2016 Calgary Wine Guide

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Edmonton Wine Guide

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Edmonton Wine Guide


table of contents 4

Intro

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Crash Course: Food & Wine Pairing

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Analyzing Wine

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Beef & Lamb

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Pork

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Chicken & Poultry

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Fish & Seafood

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Vegetables & Fruit

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Pizza & Pasta

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Cheese

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Sauces

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Junk Food

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Heavy & Medium Red Wine

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Light Red Wine

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Dry White Wine

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Off-dry White Wine

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Dessert Wine

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Sparkling Wine

This guide is published by Publisher Joanne Layh Creative Team Editor/words Mel Priestley Creative & Design Jessica Hong Cover Illustration Curtis Hauser

© 2016 Postvue Publishing All Rights Reserved, Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited without the written consent of the publisher. Postvue Publishing #200, 11230 119 St. Edmonton, AB. • T5G 2X3 Ph: 780.426.1996


intro Arcane alchemy that only a select few have mastered: there’s something about food and wine pairing that’s scary—or at least pretty daunting—even to seasoned wine enthusiasts. This is unfortunate, as food and wine pairing can be a lot of fun. There are no true rules, either, so feel free to try any combination. Sure, general guideline and “classic” pairings exist, but nothing is guaranteed since the slightest variation—the wine’s vintage, the food’s seasonings, the meal’s atmosphere, what you ate for breakfast—can fundamentally alter a match. In light of this, some might argue that there’s no point in trying to go after the perfect pairing—or even a decent one. Admittedly, many have taken this subject too seriously and taken a lot of the fun out of it. But it doesn’t have to be this way, and indeed when experimenting with food and wine pairings, it’s always best to take everything with a liberal dose of salt. (Sometimes, quite literally.) Once you’ve had a magic pairing—a combination that somehow transforms both food and wine into a taste experience that’s so much more than the sum of its parts—you’ll be hooked. This guide aims to provide both novice and seasoned wine drinkers alike with a useful tool to make sense of food and wine pairings. Each page provides an overview of a particular food type or general style of wine, followed by a list of sample pairings. It’s not definitive or exhaustive by any means, but rather a practical and down-to-earth set of guiding principles, tips and tricks. I hope you find the guide useful and entertaining. And remember: you can never go wrong with Champagne. Cheers! Mel Priestley melpriestley.ca

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crash course: food & wine pairings Anything goes in food and wine pairing, but the clichés exist for a reason—white wine with fish, red wine with red meat. Those are admittedly oversimplified and there are many exceptions, but there are a few key guidelines in food and wine pairing that will help you avoid any gastronomic disasters. Be dominant Pick out the most dominant flavour of the dish and choose a wine based on that. While a plain beef hamburger might steer you towards a bold red wine, this would be a terrible choice for a fivealarm burger doused in hot sauce and slathered with jalapeños. Watch the weight Ensure that both food and wine are weighted equally, otherwise one will overwhelm the other. Light dishes need light wines; heavy dishes need full-bodied wines. Acidity is key Wines with naturally high acidity are easier to pair with food because the acidity prevents the flavours from being muddied together and cleanses your palate between bites. When in doubt, choose a wine with naturally high acidity, such as Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir or Sangiovese.

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Calgary Wine Guide


When in Rome Often a region’s signature dish pairs well with the wines from that same area: Tuscan wine with pasta and pizza, Burgundy with coq au vin, Rioja with paella. Watch out for tannins Very tannic wines wreak havoc on your palate and often clash with many flavours. Pair them with hearty dishes and be liberal with the salt, which reduces the impressions of tannins on the palate. Sweet and spice The alcohol in wine will crank up the heat of spicy food even more, except sweet wines which are able to quench some of that fire. The spicier the food, the sweeter the wine should be. Sweet and sweet Wine should always be sweeter than the food it’s paired with, otherwise it will taste bitter and acidic. Watch out for foods with hidden sweetness, like root vegetables and barbecue sauce; also be aware that certain cooking techniques, like roasting, brings out the sugars in food. Bubbly default Sparkling wine is a great fallback pairing for a vast array of foods, especially oily or greasy ones. The effervescence cleanses your palate, making Champagne taste as good as beer with fried chicken, potato chips and even hamburgers.

