Napa Valley Wine Radio

Well, it’s a fun read, as always with St. Vini, but I don’t entirely agree with this post or think he’s helping anyone this time. I’m OK with his big picture: “Don’t get hung up on these silly notions of wines and food being required to go perfectly together. Open a bottle of something tasty and drink up!”  Agreed. Wine is hard enough already and the last thing we want to do is imply that there’s a wrong way to do things. It just puts people off. And optimum pairing is just as personal as food preferences… but it should be fun and easy. For example, Colleen’s Kitchen offers many recipes and wine pairings that are easy to make and tough to beat.

But, let’s not throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water. There’s quite a distance between just paying attention and getting “hung up” on the wine and food combination. It’s not hard to create a good, or even wonderful, pairing so why not go for it? How could someone like St. Vini, with all he knows and loves about wine, really believe all of what he’s saying in his heart? Gosh, do you think he might be the first-ever blogger to go a little overboard to make a point??

Partial rebuttal:

1. No one should be looking around to see if someone else disapproves of his pairing choice. That’s just pathetic.
2. If people are so concerned about getting the food and wine pairing “correct” that they’re paralyzed into ordering beer (lager or stout?), then we’ve got a problem, but really. Are there grown-ups that insecure? Get thee to a therapist! Or just order the house white!
3. Some combinations are yucky (of course, yucky is in the eye - or palate - of the beholder). Cheese can be kinda tricky.
4. As many responded, if you’re going to put some effort into the meal preparation like getting fresh herbs from the Farmer’s Market or making your sauce from scratch, why is it so hard to put a little thought into your choice of wine? It’s part of the meal, after all.

I wonder what St. Vini would think about the Tim Hanni theory: “if the wine you really want to drink with your cottage cheese, sweet-and-sour shrimp, asparagus, Thai food, pasta, or anything else tastes bitter, less fruity and generally too strong with your meal, put a touch of salt and little squeeze of lemon on the food. The food will taste better to you and the wine will become smoother and more pleasant.”  I’ve tried it and, much to my surprise, it seems to work, but it also seems geared towards solving problems rather than increasing pleasure. I don’t know everything there is to know about his approach, but it doesn’t seem to encompass the quest for those magical food and wine combinations we come across from time to time. I’m all for solving problems but, given a choice, I’ll always shoot for pleasure.

So much of it is common sense. Most wines and foods taste pretty good together, and the best combinations are personal. And, a so-so combination is usually preferable to no wine at all - uh, oh - am I in trouble here??

Some easy-to-remember alternative pairing theories:

1. Match weight for weight: a hillside Cab will probably out-shout a poached filet of sole.
2. It’s not so much the choice of protein; it’s what you did to it: Did you poach it, roast it or grill it? Those techniques create progressively deeper flavors and may call for increasingly bigger wines.
3. Is there a sauce? Same story as #2: it’s what you did to it. Is it a rich reduction or a light, citrus-based sauce? You could go for a complement: butter sauce with buttery Chardonnay; or create a contrast: the richness of the butter sauce is cut by a crisp Sauvignon Blanc.
4. Try putting some of the wine in the sauce to seal the match.
5. Look for a complement: earthy Pinot or Merlot with wild mushroom risotto.
6. Or go for a fun contrast: hot, spicy food with a cool, crisp Riesling, Gewurztraminer or un-oaked Chenin Blanc.
7. Acid warning: if the food is tart, the wine should be at least as high in acid or it will seem flat.
8. Hot and spicy warning: spicy foods bring out bitterness and astringency in wine, so avoid the big tannic reds and go for a fruity, low tannin red or a light, fruity white.

Natalie MacLean was kind enough to forward this pairing tool to us. I checked it out and clearly, she’s not the fan of sparkling wine with food that I am (eggs and Champagne - YES!), but the suggestions are good and it’s definitely worth bookmarking.

Plus, it’s situational! Have you ever enjoyed a meal with your loved one when you’ve been arguing? Or, if you suddenly find yourself with an unexpected afternoon off and sharing a picnic with your sweetie in a beautiful park, you’ll probably be in such a good mood that some Kraft singles and a bottle of White Zin somehow become remarkably tasty. OK -  now I’m the one going too far to make a point, but we should never underestimate the influence of frame of mind on appreciation of music, art, food or wine.

