles of pinot, but only opened about eight. We had five French wines, three Canadian, four American, one Australian, one New Zealand, and one Chilean. I actually think our variety was a little too broad for us to identify what we were looking for. I also need to do more research before we do this again (and it's expensive!).

However, the night was not all lost. Our group had some very interesting observations. We noticed the difference the vintner made more than we could identify the difference the microclimate/microgeology. We had two bottles by the same vintner who seemed to be from different areas of Côte du Rhône. Both wines were substantially similar in flavor and color; there was not much difference.

We also noticed a distinct difference in the French aesthetic separate from the non-French aesthetic. French pinots were a bit fruitier than non-French wines. Non-French wines tended to be mineral-y and spicy. However, there was one American wine that clearly aimed for a French aesthetic; Mirassou was clearly fruitier than most non-French wines.

The primary lesson I learned is I need to find a more knowledgeable sommelier and attend more of the local wine-tasting seminars held at the specialty grocery and wine stores. I also need to spend more time with the pinot noirs; while they are not as full-bodied as my preferred merlots and shiraz, they titillate both the tongue and nose with their bouquet and subtle depth of flavor.

Terroir

Next weekend, we are having a group of people over for wine-tasting. The goal is to learn how to discern the terroir of wine -- i.e., the effects microclimates have on the personality (flavor and quality) of wine. Reisling and pinot noir are the varieties whose flavors are most reflective of their terroir. Given most of our guests are red-wine drinkers, we are sampling pinot noirs.

Why look at terroir? Because terroir contributes to the distinctiveness of each wine producing region. This is not to say that the vintner has little to do with the wine; in fact this is far from the case. One of the most important decisions the vintner has to make is selecting where his grapes will be grown, whether he grows them himself or contracts their growing. A skilled vintner can often produce a drinkable product from a dismal year.

The concept of terroir (or environmental influence on the character of the product) is being applied to much more than just wine. Terroir has been applied to coffee for several decades, though not by that name. Everyone knows that Sumatran coffees tend to be smoky, dark, and rich while Costa Rican coffees are known for being well-balanced and mellow. Chocolatiers are just entering the terroir scene; Ghiradelli and other high-end chocolate producers now offer single region (and sometimes single supplier) chocolates so all the nuances can be savored. Even meat and dairy producers are starting to explore terroir and how it improves their product's marketability.

We will be sampling wines from Oregon, Washington, California, New Zealand, Canada, France, and Australia (if I'm remembering correctly), at least 10 wines. Each of these regions uses a different strategy for growing their grapes. France tends not to irrigate its vineyards, relying on the natural rainfall to provide sufficient moisture to ensure a good crop. Washington's grape growers in the Columbia River Valley irrigate their vineyards to provide ample moisture, but the soils are not as rich (a result of the repeated scourings given by the 14+ incarnations of Glacial Lake Missoula during the Ice Age). Oregon's Willamette Valley soils are rich, but the rains are seasonal, September through May. Each strategy stresses the vines to encourage fruit production over leaf production and limit the total amount of fruit so the flavor will be as concentrated as possible. By comparing the wines produced under these different conditions, we hope to start discerning the terroir of wine.

Next week, I plan to post the results of our tasting.