Ice wine and hot wings? Well, maybe not. Jase and Chris offer up a few helpful hints for finding wine to pair with the foods you love.
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Recently i have discovered that wine really does taste good. Before I had been turned off to wine by cheap Chardonnay and bad Chianti. Now I have seen the light. I havn’t tried a whole lot yet but the wine that I like the most so far is a Sauvignon Blanc from Columbia Crest’s Two Vines label. I guess my question, since I am still an amateur, is what food pairs best with it?
Chris, thanks for the comment. If your goal is wine and food pairing, you’ve found a great place to start. Sauvignon Blanc is extremely versatile. Not only is it very acidic, it also has a distinct green character. Because of this, it can shine alongside vegetable dishes where other wines fall flat. Sauvignon Blanc and Asparagus is a classic pairing. If you’re not so hot on the veggies, don’t worry. The acidity in this wine allows it to cut through fatty or creamy dishes with ease. One of my personal favorites is Sauvignon Blanc and fried chicken. More specifically, try a ripe New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with a fried chicken sandwich, and don’t skimp on the mayo… heaven! Seafood is also an option if the SB in question is fairly mild, but I would be lying if I said this was my go-to varietal for fish.
Columbia Crest makes some solid wines for the money, but I do recommend you explore other options as well. Be sure to try a couple of examples from New Zealand, you should be able to find some great wines in the $10-$15 range. A couple I can recommend off hand are the Kim Crawford and Nobilo. You can find both of these at http://www.InternetWines.com .
Funny and good info as always. That white bordeaux sounds good. I think I’d like to try that one.
So is acid the opposite of tannin? How do I know what wine has what without tasting them first? I would like to try that Barbera… I feel like every time I turn around there is a new type of wine or grape(?), could you possibly run down all the types of wine and a brief description of each (dry, sweet)…that’s for us “wine for dummies” fans…
Just to make things as complicated as possible… tannin is an acid. Oh, and there are over 10,000 known varieties of grape within the family Vitis Vinifera alone. And really any of them could be used to make a dry or sweet wine. Yikes!
Of course, we don’t need to know all of these. I’d say if you’re familiar with 25-30 varieties, you’re probably in good shape (and probably well on your way to becoming a wine geek). There’s even a club online for folks who have sampled 100 different varieties. Check it out at ( http://www.delongwine.com/century.html ). They also sell a grape chart that looks like a periodic table. I’ll definitely think about discussing some varietal basics in upcoming episodes, but we may have to do it in small chunks. Otherwise, we’re talking about a really long episode. In the meantime, check out these links for an overview…
( http://wine.appellationamerica.com/varietal-index.aspx )
-This one’s pretty fun.
( http://www.winepros.org/wine101/grape_profiles/varietals.htm )
So back to acid & tannin. Tannin is that chalky sensation you get from a wine. It sort of dries out the palate. It also adds structure and body to a wine. Acid tends to make the mouth water, and can make a wine seem more lively. In a sense, they do oppose each other; but in good balanced red wine, both are generally present and working in unison.
So how do you know? Well, knowing your grape varieties can be a good place to start (Cabernet is tannic, Barbera is acidic, etc.). Knowing where the wine is grown will give you hints as well. Cooler climates generally yield lower alcohol wines with greater acid. And so Pinot Noir grown in Burgundy( or for that matter Oregon) will generally have more acid than Pinot grown in California. If in doubt, look at the alcohol. High alcohol = low acid and vice versa. If you see a wine at 14.5% alcohol, odds are it has a low natural acidity.
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*Update 8/5/09… scratch the above link to appellationamerica.com. They’ve started charging for this content. It’s a shame, this was a great approach to the subject. Try instead:
http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/Varietal-Characteristics_1001 .
This is the Wine Spectator’s varietal page. It’s a little sparse and dated, but it’s a good quick overview.
Thanks for all the info!!!
I recently was given a 1998 Cabernet-Sauvignon and a 1998 Merlot-Cabernet both from Columbia Crest. My question is does wine pair differently when it is aged?
Yes. While general pairing rules still apply, an aged wine becomes subtler, more integrated, and less tannic. Milder food choices become a safer bet. So, for example, you might pair a young Washington Cab with a charcoal grilled strip steak rubbed with black pepper, and topped with a bourbon molasses butter; but after 10 years in bottle, you might consider a simple roast instead. This is not to say that great care need be taken with every bottle of well-aged wine. Some wines will stay tight and retain their primary fruit longer than others. A ten year-old wine that was designed to age gracefully may still be sturdier than a 2 year-old wine that was not.
Now the bad news… not all wine should be considered for long-term cellaring. Even if they've been kept in ideal conditions, your bottles of Columbia Crest may well be over the hill. I took a quick look at http://www.cellartracker.com, and there appears to be hope for the Cab. The Cab-Merlot may be dicey. If you're opening these for guests, be sure to have a backup bottle. In either case, be sure to decant as there may be significant sediment.