Tuesday, September 11 2007
Wine and Food
Fifteen years ago our customers didn't demand much from me for wine knowledge–red with steak, white with fish, Port for after dinner. As time has passed, folks have increased their sophistication and wine savvy, especially after the explosion in wine consumption that followed the revelation of the French Paradox (wine consumption potentially reduces the incidence of cardiovascular disease among the French). Suddenly I'm being asked to provide information on varietals, growing regions, wine styles and stylistic variations by country, and I can't just get by on my good looks anymore.
Food and wine pairing is something the average consumer is rarely comfortable with. Commonly available wine books are usually silent–or at best vague–on the subject, while the glossy coffee table books are full of rules and dogma, and can be confusing. Really though, wine and food pairing is not complicated, and the few rules really aren't rules–they're merely guidelines for getting the most from both the meal and the wine.
A second purpose of food and wine pairing is matching your cellar to your menu. It's important to consider the function of a cellar: to hold a variety of wines, ready to drink, for different meals, in different seasons. In summer, most people want lighter meals and the heat makes them crave cool, refreshing beverages. In the winter, hearty, richly flavoured foods chase off the chill, as does robust, hearty wine. For every season, there is a cuisine; for every cuisine, there is a wine; for every wine, there is (or should be!) an appreciative drinker.
One thing to always keep in mind: every wine you want to drink is an appropriate wine. Although this entry talks about the 'right' wine, the intent is only to help get the most out of a pairing. Nobody should ever feel intimidated about their food and wine choices and everyone has a different idea of what tastes good to them.
The whole idea behind matching a particular wine to a certain food is to try and achieve synergy from the interaction of flavours. Synergy is defined as 'increased effectiveness or achievement produced by combined action'. It helps to think of wine as a super-condiment. When mustard is slathered on a hot dog, or lime squeezed on ceviche it's because the two taste great together. Not many people eat mustard by itself, or suck on plain limes but they produce a very nice synergy combined with other foods. Wine does this as well, with the added bonus that it's an excellent beverage on its own.
The idea with wine and food matching is to get the most out of both items. You probably don't want to serve an intense old-vine Zinfandel with a light pasta and cream sauce any more than you would serve a delicate, floral Washington Riesling with Carolina barbecue. In the first case the Zinfandel would completely overwhelm the relatively innocuous flavour of the pasta and in the second, the intensely smoky, unctuous barbecue would make the Riesling taste weak and thin. The idea is to try to match the intensity of the food with the power of the wine.
As a good rule of thumb, light food (i.e., a poached, skinless chicken breast and steamed carrots) is best served with a light wine (in this case, perhaps a nice Italian Pinot Grigio). That way the delicate flavour of the food won't get pushed around. Heavy food (i.e., a big slab of prime rib with garlic mashed and mushrooms) won't overpower a big, flavourful Australian Cabernet/Shiraz. Everyone has to decide for themselves where the cut-off for light or heavy is, but keeping it in mind will help pick an appropriate wine.
Acid has a negative connotation in daily life, as does 'sour'. This is too bad. While there's nothing wrong with sweet, sour is really under-rated. It heightens flavours, and 'lengthens' their effect (this isn't just a perception: the ions that the acid unleashes on the palate open up the tastebuds and zap the flavour intensity). Apple pie needs a bit of lemon juice, and oysters have to have a squeeze of zesty lemon.
Acid in wine helps a couple of things: it can either highlight or it can cut through sweetness, and it can help cleanse the palate of strongly flavoured dishes. It also helps the wine stand up to acidic flavours. A really flinty-dry Sauvignon Blanc with high acidity will taste wonderful with dishes laced with citrus, where a soft off-dry Riesling would taste flabby, and weak.
This also works backwards: a flinty-dry Sauvignon Blanc served with a fresh juicy peach tart will probably taste about the same as licking the battery terminal on a car. On the other hand, a delicate, off-dry Washington State Riesling would highlight the sweetness of the fruit, and seem perfectly balanced.