Calgary Wine Guide

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analyzing wine Wine is comprised of several components that greatly impact your experience and impression of it. Understanding how these aspects vary between the different types of wines will give you greater understanding of how these wines interact with food. Fruit Most wines smell and taste fruity, but some are deeply aromatic while others are more austere. Think of a wine’s fruitiness like garnish on food, and pair accordingly: very fruity wines are heavily garnished, and therefore should be paired with similarly layered and aromatic dishes. Oak Not all wines have oaky aromas or flavours because not all wines are subjected to oak (during fermentation and/or barrel aging). Oak usually gives vanilla or toasty baking-spice notes, so consider that when picking a food pairing: if the dish would taste good with a squirt of vanilla or a dash of cinnamon, it will probably taste good with an oaky wine. Earth Earthy flavours in wine include damp gravel, forest floor, pine, mushrooms and sometimes even barnyard. Such rustic wines are best with similarly rustic dishes, often the simple but satisfying “peasant� foods found in every culture.

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Calgary Wine Guide


Acidity A wine’s acidity causes a rush of saliva in your mouth, cleansing your palate between bites. High-acid wines are usually quite foodfriendly, though they don’t work as well with very rich dishes that call for something with more mellowness and depth. Tannin Found in red wines almost exclusively, tannins are astringent and drying, sucking all the moisture out of your mouth. Tannins clash with many foods, especially dairy and seafood, and are therefore best paired with heavy meat dishes or very salty dishes. (Salt reduces the impression of tannins on the palate.) Alcohol Alcohol is perceived as heat on the palate and also makes the wine feel fuller and richer. High-alcohol wines should be paired with full-bodied dishes—and should never be paired with spicy foods. Sugar All wines have residual sugar, though only some of them actually taste sweet: you can identify this by a fuzzy feeling on your tongue and the inside of your cheeks. Sweet wines should be paired with sweet foods, and are also the only type of wines that pair well with spicy dishes.

Calgary Wine Guide

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beef & lamb It’s all about the cut when you’re choosing a wine to pair with beef. The general wine-pairing rule of matching the intensity of wine with a similarly weighted food holds especially true here: lean beef (top sirloin, eye of round steak) is more delicate and therefore should be paired with light- to medium-bodied red wines, while fattier cuts (filet mignon, porterhouse steak, New York strip, T-bone steak) need bolder, full-bodied reds like Syrah or Cabernet Sauvignon. Veal, being the lightest type of beef, pairs well with very light red wines, rosés and robust white wines. Lamb and gamey wild meats need wines with more rustic, earthy flavours and a medium to full body. Follow similar practices with these cuts of meat: rustic cuts that need to be braised for a long time (lamb shanks or ox tail, for example) will develop rich, deep flavours that need a similarly intense wine, while lean cuts like venison steaks are better complemented by a wine that’s lighter on its feet.

Sample Pairings • Steak (sirloin & other lean cuts) + Merlot • Steak (T-bone & other fatty cuts) + Cabernet Sauvignon

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• • • •

Wiener schnitzel + Grüner Veltliner Lamb + Bordeaux Bison Burgers + Malbec Venison + Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Calgary Wine Guide


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pork Pork straddles the line between white and red meat, making it a hybrid that works equally well with both white and red wine. The type of cut as well as its origin will greatly influence the intensity of flavour: commercial mass-produced pork tends to be fairly neutral in flavour, while meat from small farms or heritage breeds—and especially wild boar—is much stronger and needs an appropriately fuller-bodied wine. Pork also has an underlying sweetness that must be factored in, especially if it’s prepared in a sweet barbecue sauce or roasted/grilled: it’s best to avoid very bold red wines with pork in general, and especially if it’s prepared in one of these ways. Pork can also be quite similar to chicken in that it adopts much of the flavours of the sauces and seasonings in which it is cooked, so pay close attention to the method of preparation—especially with milder types of pork.

