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By Benay Bernstein
"Delicious, thank you for bringing the dinner wine," my gracious host said, savoring the Pinot Noir as it washed over her taste buds. She was polite and appreciative and did not reveal one bit her consternation at serving red wine with the gourmet fish entree. Like love and marriage, wine and food are a perfect match, except when they are not, but how to know the right wine for dinner is the question. Confident that my selection would work, I nodded pleasantly, waiting for the moment of truth when the fish and wine mingled in our mouths. Sure enough, a communal groan of delight was heard throughout the table as barriers opened and the happy diners began commenting about the  way Pinot Noir and fish enhance each other's flavors.
As much as I would like to declare myself a wine expert, the fact is, my soupcon of knowledge came from a half hour wine tasting class I attended at COPIA, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts established in Napa, California by Robert Mondavi, Julia Child and a cadre of luminaries in related industries. The class I attended was informally called, "Everything you Wanted to Know about Wine and Food Pairing but Were Afraid to Ask" and imparted enough information to whet my appetite for more knowledge and to give me the confidence needed to select some appropriate wines for my own dinners as well as to bring to a party.
Our charming instructor, Liliam, gave us the ultimate permission to enjoy wine subjectively. We are all different, and have our own preferences. That being said, we reviewed the rules from the past, namely, white wine with fish, red wine with meat, white before red, dry before sweet, make a mistake and you're dead meat. Liliam then listed the new guidelines, take components (what we actually taste), flavors (a combination of smell and taste) and textures into consideration when matching food and wine. Pair wines with the sauce; for example, chicken with apricot sauce will blend well with a white wine while chicken in a salty or savory sauce is better with red, and salmon, a fatty fish, pairs well with a red wine or a very strong white wine. But no, Liliam's word was not to be taken. Our job in this short, intensive class was extremely focused, we  must develop our own descriptive vocabulary about the wines we like and understand how the five flavors, sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami (savory) work with them.
To accomplish this goal, we embarked on a delightful adventure. In front of us were two wine glasses, a water glass and six taste samples, salt, lemon, chocolate, rosemary, dried cherry and potato chips. With each of these flavors we tasted a 2006 California Sauvignon Blanc, and then, again with each of the flavors, we tasted a 2004 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley. Each of us had our own taste chart to fill out and an attached copy of the powerpoint presentation shown at the front of the room. As we tasted, the class and teacher compared tastes and experimented with descriptive words. Slowly we formed our vocabulary. Universally, we found that salt softens and smoothes wine making white wine less sweet and red wine less dry. Lemon also has a salutary effect sweetening both the white and the red and cutting into the tannin of highly tannic wine. Rosemary makes the Sauvignon Blanc metallic, but works well with Cabernet. (Now I am sure what to serve with lamb.) Neither wine worked well with the dried cherry and both were great with potato chips. (You can't go wrong with salt and fat.)
Finding the best wines to serve at my dinners is now an adventure in discovery. First I think about my guests, does anyone drink white or red wine exclusively? If so, I'll serve a meal that goes with his preferred color or I'll select a Pinot Noir or Sauvignon Blanc allowing the high acid levels to bring tastes to the top. If necessary I will adjust the seasoning in my food with a bit of salt or sugar to perfect the pairing. Perhaps I'll allow a Sauvignon Blanc to sweeten the effect of lemon in my salad dressing. My husband adores Shiraz so I'll serve foods without prominent sweet or savory tastes so his Shiraz will retain its slightly sweet, slightly acidic flavor. And from now-on my old standby, chocolate walnut mousse, courtesy of a Gourmet Magazine recipe I clipped just under forty years ago when I was a bride, shall be accompanied by a rich Port or Zinfandel, or maybe I'll try a Riesling or Sauterne for variety. I just love the freedom of choice.
© September 2007 The Oenophile Blog. All rights reserved.
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