Question Of The Day #35

What is your favorite wine and food combination and why? Is it broad, like riesling with spicy food? Or specific like 'Hendry 2010 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay with seared salmon and pea mash"?

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Comments

Johan_Edstrom_5586

I'm gonna say... Red with Red. Wine and Meat.

FrankM_3301

Roast bird (almost any bird, perfectly roasted) and Premier Cru Burgundy (almost any, not too young).

Matthew_Snyder_68770

Don't know that I have any favorites, but two stand out.

The first 'aha!' moment my wife ever had with wine and food complementing and elevating each other was a pan roasted salmon with a locally produced Pinot Noir we had in Monterey, CA when we first started dating (10 short years ago last month). I'll never forget the look in her eyes!

More recently, we discovered the joys of txakoli, a very acidic, low-alcohol semi-sparkling wine from the Basque Country in Spain. It is traditionally poured from a couple feet above the glass so the wine becomes effervescent in the glass (also makes a great show for the tourists). It is a remarkable concoction that really stimulates your saliva glands - which makes nearly everything taste more delicious, making the wine exceptionally versatile. Wonderful stuff, only know of one shop in the area that carries it.

Nick_Valliquette_64114

I have many favourites but my most recent "lightbulb" moment was during the Beaujolais paring i did at my restaurant last week .. I pared spicy yellowfin tuna using thai sriracha with french Beaujolais.. The two seemed to just meld .. I used earthy mungbean sprouts and pleanty of lime in the dish and i was so pleasenty surprised !

borgech

This is an awesome idea, thanks! I've never thought about lime and Beaujolais, but I will have to give it a try!

borgech

I too love txakoli! Really drinks well on its own, but a pairing with raw shellfish is tough to beat IMO.

FrankM_3301

Gamay, particularly in the form of a Cru Beaujolais, is very food friendly. I could see this working very well.

HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

red/food, zin with short ribs, cab with steaks, pinots/merlots with fowl, shiraz with pork, beaujolais with seafood.... i do drink white on occasion. Last but not least champagne with damn near anything , breakfast, lunch or dinner ;-)

Nicholas_Gavin_68199

Agreed!

FrankM_3301

+1 on the Champagne with almost anything...particularly good with fried food.

Matthew_Snyder_68770

It's an exceptional breakfast beverage.

Jack_Kogod_124719

Frappato and pizza.

reck.harm

I don't really subscribe to that winepairing thing. I'll have whatever fricking wine i want, thank you very much. However one pairing that kinda blew my mind was a sweet sauternes wine with a roqueford cheese. Before that i was sure, that i don't like blue cheese and i don't like sweet wine. However a good bottle of sauternes like 70€ so i don't really have it all that often, but that's a kickass wine.

monaghan.joseph

Buttery full malolactic fermentation Beringer Sbragia (sp) Chardonnay with popcorn!

borgech

This is a new one for me, I'll have to try it!

tshewman

Deep Rich red (e.g. Bordeaux or Cabernet) with red meat with deep rich demi-glaze.......or the same wine with a piece of dark chocolate (70%+). My first high-end dinner about 4 years ago was at Daniel and I had no clue what to order for the tasting menu and at the time, I didn't trust the wine pairings........because well......I was an idiot and didn't know better. So, we order two bottles. Raj Vaidya the sommelier gave us a montrachet for he first half of the meal and a David Duband Vosne-Romanee for the remainder. The first was exceptional......the second blew my socks off. Both were very reasonably priced. In very few words and with his choices, he taught me to try the pairings (and not limit them to wines) in the future. Never a guarantee, but all have been exceptional since. The money spent on the wines pale in comparison to the lesson of experimentation and how the wine can change how the foods taste. Not to mention, he was as professional and personable as any sommelier I've met since.

borgech

One rule I've heard, and is apparent from this thread is that heavy wines pair with heavy foods, and light wines pair with lighter foods. This makes sense, but I wonder if there are any exceptions to that rule? One that stands out in particular is lime with Beaujolais as mentioned by @Nick_Valliquette_64114. While Beaujolais isn't heavy at all, it is heavier than most whites. Just thinking out loud here...