Sample Pairings • Pork tenderloin + Grenache • Pork chops + Pinot Gris • Sweet and sour pork + off-dry Sémillon

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• Pulled pork + dry rosé • Pork belly + Riesling Kabinett • Sausages + Primitivo

Calgary Wine Guide


chicken & poultry Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because chicken tastes like everything, you can pair it with any old wine. Possibly more than any other type of food, chicken has a chameleon-like ability to take on the flavours in which it’s cooked. This means that when you’re choosing a wine to pair with a chicken dish, you’re really choosing a wine to pair with the main seasonings of that dish. Pick one with a similar flavour profile: an herbaceous Sauvignon Blanc with chicken breasts baked with lemon and herbs; an oaky Chardonnay with chicken in cream sauce; a savoury or slightly off-dry rosé with garlicky roast chicken; a sweet Riesling with sticky barbecue or teriyaki chicken wings. Dark meat is not usually a consideration with chicken, but it factors prominently with other types of poultry like duck, pheasant, game hen, goose and turkey (other than turkey breast, which should be treated like chicken). Light- and medium-bodied red wines are best with darker meats, though hearty white wines can work well too.

Sample Pairings • Chicken breasts (baked) + Sauvignon Blanc (Loire Valley or Chile) • Chicken (whole roasted) + rosé (Provence) • Chicken (cream sauce) + Chardonnay (Napa Valley) • Turkey (white meat) + Gamay (Beaujolais)

• Turkey (dark meat) + Zinfandel (California) • Duck + Pinot Noir (Niagara or Burgundy) • Cornish game hen + Merlot (Okanagan Valley, Washington state)

Calgary Wine Guide Edmonton Wine Guide

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fish & seafood Seafood is white wine territory—with some notable exceptions. While the “white wine with fish” adage is certainly outdated, it does hold true in many cases: fish and seafood dishes tend to be lighter in weight and are therefore overwhelmed by heavy red wines, plus their “fishy” taste is exacerbated by the wine’s tannins. Light, flaky fish (tilapia, perch, rainbow trout) require white wines that are similarly delicate, many of which come from the Mediterranean areas of Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, including Vinho Verde, Verdejo, Pinot Grigio and Assyrtiko. Firmer fishes like snapper, cod and halibut require more aromatic whites, while meaty, steak-like fish can stand up to rich, oaky wines, rosés and a few light red wines. Raw fish and shellfish require white wines with bracing acidity to cleanse your palate in between bites; this holds doubly true with intensely flavoured fishes like herring, sardines and anchovies—those are best paired with sparkling wines with bracing acidity like Champagne or Crémant d’Alsace.

Sample Pairings • Tilapia + Albariño • Halibut + Chenin Blanc • Salmon + Pinot Noir (Oregon

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• Paella + sparkling rosé • Oysters + Chablis

Calgary Wine Guide


vegetables & fruit It’s a rare vegetable that tastes good alongside a bold red wine— in its raw form, anyway. The wines you choose to accompany fruits and vegetables depend completely upon their preparation: raw vegetables, such as those found in innumerable salads, should be paired with crisp, dry white wines and rosés; roasted vegetables should be paired with off-dry wines or light and fruity reds, owing to the heartier weight and slight sweetness in those dishes. When pairing vegan and vegetarian meals, you can follow the same general principles as for regular meat-based versions of similar dishes—erring on the lighter side, as the vast majority of vegetarian dishes do not have nearly the same fat content or heavy texture as their meaty analogue. Fruits aren’t usually thought of as particularly wine-friendly, especially in their raw form; the key is to choose a wine that’s not too heavy or overly sweet, as this will make the fruit taste too tart. Fruit salads are lovely when paired with a light white wine or an off-dry sparkling wine, while unctuous fruit glazes and sauces, such as those commonly served over grilled or barbecued meats, have a rich sweetness that needs to be matched by a very fruity red wine like Shiraz or Malbec. The choice of wine to pair with fruit-based desserts is entirely driven by how sweet those desserts are: try to keep the two fairly balanced.

