Food Pairing & Wine with Barb Ballard

I am often asked about what wine to pair with a particular food. Perfect wine and food matching is rare.  Success requires knowledge of food and a lot of good luck, and the spirit to try new things without a fear of making a mistake.

I'd like to start by defining a few words that are thrown around liberally in the wine world:

• Taste: The primary sensation in your mouth
• Flavor: The smell, PLUS the taste
• Aroma: The smell of the grapes (literally what God did)
• Bouquet: The smell of fermentation (literally what the winemaker has done to it)

Some wines and food are simply not compatible. For example, try tasting a very dry white wine with a sweet dessert. You can chalk up such a faux pas as learning experiences. Matching a wine with a wrong food can make both items taste bad.

The trick is to evoke the wine, and food memory, and play a matching game. Whenever you taste a wine, think of what flavors go with it to build your taste memory. Describe the flavors that you can taste in the wine (for example, fruity, creamy, peppery, tart) and immediately, certain foods come to mind that have the same qualities. These similarities do not mean that wine and food need to have the same traits. You can play the matching game in two ways: You can match wine with foods with similar characteristics or you can decide that opposites attract.

Since this is a blog about my opinion, I will divulge my personal guidelines:

Drink what you like.
What you like to drink always takes precedence over any recommendation that I might make.

Start by thinking about the dish or meal as a whole.

• What are its dominant characteristics?
• Is it mild or flavorful?
• Is it fatty or lean?
• Is it rich or acidic?

With these characteristics in mind, select a wine that will:

• Keep flavors in balance.

• Match mild foods with mild wines. Match big, flavorful foods with big, flavorful wines.(For example, pair a bold-flavored Pepper Steak with a spicy, bold red like JAV’s St. Croix.) Similarly you generally want to match the richness of the food and the richness of the wine. (For example, pair a rich Chicken in Cream Sauce with a rich dry white, like JAV’s Game Bird White.)

• Cleanse the palate with tannins or acids.

If you're eating a relatively rich, 'fatty' dish and think about drinking a red wine. You will want a wine with some good tannin structure to help cleanse the palate.

Match Acids with Acids

If you're eating a dish with a strong acidic content (such as Shrimp with Lemon or Pasta with Tomato Sauce)
pair it with an acidic wine that can keep up with the acids in the food.

Acidic Wines and Cream Don't Mix

Rich cream sauces will usually clash with an acidic wine. Think about it this way...If you squeezed lemon juice into a cup of milk, would it taste good?

Wine and Strong Spices

Strong spices, such as hot chili peppers in some Chinese or Indian food, can clash and destroy the flavors in a wine. In most cases, wine is not the ideal thing to drink. However, if wine is what you must have, consider something spicy and sweet itself such as JAV’s Edelweiss or 2 Brothers.

Having said all of this, most importantly DO NOT let anyone tell you that just because you prefer a semi-sweet white wine you can never order a steak again. Just as each of us appreciates art differently, each of our tastes in wine will be different. As long as you are enjoying wine and experimenting with different flavors and building your wine memory you are golden. It comes down to wine being the natural accompaniment to a meal. To me, a meal without wine is like a meal without salt and pepper.

Half the fun of pairing food and wine is not the end result, but the journey of discovery and endless reasons to indulge in more food and wine!

How To Store Wine

When asked the best way to store wine, we also reply either upside down on its side makes the most sense rather than neck up. This is done for a couple of reasons.

Wine's worst enemy is oxygen. When Jim is in winemaking mode, he takes extra care to make sure oxygen doesn’t enter the wine at any point in the process. A wine that is oxidized will not only lose its color, but will turn bad very quickly. Once a wine is bottled, cork is used to keep oxygen out. However, if stored upright, a cork could dry out, causing it to shrink. This will allow oxygen to enter. The best way to keep the cork from drying out is to store the bottle "on its side", or upside down, so the wine comes into contact with the cork. This prevents the cork from drying and shrinking.

Unfortunately, if the cork is tainted, (something that happens in the manufacturing of the cork, a rare but nasty occurrence), contact with the wine will only speed up the tainting process, ruining the wine. However, a cork is much more likely to dry up and shrink than it is to experience tainting.

Another reason for storing a bottle on its side is simply a matter of space. When wines are stored standing up, it creates have less space for storage. Also, it’s much easier to read a wine's label if the bottle is lying on its back, showing up rather than showing out.

If you want to enjoy your wine for years to come, store your wine on its side. Remember, “a wet cork is a happy cork.”

The Right Wine Glass ...

How do you choose the best glass for wine? The old joke is “the one you’re holding!” There’s some truth to that! In all seriousness, choosing the appropriate wine glass can make an ordinary wine experience and extraordinary one. There are many different kinds of wine glasses..a larger open bowl for reds, flutes for sparkling, small glasses for a dessert wine and so forth. However, not all of us have the luxury (or space) to have access to all these different styles of glasses on a daily basis. Most of us just need a good, solid, everyday wine glass to enjoy our latest selection. Here’s a couple of tips that might be helpful when you purchase those next glasses for everyday use:

1. This may seem silly, but make sure the glass is clear. We need to see our wine. The thinner the glass the better for clarity and flavor
2. When pouring larger amounts, especially of red, the larger the bowl the better. This gives the wine room to breathe, and it easier to swirl without making a mess.
3. Tumblers have become the latest rage, but a wine glass with a stem is what we like to use. This allows for holding the glass without creating smudges or warming up your wine.
4. You don’t need to take out a small loan to buy nice everyday glasses. You can usually find good wine glasses for less than $15/piece. This way, if one happens to break, you won’t be too heartbroken.
5. Finally, the best rule of thumb, is in finding the best wine glass..is the one that the wine tastes best to you!

Tasting Notes - Useful & Fun

You can make notes on tasting cards, in notebooks, or there are even wine journals available that can help you through the process. Here at JAV we really try to espouse the idea that wine should be fun and part of an everyday healthy lifestyle. However, we also acknowledge that everyone’s palate is unique, and that we don’t all taste wine the same. Taking tasting notes will help you remember your likes and dislikes over time. They can also be helpful in learning how to describe the sensations you’re feeling, and after a while, you can even develop your own tasting vocabulary.

A wine journal can also be useful to track how a wine is developing. For example, if you buy a case of a particular wine and open a bottle periodically every six months or every year, you can jot down different impressions of that wine at certain points in its life. Although from year-to-year wine can be different, this information may help as to when the perfect time to try a certain wine from a different vintage.

Know When to Say "No"

Don’t reject a wine simply because it’s not what you expected or don’t like it. The rule for refusing wine is the same as that for refusing food. If it’s spoiled, you can and should reject it. If it’s simply not to your liking, chalk it up as a learning experience. It’s not the restaurant’s fault you didn’t like the wine you chose. If, however, the wine is acceptable, simply nod your head to signify your consent. The waiter will fill the glass of your companion first and then return to fill yours.

• The wine is “corked”—This is a result of a fungus in the cork, which give the wine a musty smell often compared to a dank basement or wet cardboard. If you notice something like that, you may confirm it by sniffing the cork and examining it for signs of damage or decay.
• 
  The wine has turned to vinegar—If the wine tastes or smells like salad dressing, it’s definitely gone bad.
   
• The wine has refermented—The tell-tale sign is if it looks bubbly or tastes “fizzy,” even though it’s not a sparkling wine.