That’s not so tough, is it? These are kind of basic guidelines that you can use as a springboard to reach higher and higher heights of wine and food pairing pleasure. And so many people seem to want to know more about this.

St. Vini suggested that to the question “What should we serve with the salmon ravioli?” the answer should be “Whatever you like.” Absolutely! But what’s wrong with having an informed opinion of “Whatever you like”? Is the salmon smoked? Does it have a cream sauce? It’s not about trying to be “correct”. It’s about exploring and having fun with it. In my experience, when people bother to inquire about how to pair wine with their meal it’s not because they want to bore their friends with their mastery of a bunch of rules. It’s because they love wine and food, love to entertain, and want to have a deliciously wonderful time at the dinner table. Hard to argue with that!

Well, it may not be all-American yet but, as Beau said, before long it could be that hot dogs and wine will be as American as apple pie (and wine)

So, what to have with your junk-food binge on the big day? Well, here I am to give you the same old advice. When in doubt, pick out some good, crisp bubbles and you can’t go wrong! Fizzy wine is particularly useful for the greasiest, most disgusting choices you make, for instance fried pork rinds (must you??). The acid will help cleanse your palate after that revolting assault. Nice, grease-laden onion rings too. No question about it (yummm).

Chicago sommelier Alpana Singh made a good point, so I’m going to get all nationalistic here for a minute (good for sales, you know). Football is an all-American game and a lot of the foods are American icons like hot dogs and hamburgers, so let’s keep it American, folks. And when you think red, think Zinfandel! Besides the fact that America made it famous and it has been uniquely ours up to rather recently, it actually works surprisingly well with a variety of these delectably-toxic foods! If you pick out some Zin that’s big on fruit and low in tannin and oak you’re not going to have too much difficulty with salty or hot, spicy foods. If it’s really hot food, like hot salsa, serve it with a hefty dose of citrus to build a bridge to the wine. Try to find Zin that has a reasonable alcohol - unless, of course, you don’t really enjoy football. ;-)  OK, you don’t want to read a bunch of prose, so down to brass tacks:

• Popcorn and potato chips: Sparkling wine, of course (especially if there’s onion dip!) Or, another high-acid white.
• Mixed nuts: Nuts seem to be very wine-friendly in general, so drink your fave. If you like wines that are big on the oak, the toastiness is a complement. If they’re super salty, then careful of the alcohol and oak. Maybe go with something a little sweet (salty and sweet - mmm!)
• Burgers: It has to be Zin!
• Hot dogs: High-acid white or light-bodied red.
• Chili dogs: Light to medium bodied red. If it’s 5-alarm chili, whatever it is, go easy on the alcohol and tannin. Go to a light-bodied, virtually no-tannin red like Gamay, a high-acid white, a slightly sweet white - or maybe a dry rose! If it’s a searing-hot chili that brings tears to the eyes and sweat to the brow you might have to give up and have a beer (I didn’t say that.)
• Pizza: It really depends on the toppings, but if it’s traditional red-sauce pizza, of course you must have Zinfandel (or American Primitivo)!

Well, this starts to become repetitive - you see the pattern. High acid whites and light-bodied, low-tannin reds (and acid’s good for them too) are the most versatile, so stock up! And perhaps, since this is subjective, you have other ideas. Bring ‘em on!! But whatever you do, don’t let me catch you drinking beer!PS: Let’s hope this isn’t one of those years when the commercials are the most entertaining part of the game… And get your cholesterol checked!

It’s the third Thursday of November! They’re here! Wine that was fruit on the vine a couple of months ago is bottled and ready to drink!

I’ve always been dazzled by the accomplishment, probably more than the wine itself. Oh, I’ll pick up a few bottles to be sure. It’s so fruity and charming, just not a whole lot more. My favorite memory of a Beaujolais Nouveau was one that smelled exactly like my aunt Linda’s ambrosia salad, including the marshmallows. Wish I could remember the brand… And Beaujolais Nouveau is a great choice for your turkey for next week.

But, you have to be really organized to harvest, crush, ferment, press, clarify, bottle and get it out on the shelves by November 16, assuming you harvested around September 16th. Wow!