Sample Pairings • Caesar salad + rosé • Roasted root vegetables + Beaujolais • Vegetarian moussaka + Agiorghitiko

• Portobello mushroom burger + Pinot Noir • Apple pie + Riesling • Strawberry shortcake + Vouvray

Calgary Wine Guide

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pizza & pasta Pizza and beer gets all the attention, but pizza and wine is (in this writer’s humble opinion) a better-tasting combination. The trick to picking a good pizza wine is selecting one with high acidity, which matches the acidic tomato sauce and/or cuts through the fat; unless the pizza is particularly light (with mild flavours and few toppings), it should also have intense flavour. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of the classic pizza wines are those from Italy, pizza’s spiritual home—but nowadays, with pizza toppings only limited by the pizza-maker’s imagination, the wine pairing possibilities are similarly open. In those cases, opt for a sparkling wine like a Cava, Crémant de Bourgogne or Prosecco: not only are they high in acidity and therefore excellent food wines, but the carbonation offers additional palate cleansing—this is the reason why beer and pizza is such a successful combination. Pairing wine with pasta is determined by the sauce. For simple tomato sauces, follow the same general rules as tomato-based pizza. Creamy pastas need to be paired with a full-bodied white wine that can match the dish’s richness. Oil-based pasta dishes (aglio e olio, for example) should be paired with an aromatic, high-acid white wine; ditto for carbonara. Pasta dishes with complex flavours and many ingredients (lasagna, pastitsio) should be paired with a medium-bodied red wine, as those have the weight to match the heaviness of the dish without being too overpowering.

Sample Pairings • Pepperoni pizza + Cabernet Franc • Cheese pizza + Barbera • Linguine with shellfish + Orvieto

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• Fettucine alfredo + Chardonnay • Spaghetti & meatballs + Valpolicella • Lasagna + Chianti Classico

Calgary Wine Guide


cheese Often regarded as wine’s natural partner, cheese is actually a tricky food to pair correctly. Red wine is particularly difficult, owing to its tannin content: cheese coats the palate while tannins have an astringent drying effect, resulting in a mouthfeel that’s thin and acidic. If you don’t want to complicate matters, opt for a white wine with your cheese, especially one that’s not too oaky; slightly sweet wines usually work well. Dessert wines, both red and white, also tend to pair better with cheese—especially stinky blue cheeses. Red wines are best when paired with cheese that’s fairly salty, since salt reduces the impression of tannins on the palate and therefore helps improve the pairing’s texture; eating it with bread or crackers also mitigates the impact of tannins. Bold red wines also need to be paired with bold cheeses, often hard cheeses that are aged, smoked and/or coated with a pungent rind (rosemary, peppercorn). The following is a sample of some traditional wine and cheese pairings to give you an idea of combinations that work well.

Sample Pairings • • • • •

Stilton + Port Manchego + Malbec Asiago + Zinfandel Aged cheddar + Cabernet Sauvignon Comté + Syrah

• • • •

Gruyère + Pinot Noir Camembert + Chardonnay (unoaked) Fondue + Riesling Chèvre (goat cheese) + Sauvignon Blanc

Calgary Wine Guide

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sauces Sauce is arguably a more important consideration when choosing a wine pairing than the actual type of food over which it’s being slathered. The reason is a simple factor of dominance: the sauce tends to be the most prominent flavour in the dish, and therefore is the main driver behind the choice of wine to pair with it. Tomato Sauces Tomatoes are very acidic, so tomato sauces need a wine that’s high in acidity. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Italian wines rank among the best to pair with tomato sauces and tomato-based dishes— it’s the “when in Rome” adage (that plays out quite literally in this case), in which the best pairings are often the foods and wines that hail from the same region. Try pairing tomato sauces with Chianti Classico or a Dolcetto from Piedmont. White Sauces Most white sauces are cream-based and therefore require a white wine that will be able to stand up to the sauce’s rich mouthfeel. Oaky Chardonnay, such as commonly found in the Napa Valley, are a classic pairing with cream sauce. Other good choices include an off-dry Riesling or a Roussanne.