Red table wines are usually dry (free of residual sugar), and any perception of sweetness that they carry comes from the fruit character of the grape or wine style: Shiraz is usually bursting with jammy fruit character, while French Cabernet Sauvignon or Red Bordeaux blends are less fruity, more austere and structured. For the purposes of food matching, think of structure in a wine like the structure of a song: is it light, airy and gently melodic? Is it heavy and dark, and intensely moving? Or does it lodge in your head and bother you for the rest of the day?
Wines described as having 'structure' tend to have less fruit, and more alcohol, tannin and acid. Really fruity reds work well with sweeter and more intensely flavoured sauces, such as barbecue sauce or cherry demi-glace, while less fruity, more structured wines work better on simpler dishes, such as pan-fried steak, or pork chops.
Also, really fruity wines tend to hold their own against salt. This is why overwhelmingly fruity wines such as Icewine taste great with Roquefort cheese or barbecued almonds, while an austere Alsatian Pinot Blanc (very dry indeed!) would be far less satisfactory.
A quick word on wine and cheese: while the phrase seems to be lodged in the collective consciousness of wine consumers, the two don't actually go well together in many cases, especially with dry white wines and most reds. Cheese is an earthy, savoury, high-fat, dense food, and finding a wine that enhances it is a challenge. Still, your customers may appreciate the challenge and cheese and wine might be a good selling feature on your menu.
All of the above information may be correct, but to be useful, we need a quick way of determining which wine will go with the foods we've chosen, and vice-versa. The best way to develop a guideline is based on flavour intensity. Although this will work in most cases, experiences will vary: always remember, whatever your customer enjoys drinking is the right wine for them.
Light Whites
Delicate fish, sole, cod, oysters, simply prepared chicken dishes
Medium Whites
Medium white fish, Snapper, scallops, flavorful (herbed) chicken dishes, Veal or pork chops
Heavy Whites
Heavy or oily fish, salmon, tuna, lobster, Chinese food or other spicy cuisine
Light Reds
Salmon, duck, roast chicken
Medium Reds
Game birds, grilled veal, pork roast, Burgers
Heavy Reds
Lamb, Steak, Venison, Rich sauces
Don't worry if you don't see your menu items listed here: first, as a thumbnail guideline, you've got a lot of leeway for matching your foods and wines–think of the matching challenge as a playground, not a prison, and have some fun with it.
Second, there is a lot of overlap between different wines and different palates. You may happen to think that really crisp dry Sauvignon Blanc is a terrific match with Szechuan cooking, while someone else might favour off-dry, spicy Gewürztraminer: there's always another choice that might work equally well with different foods.
Third, you don't need a thousand choices on your wine list or in your cellar to service your menu. Start by picking wines that customers like to drink by themselves, and fill out your list with a few food friendly wines. The following list of wines and alternates will work with a broad range of food choices and cuisines, and won't overload your cellar.
Whites
Rosé/Blush (any off-dry to medium will do)
Pinot Gris or Pinot Grigio
Sauvignon Blanc
Chardonnay
Riesling
Gewürztraminer
Reds
Beaujolais/Pinot Noir
Chianti or Valpolicella
Barolo or Zinfandel
Cabernet
Merlot
Zinfandel
Shiraz
A word on sparkling wine: it's the ultimate food matching wine and goes with everything, from Thai food to Foie Gras, pizza to partridge. It and can be drank from appetiser to dessert without seriously clashing with any food. When in doubt call the bubbly out!
This is by no means a complete course on food and wine matching. For more information you could try one of the books listed below, or try the wine and food section of your local newspaper, food and wine specialty magazines. But, while there is help out there, rely on your taste and your own ideas about food and wine rather than let your choices be dictated by books–any wine you like will always be the right one to drink.
Wine With Food, Joanna Simon
Fine Wine in Food, Patricia Ballard
Pairing Wine with Food, Robert and Virginia Hoffman
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