Even more impressive is the brilliant marketing. They’ve built this mystique around the wine, that if you don’t drink it right away it will spoil! The stuff flys off the shelves! Pure genius.

Get serious. Any well-made wine should have at least a couple of good years. It won’t be as vibrantly fruity a year from now as it is today, but if it isn’t drinkable, I have a quarrel with that.

I’ll tell you what I think: the best time to drink Beaujolais Nouveau is summertime. With all that fruity vivacity and almost zero tannin, it’s one of the few reds that tastes good chilled. So, on that warm summer evening, or at your 4th of July picnic, you fire up the barbeque, throw on the burgers and pop some well-chilled Beaujolais Nouveau . What could be better????  Santé!

Talk about perfect symmetry! As I wrote earlier in the entry called Culinary Getaways a la Provencal, Colleen Topper, our proprietor, and I have been in Provence and the southern Rhone tasting our palates off. And I believe we’ve discovered one of the most decadent ways to be educated in sensory evaluation. What a way to make a living!

We were whisked away to Chateau St. Esteve de Neri in the Cotes de Luberon and I thought, great - tour and tasting. Mais non!! This was not a routine visit to a winery. The estate is owned by Allan and Alex Wilson, who must be two of the most gracious souls on the planet.  Allan began by giving us a little test. Have you ever seen the Le Nez du Vin kit? It’s tons of fun. He had over a dozen vials from the kit, marked only by a number and our job was to identify the wine-related smells.  You know… blackberry, smoke, cassis… It’s amazing to discover what you don’t know, when you don’t know.  I’ll be straight with you… Colleen and I didn’t do too well in our jet-lagged and luggage-less condition (always an excuse, right?).  Some aromas were really obvious and others were quite difficult.

I polled other members in our group later to double-check my own impressions - I love the kit, but in the countless times I’ve used it, I find that some of the samples aren’t very true to their source, which just means that even after the correct aroma was revealed, licorice still didn’t smell like licorice to me. Yup, they agreed.  But that’s really not the point, and that’s why I recommend trying it. The point is to get your sensory wheels turning. It’s kind of like warming up before a marathon. That brief exercise served us well when it was time to taste the genuine article, the wine! The descriptors were flying around the room!

Next, Allan gave us a brief overview and tasting of the major French varieties. He covered the typical characteristics of the varieties and where in France they make their home. His selections were excellent representations of the type and he made it very fun and informative. I just kept wondering when we would taste St. Esteve de Neri?  When comes the sales pitch?

Then it was time for a casual, but sumptuous Provencal-style lunch on their grounds (I believe Sherry probably pulled some strings to arrange this - it may not be generally available) during which we polished off the tasting wines and a few bottles of St. Esteve to boot! Yum….

What does this have to do with balance? Fast forward to the day’s end. We went back to the farmhouse to relax, and our huge lunch was balanced by a relatively light cheese and wine tasting with a Provencal-style (translates as “don’t spare the garlic!”) salad for dinner. But what was dessert? Incredible!  Sherry had purchased a gorgeously colorful “cake” from a local glacier which was composed of pretty little balls of over 20 flavors of ice cream. You got it - guess the flavor! I must say that we, as a group, seemed to excel at this task.  As it happened our group was all women, and just imagine turning a bunch of women loose on an ice cream cake! We were absolutely determined to identify those flavors, no matter the difficulty, and our perseverance paid off!  That poor, lovely cake didn’t know what hit it. And our day came full circle.

I have to add a post-script. Later that week, Alex and Allan astounded us again, by coming to the farmhouse to taste the wines of the Cotes de Luberon.  Again, well balanced: we went from the big picture, the whole of France, earlier in the week, to the micro-picture, the 7000-acre Luberon AOC, our final night. I’m happy to say that among the eight bottles we tasted, Allan included a delicious bottle of Chateau St. Esteve de Neri Grande Expression, a blend of Syrah, Grenache (they call it Grenache Noir in Provence) and Carignane, and finally, at our request, provided us with the name of his distributor here in the USA: the Tinamou Wine Company in Sonoma, California. Just e-mail twc1955@aol.com or call (800) 388-6390.  Santé!!