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Calgary Wine Guide


Sweet Sauces Never pair a dry wine with a sweet sauce, as it will taste bitter and acidic. Instead, match the sugar in a sticky barbecue sauce with an equally sweet wine; Lambrusco is a fantastic choice as it’s both sweet and sparkling, so it cleanses the palate well. Off-dry rosés or Rieslings (such as a German Spätlese) also work great. Green Sauces Green sauces are often easiest to pair with wine, as they are made with herbs and similar flavours are found in many wines, both red and white. Try to match these flavours: a minty Cabernet Sauvignon from Australia’s Coonawarra Valley with lamb served with mint sauce, higher-end Malbec or Tempranillo with chimichurri over flank steak, or a Côtes du Rhône with a rosemary-crusted pork tenderloin. The one caveat is green sauces that contain a lot of garlic, like pesto—garlic plays havoc with many wines, so choose a medium red wine with herbal undertones like a Carménère or Cabernet Franc.

Calgary Wine Guide

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junk food Pairing junk food with wine may seem strange, but this isn’t just the realm of beer and pop: plenty of wines elevate all kinds of lowbrow food to new heights of flavour. Plus, there’s something deliciously decadent about swigging a bottle of wine with a plate of greasy comfort food or a bag of crunchy snacks; aside from the sheer pleasure of the combination, maybe it’s also knowing that the stuffy, old school wine drinkers out there would balk at the idea of pairing an expensive French Champagne with a plate of fries or a bowl of macaroni and cheese. (They are missing out.) Savoury forms of junk food all share one thing in common— grease—and therefore require wines that have one particular quality: high acidity. The acid will cut through the fat and refresh your palate, while low-acid wines will leave things feeling muddy and unfocused. This makes sparkling wine a prime candidate for any greasy, fried forms of junk food, as the majority of bubbly is made from white grapes with very high acid content. Still wines with high acidity also work well, including Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay from cool climates, Albariño and Pinot Gris. Sweet junk food—cakes and cookies, chocolates and candies— require a sweet wine, sweeter than the actual food itself. While late harvest and off-dry styles of wine work fairly well, you’ll likely have better luck with dessert wines like port (especially good with chocolate), ice wine and various fortified and port-style wines.

Sample Pairings • Popcorn + Champagne • Fried chicken + Sauvignon Blanc • Doughnuts + Vin Santo

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• Chocolate bars + Banyuls • Cookies + Muscat

Calgary Wine Guide


Edmonton Wine Guide

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heavy & medium red wine It seems that most wine drinkers gravitate towards hearty, fullbodied red wines by default, and certainly these are among the most eminently satisfying of all wines. But they also aren’t always the food-friendliest, as their bold flavour, high tannin content and mouth-coating texture overpowers a lot of dishes. When pairing food with medium and heavy red wines, matching weights is critical: choose dishes with hearty flavours and/or multiple ingredients. The adage of matching red wines with red meat does hold true in a lot of cases; you probably won’t have much luck pairing the heaviest red wines with vegetable or seafood dishes. Matching similar flavour profiles is also key, as a rustic, earthy stew paired with a jammy red wine will taste at odds with each other. Examples of heavy, full-bodied red wines include those with an opaque inky colour: Syrah/Shiraz, Malbec, Tempranillo and Tannat, to name a few. Many grape varieties straddle this line and can be quite heavy depending on the region they are made and the winemaking techniques employed. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are prime examples of this: both can be intense dark wines when grown in a hot climate and subjected to aging in American oak (typical of Californian examples of these grape varieties), or they can be elegant and even austere when grown in cooler climates and aged in French oak or stainless steel.

Sample Pairings • Shiraz + barbecued spareribs • Malbec + grilled T-bone steak • Cabernet Sauvignon + roasted rack of lamb

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• Tempranillo + elk roast • Merlot + beef bourguignon • Sangiovese + spaghetti & meatballs

Calgary Wine Guide


light red wine Rosés straddle the line between red and white wine, making them one of the most versatile and food-friendly options. Offdry styles are wonderful when paired with spicy or sweet dishes, while dry styles pair with a huge range of food. The fuller-body of rosés, as compared to most whites, means that they can stand up to a number of heavier meat-based dishes, while their acidity and bright flavours makes them natural partners to seafood and vegetable dishes. Light red wines are just that: those that don’t feel heavy on the palate. They have lower tannins, lower alcohol (around 10 to 13 percent) and higher acidity than other red wines. Because of their lightness and bright acidity, these reds should be paired with lean meats, acidic dishes, salty cured meats and meals that encompass a wide range of flavours (Thanksgiving or a potluck dinner, for example).

