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!

Behind Closed Doors

Being involved in the wine business, we sometimes look at things a bit differently during our everyday life experiences; which sometimes leads to strange requests. One of those being that when we happen to visit a restaurant with an impressive wine list, we figure there has to be an impressive wine cellar. So, it’s not uncommon for us to ask our server, or wine steward, if we can take a peek at the cellar from which our wine has come.

Locally, we enjoy visiting Sullivans in Omaha, where you can take a ride down their escalator and view an eclectic list of wines which rest behind glass windows in a temperature controlled area. Sullivan sits on the first floor of the Central Park Plaza, which was the original home of ConAgra, but has housed a number of other business including banks, so the transition the wine cellar has undergone is rather impressive.

However, our favorite wine cellar story happened a few years ago as Barb and I were visiting New York City. We had dinner at the historic 21 Club, and had a wonderful Sommelier (the wine wasn’t too bad either). In fact, the young man happened to be a native of Kansas, so we had a wonderful conversation about Midwestern wines. 

So, at one point without hesitating, my wife asked if we could see the wine cellar. The Sommelier was more than happy to take us into the bowels of the restaurant where we stopped at what seemed to be an ordinary wall. Our guide pulled out what looked like a hanger, carefully positioned it in a hole that was well hidden from our sight, and a door opened to an incredible menagerie of wines.

It seems during Prohibition, the 21 Club was a speakeasy. The story goes that is was a very popular hangout for many of the city’s influential, including a number of prominent politicians. Although raided by Federal authorities on numerous occasions, the infamous wine cellar was never discovered.

I can’t do justice trying to describe the smell and or pen a visual image of the maze of wines that were before us. The bins were all well categorized and labeled. On closer inspection, many of the labels had names on them. We came across the Nixon bin. Apparently, the former president frequented the restaurant, and had a certain wine he enjoyed with dinner. The wine was still there, albeit a few bottles short of a case and rather dusty as it hadn’t been touched for years. Right across from it sat Elizabeth Taylor’s collection of wines, I don’t recall what sat in there, but I’m sure it was of vintage quality. It was an amazing experience, that was…cool! To read more about the 21 Club wine cellar, go to: 

http://www.21club.com/web/onyc/wine_cellar_history.jsp

Keep It Cool ...

As I reflect on that story, it got me thinking about how many times I’ve been asked what the proper temperature to store wine at is? Most experts say that all wine is best stored between 45-60 degrees F., with 50-55 F being the optimal range. This is true for the storage of both red and white wines. The conventional wisdom behind this is based on history. For years in Europe, especially France, wine has been typically stored in caves, where the natural underground temperature is usually 55 F. This may be ideal, but not everyone owns a cave to store their wine, and therein lies the problem. In lieu of a cave, it’s best to have a wine cellar or a wine refrigerator to achieve those ideal temperatures.

Controlling the temperature of your wine is vital for the health of the wine. Wines age faster at a higher temperature, and heat is also chemically bad for wine. You can tell by the color of your wine if excessive heat has damaged it, because it will look brown. At a lower temperature, the wine will also be damaged, but at a slower rate. It’s important to remember that eventually all wines will go bad, however, by cellaring them at the proper temperatures, we can hopefully squeeze out some more life.

However, the temperature your store your wine at, may differ from the temperature it is served at. In my opinion, it’s better to serve your red wine too cold than too warm. Served at a higher temp, let’s say between 65-75 F (or higher), the wine loses it aromas and flavors. Personally, all I get is the alcohol flavor, which I find less desirable. Ideally, I try to drink my reds at around 55-60 F.

On the end of the spectrum, I would rather serve white wines a little chilled rather than ice cold. Many whites will lose those beautiful aromas as well their flavor at temps below 45 F. Ideally, to get the most out of the wine, I recommend whites be served between 50-55 F.

If you’re not quite sure, a rule of thumb we espouse here at the winery is the 20/20 rule. Put your red wine in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes before you serve it. With a white, take it out of the refrigerator about 20 minutes before it’s served.

Now, having said all this, I have to be honest. In recent articles I’ve seen, nearly 90% of wines never even make it to the storage part of the deal. Most are consumed within 48 hours of being purchased. Many winemakers realize this, and many of the wines produced in today’s world are made for “quick” consumption. Also, it is my firm belief that wine is always a personal preference. The temperature an individual wants to drink a wine at is a own personal decision, and you won’t get any arguments from me on what you decide!

However, if you would like more information about the proper temperatures for storing and serving wine, check out these great links:

http://www.finewinereserve.com/facts.php

www.basic-wine-knowledge.com/wine-storage-temperature.html

http://www.bettertastingwine.com/temperature.html

Until next time…Drink Wine! Enjoy Life!

Quality of Wine By the Glass

In our newsletters and at other times, I’ve often written about not being afraid to send a bottle of wine back that is not good. On rare occasions, we get a wine that is perhaps corked or has spoiled in some way when visiting a restaurant. As a customer, we have not only the right, but the obligation to ask for a new bottle. (Now, there is a difference between a bad bottle of wine and simply not liking a wine…we really don’t have an argument as long as the wine is healthy and aesthetically well done…that is the risk you take when ordering off the wine menu).

We should also have the same mindset when ordering wine by the glass. There are times we get a wine by the glass that just doesn’t taste right. The question we need to then ask is “how long has the bottle been open.” Just like with a bad bottle, we have the right to ask the server just how long the bottle has been open. This can be in a restaurant, or even at a tasting room. If that wine by the glass isn’t quite right, chances are good that it has been open for a while, and has become oxidized.

Don’t be afraid to ask you server to open a new bottle and compare the glasses side-by-side. In most cases, you’ll both notice a big difference. If the establishment will not do that for you, I suggest you return he glass and order something different…but most places should be willing to do that.

At JAV, we’re constantly tasting and smelling wines that have been opened, to make sure our customers are enjoying that particular wine at its best. Of course some of this is personal preference, but most sweet wines are enjoyed right away, while sometimes it’s best to let a dry red breath for a time before it hits its peak. In our tasting room, we’re never offended if someone asks about how long a bottle has been open. It gives us a chance to #1, check it out for ourselves, or #2, explain the winemaking process.