Food-and-Wine-Pairing the WineWise Way

Having taken the better part of two years to write Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining, a 270-page book focusing on the wine regions of the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia), I know how challenging it can be to distill hundreds of interviews and folders full of information into something useful and comprehensible to the reader.

So I can only begin to imagine the task undertaken by Steven Kolpan, Brian H. Smith, and Michael A. Weiss, co-authors of WineWise: Your Complete Guide to Understanding, Selecting, and Enjoying Wine, when they sat down to write about all the world’s major wine regions--from California and Australia to France and Italy and even “Up and Coming” regions, such as Greece and Canada.

In the book’s opening chapters, the three authors, who have served as professors of wine at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA) for more than 20 years, explain how to taste wine, and give an exhaustive overview of major white and red grape varieties.

The book’s final chapters discuss ways to cut costs on wine in restaurants and the best bargain wines, just the kind of information budget-conscious wine consumers are looking for in these tough economic times. 

Even more laudable is that, while covering so much ground, the authors manage to keep the language and lingo understandable by the average Joe. Bravo!

While flipping through the 360-page, gloriously produced tome, I was particularly drawn to the chapter on food-and-wine pairing, including a chart on page 292 that offers 10 simple guidelines to use when selecting a wine to pair with a meal. Reading and understanding this chart alone is worth the price of the book. Among the tips?

1. Acidity: Acidic wines--low, medium, or “so tart you drool with pleasure”--cleanse your palate of richness and also pair well with tart foods.
2. Alcohol: Lower alcohol is best for spicy or salty foods.
3. Bitterness: Bitter wines pair better than semisweet wines with earthy foods.
4. Body: Use the body of the wine (very light, light, medium, medium-full, or full) to balance a dish’s power.
5. Complementary Flavors: Pair wines with food that have complementary flavors. For example, Syrah/Shiraz often contains aromas and flavors of black peppercorn, so match it with pepper-crusted New York strip steak. Trout Amandine is a natural with the nutty notes of a Manzanilla Sherry.
6. Complexity: Complex wines shine when paired with complex foods, and vice versa.
7. Oak: Highly oaked wines complement smoky flavors or grilled fish and meats.
8. Sweetness: Whether dry, semidry, semisweet, or sweet, the wine should be at least as sweet as the food.
9. Temperature: Try a chilled glass of wine on a hot summer day; save the big dry reds for a day on the slopes (or even try a glass of glögg--hot spiced wine).
10. Experiment: Most importantly, take a chance!

“Part of the fun of pairing food and wine is that potential rush of excitement that comes from discovering an unorthodox but magnificent combination,” according to the savvy authors of WineWise.

--Braiden Rex-Johnson

Photo of Braiden by Ingrid Pape-Sheldon.

Comments

[StellaCadente* on February 26, 2010 at 10:09 AM]

Thanks for the recommendation. Sounds like it is worth checking out. I was overwhelmed studying only Italian wines! This looks like a great reference book.

[Hampers on February 26, 2010 at 08:50 PM]

Nice blog. Thanks for sharing the notes on Food-and-Wine-Pairing the WineWise Way. Being a wine lover, I enjoyed going through it.