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By The Glass Roberto Viernes |
Always look for balance
in food and wine pairingsI always find it a challenge to suggest wine pairings for dishes that I've never tasted. This happens to everyone, whether they're going to a wine-tasting party or just inviting a few friends over to share a nice meal. We've all had to choose wines to best suit a particular cuisine or preparation.
So many factors come into play. Price, of course, is important. Should it be red or white, oak or no oak, sweet or dry? This could go on ad infinitum, but the one thing I always look for is balance.
Balance in a wine is being able to see its beauty, not for how big it is in impact, or how voluptuous it feels in your mouth, but for how well the flavors and constituents meld to produce harmony on your palate. In even simpler terms, it is "smoothness." Balanced wines can still be intense, but not over-oaked, or sweet without the interplay of bright acidity, or too high in alcohol.
A balanced wine allows for a broader interplay with various flavors and textures of food. In a sense, a balanced wine is more forgiving when drunk with a broad range of foods. Balance equates with versatility.
With that in mind, here are three wonderfully balanced wines priced to keep your wallet in balance as well.
First, a chardonnay, of all things, from the Macon area in Southern Burgundy. The 2000 Domaine de Lalande, Macon Chaintre ($14) by Dominique Cornin in the village of Chaintre shows aromas of ripe orchard fruits, apples, pears, a touch of tropical pineapple and melon as well as a nice lace of vanillin, signifying the deft use of oak-barrel aging. The aroma reminds me of some chardonnays made in cooler climates of California, such as Mendocino or Monterey, but with less oak and an added mineral complexity.
The wine is medium-bodied but with quaffable amounts of ripe apples, maybe a dash of orange, fig and a refreshing acidity. A very elegant wine that would pair well with rosemary-roasted fowl, baked mahimahi with lemon butter sauce and capers, or your best version of shrimp scampi.
Spain has made leaps and bounds in wine quality over the past decade. This red comes from Levante, in an area known as Jumilla. The full name is 2002 Carchelo Jumilla ($11) from Bodegas Agapito Rico, but don't worry, all you have to ask for is Carchelo. It is a blend of mostly mourvedre grapes, with some merlot, syrah, tempranillo and cabernet.
The exceptional 2002 vintage opens up with a huge aroma of plum, blackberries and black cherries and a pretty note of sandalwood and jasmine tea. On the palate it is downright smooooth, with an extremely ripe core of currant, plum and velvety tannin. I could drink this easily with haute cuisine such as rack of lamb with a blackberry demiglaze or something as simple as a Chinatown roasted duck with plum sauce. What about some kiawe-grilled baby back ribs with a honey-mustard glaze off the hibachi? My mouth is already watering!
Finally, a sweet wine can still be balanced. Take Riesling. What happens if you take away the thrilling acidity found in the finest German examples? You'll get a blowsy, fat and round wine with no backbone that is cloying and often bitter. But for a perfect example of a sweet balanced wine, try the 2002 Kerpen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese ($25) from the Mosel.
It has aromas of wildflowers, sweet apricots and poached pears, with a complex and pleasant earthiness. It is ethereal on the palate, just wafting over with flavors of peaches, glace apricots and some lychee. It is not overpowering, but rather offers silken elegance and enough sweetness to please the most discerning riesling drinker. I would much rather have a single bottle of this than two of the $12 rieslings on sale at your neighborhood market. Try this with any spicy curry or mapo tofu recipe. I like it with miso-glazed fresh fish and even with a sorbet at the end of a meal.
The biggest and most impactful wines may earn the highest scores, but don't necessarily make the best food matches. As Terry Theise says, "Beauty is not impact." For me, balance is part of that beauty.
Roberto Viernes is wine educator for Southern Wine and Spirits.
This column is a weekly lesson in wine pairing written by a rotating panel of wine professionals. Write to features@starbulletin.com
