Wine Pairings

story by Alex Frazer-Harrison

Wine, When enJoYed With certAin Foods, cAn creAte tAste sensAtions like no other.

So when summer rolls around and you find yourself with bottles of vino to choose from at the store (or that you’ve made yourself), how do you know what wine works with what kind of food?

“As a rule, heavier-style wines go with heavier foods; anything off the barbecue, you want a heavier style,” says Paul Sass of The Home Vintner, an Airdrie shop that sells kits for making wines and offers classes on various aspects of wine appreciation, including pairing.

“We do classes on wine-, cheese- and chocolate-pairing,” says Sass. “We find people aren’t aware of the complexity of chocolate – if you put the right chocolate with the right wines, they can work hand-in-hand.”

Sass says it should be dark chocolate, at least 75 per cent (“not a cheap candy bar”), and with “darker reds, icewines, it completely enhances the whole experience.”

If you’re planning a ‘staycation’ this summer, you can still enjoy wines reminiscent of, say, an Italian café. Prosecco is a wine often found on the streets of Rome and Florence, says Remo Martucci, product manager with Calgary Co-op, which has a Wines & Spirits shop in Airdrie.

“Prosecco [goes with] a nice, fresh salad, or light seafood,” Martucci says.

Sauvignon blanc is also a good combination with salad, as well as light pasta with white sauces, Martucci says. On the subject of chocolate pairings, he says dark chocolate goes well with cabernet.

According to Sass, wine and cheese, although a classic pairing, can be a tricky one.

“Wine and cheese actually hate each other,” he says.“You have to have the right cheese for the right wine or you totally wreck the wine.”

He says having a lighter cheese with a lighter wine works better than mixing a heavy cheese with a light wine or vice versa. Some combinations Sass recommends include gewürztraminer and Greek feta; cabernet/merlot with old strong cheddar; and cabernet franc icewine with Danish blue cheese.

Sass says it also helps to look at the food choices where the wine originates as a potential clue for good pairings. For example, he says, “If you have darker Italian reds with a red pasta sauce they work fantastic together. Super Tuscan can be pretty dry, but put it together with a couple of cherry tomatoes and red pasta sauce and that wine has just taken a big leap in its characteristics.”

And, he adds, you don’t even have to think fancy.

“Gewürztraminer is classic with saltystyle foods, so a bag of Lays® potato chips and a bottle of gewürztraminer chilled down works well,” he says.“Pinot noir works with a bag of M&Ms®, if you have a bad day!”

Both The Home Vintner and Calgary Co-op Wines & Spirits have websites which include lists of wine-and-food pairing options. life