Nantucket
Sommellier

Volume 40 Issue 12 • July 22-28, 2010
now in our 40th season

	In This Issue
	Featured Restaurant • Even Keel Cafe Events • Name the Lobsters • Starter Series Art Classes Features • Freedman's of Nantucket • An Extreme Sport • Limerick Challenge Island Memories • A Pivotal Year Island Sommelier • Enjoy the Moment Island Science • Feeling Crabby? Island Essay • Yard Saling Island Cooking • Un-thyme-ly Demise

A Splash from Your Nantucket Sommelier
Wine & Food Pairing

by Leslie-Ann Sheppard
owner of The Cellar on Surfside Road.

With summer now in full swing, many folks are finding more reasons to get together with friends and family than during other seasons.  If you’re on vacation, that is reason enough for celebrating.  So, the all-important question:  how do you select the right wine for your get-together?

The most common question I am asked, as a wine merchant and sommelier, is “What makes a good food and wine pairing?”  I love when people come to my shop with their menus, asking for advice for a good wine selection.  Truth is, there are many wines that will pair well with almost any dish; there isn’t just one ‘magic’ answer.  The trick is to learn some tips that will point you in the right direction.

When pairing food and wine, the goal is synergy and balance. The wine shouldn’t overpower the food, nor should the food overpower the wine.  Think of wine like a condiment — it should compliment the food.

Wine drunk by itself tastes different than wine with food, because wine acts on food similarly to the way a spice does. Acids, tannins and sugars in the wine interact with the food to provide different taste sensations;  proteins, sugars and starches in the food may change the way the wine tastes. 
Here are some tips to get you started on successful wine pairings:

• Match quality of food and wine.  If you’re bringing wine to a dinner party, don’t feel like you have to match the wine with the food (unless you’ve been asked to do so).  Just choose a good wine.  It may or may not be served at the party.  Keep in mind the occasion:  A retirement party or wedding anniversary deserves a better bottle than a barbeque with burgers on the grill and chips from a bag. 
• Light precedes heavy.  When you’re serving more than one wine at a meal, serve lighter wines before full-bodied ones.  Otherwise, you risk not being able to taste light-bodied wines after your palate has adjusted to the heavier ones. 
• Balance flavor intensity.  Pair light-bodied wines with lighter food and fuller-bodied wines with heartier, more flavorful, richer and fattier dishes.  Delicately flavored foods — poached or steamed — pair best with delicate wines.  Match the wine with the sauce, seasoning or dominant flavor of the dish.
• Match complementary flavors.  This takes a little wine knowledge, or the help of someone else who knows a little something about which flavors are found in which wines.  Then it goes back to basics:  an earthy Pinot Noir goes well with mushroom soup just as the grapefruit/citrus taste of Sauvignon Blanc goes well with fish. 
• Balance sweetness.  The wine should be sweeter than the food.  Sweetness in food  will increase the awareness of bitterness and astringency in wine, making the wine appear drier, stronger and less fruity.  If the wine is sweeter than the food, the true flavors will be heightened.  (Perhaps this reasons why Riesling with a little bit of residual sugar is considered by many savvy wine drinkers as the ‘ultimate food wine.’)  If you are serving dessert and want to pair an appropriate wine, in general, caramel and fruity desserts work well with white dessert wine; chocolate does well with red dessert wines or Port.
• Consider pairing opposites.  Very hot or spicy foods—some Thai dishes, or hot curries, for example—often work best with sweeter wines. Opposing flavors can play off each other, creating new sensations and cleansing the palate.
• Match by geographic location.  Regional foods and wines, having developed together over time, naturally go together.  There is definitely something to be said for Chianti paired with tomato sauce and pasta, for example.
• High amounts of acidity in food will decrease awareness of sourness in wine and making it taste richer and mellower — sweet wine will taste sweeter.  Hence, a citrus sauce can pair well with a grassy, grapefruit tinged Sauvignon Blanc.
• Bitter flavors in food increase the perception of bitter, tannic elements in wine.   This goes back to the sweetness factor.  A good testament to this principle is bitter chocolate.  When paired with Cabernet Sauvignon, it can bring out some harsh tones in the wines, unless the wine has a little sweet, ripeness to it.
• Sourness and salt in food suppress bitter taste in wine. Salt in food can tone down the bitterness and astringency of wine and may make sweet wines taste sweeter.  This is why salty foods like Pecorino Toscano cheese and charcuterie pair very well with bold red wines like Dolcetto that on their own can be slightly chewy.  Put them together, and everything harmonizes.

Above all, don’t stress about your food and wine combinations; remember that there are many wines that will pair with different foods.  Experiment if possible before the ‘big dinner.’  And have fun.  Having a splash of wine while cooking can bring the flavors into focus as well.  If you approach the pairing element with the idea that it is part of the creative process of cooking, then it will be a success.