Beyond Rivalry

We went to our last wine class this week. The handout was tips for pairing wine with food. In short:

• pair wine with food, not food with wine ... For one thing, the wine list in most restaurants is larger than the food list, so your selection of foods is more limited than your selection of wines.
  

• either match a food dish in intensity with the wine (earthy wine with earthy food, e.g.,), or let the wine provide a complement to the dish's intensity -- e.g., an acidic wine with a greasy meat dish, or the example on the handout, a dry crisp German Riesling with an Indian curry

• whether the food is meat, seafood, poultry, vegetable or what have you, match the wine to the intensity of the entire dish/meal (and the sauce or preparation style might be a major factor here), not to the type of meat or non-meat you're eating. There'sa red for vegetables and fish, there's a white for steak and burgers. This reminds me of the Color Me Beautiful concept that clothing and makeup should match one's "season" -- everyone can wear red, or yellow, or white, it just depends on the tone of the colour. Likewise, there is a "tone" of red or white wine that will work with most foods.

• if you're serving a salad with wine, do not use vinegar in the salad or the wine will taste like vinegar. Use lemon juice or something else for salad dressing acidity. 
  

• if you're cooking with wine, use the same wine you'll be drinking with the meal or a wine that's similar.

• decanting for 15-20 mins in a wide decanter is good for young wines; as wine ages, it doesn't stand up as well to oxidation. 

 WINE TASTING

Henry Varnay sparkling white wine (Blanc de Blanc?) from the Loire Valley, a combination of chenin blanc and chardonnay. No vintage year. $12/bottle.

Visual: effervescent

Aroma: perm solution, said three of us. We didn't talk about this wine too much, so not sure what anyone else smelled.

Taste: light taste, not lingering

Not a wine I would choose -- "perm solution" is not my idea of a bouquet. 

Trappolini Orvieto 2006 from central Italy, with these grapes: Trebbiano Toscano (Procanico) - 40-60%, Verdello, Canaiolo, Grechetto, Drupeggio and/or (no more than 20%) Malvasia Toscana. Fermented in stainless steel with no malalactic processing.  12% alcohol.

Visual:  greenish yellow, very clear

Aroma: I smelled anise, pear, geranium. Other tasting notes say: "pear, pineapple and apple followed by aromas of almond and straw."  That's odd, because the anise smell was very strong for me and others at the table.

Taste: I thought it was pretty bitter on the mid-palate, fairly hot alcoholic, but not very persistent 

Cerro Anon Crianza Rioja 2002 from Spain. $16 or so.

Crianza is aged extra long in oak, 8 months in this case.  

Visual: Clear to veiled, rubyish even though it's fairly old

Aroma: spicy, musty, berries, prune-plum, dried fruit

Taste: Very smooth, not harsh at all, very tannic, earthy. The teacher tasted bright, fresh fruit on the front of the tongue, but I didn't. I thought it lacked some fruitiness. The strong tannic and lack of fruit made it feel unbalanced to me.

It's a wine I drink often, bec. I like tannins and I like the earthy smoothness, but now I also know that, to my palate, it lacks something.

Château Lamartine Cahors 2004 Cuvée Particulière , a Malbec from France. "Cuvée Particulière" means the grape is grown on an older vine. 2004 was a pretty good year in this region.  Lamartine is known as one of the best wineries in Cahors. This is a good wine to age. (Another website says the wine is made from: "90% Malbec and 10% Merlot from 40-55 year old, low-yielding vines.") Like a Bordeaux in structure and weight.  $24/bottle.

Visual:  veiled, very inky

Aroma: tobacco, boysenberry, spicy

Taste: spicy, tannic 

 

Decanter magazine: "‘Great complexity with lifted plum and damson fruit aromas. Deep, full and lots of plum fruit backed by well-handled tannins."  Other tasting notes, for the non-Cuvée, say: "Light woody smell with slight hint of liquorice and little red smashed fruits."