Sample Pairings • Dry rosé + spinach salad • Off-dry rosé + chorizo sausages • Gamay + charcuterie

• Pinot Noir + roasted duck • Pinotage + pork ribs • Zweigelt + beef tartare

Calgary Wine Guide

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dry white wine Just like red wines, white wines range in style from light to rich and full. They can be very fruit-driven or lean and minerally; traditionally the former hails from New World wine regions while the latter from the Old World, but nowadays you can easily find examples of both styles in regions around the globe. Dry white wines (those that are not sweet) account for some of the most versatile wines to pair with food, capable of partnering well with all but the heaviest meat-based dishes. This is your go-to category for any vegetable dishes, especially salads, as well as seafood and most types of cheese. Examples of light-bodied dry whites include Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Riesling. Full-bodied dry whites include Chardonnay, Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne and Chenin Blanc. Of course, many white wines can span either category, depending on how they are made and how warm their growing region was; Chardonnay is probably the best example of this as it can be made in completely opposite styles. Oak influence is particularly important when considering a Chardonnay, as an oaky version is markedly different from one aged in stainless steel, and therefore pairs with completely different foods (creamy pasta and lemony fish, respectively).

Sample Pairings • Sauvignon Blanc + asparagus quiche • Pinot Gris + scallops • Viognier + roasted chicken in cream sauce

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• Riesling + grilled clams • Chenin Blanc + crab cakes • Marsanne + lobster

Calgary Wine Guide


off-dry white wine This is your go-to category for any spicy dishes. Off-dry (another word for sweet) wines have the ability to mitigate spiciness, while all other styles of wine will simply exacerbate the burning sensation. While not an overly popular category of wine—indeed, there has been a significant trend away from sweet wines in the past few years, though this is starting to change with the advent of several mass-marketed sweet whites and even reds—the classic sweet white are well worth your attention. Riesling is probably the most famous off-dry white wine in the world, especially those from Germany. They are also among the few white wines that can age for years, sometimes decades, right alongside the world’s pre-eminent red wines. Chenin Blanc, Gewürztraminer and Semillon are also commonly made in an offdry style; Moscato is another common sweet wine, the name of which refers to a range of different Muscat grape varieties, made in styles ranging from bubbly to still to dessert. In addition to spicy foods, off-dry white wines also pair well with a variety of cheeses, especially soft and creamy cheeses like Brie and Camembert, as well as dishes that have an element of sweetness to them, such as those including fruits, pork and roasted root vegetables.

Sample Pairings • Riesling (Spätlese) + baked ham • Riesling (Auslese) + curry • Semillon + pear tart

• Moscato + pad Thai • Gewurztraminer + ginger beef • Chenin Blanc + smoked salmon

Calgary Wine Guide

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dessert wine Dessert wines are a very diverse category of wine that includes everything from the various styles of port, sherry, marsala and madeira, to innumerable other fortified, late harvest and ice wines. Some are also sparkling, like Moscato d’Asti or Lambrusco. Basically, if it’s sweet, it qualifies as a dessert wine. One of the cardinal rules of food and wine pairing is that the wine should always be sweeter than the food, otherwise it will end up tasting bitter and acidic. This means that you should pick very sweet wines to pair with sugary desserts like cakes, pies, cookies and other treats. Dessert wines aren’t just limited to pairing with sweet foods, either—they are also fantastic with spicy foods. Spice and wine usually don’t mix well, because the food’s heat exacerbates the alcohol in the wine and ends up creating even more of an unpleasant burning sensation in your mouth. Sweet wines, however, are able to quench that fire and restore your palate for the next spicy bite. They are also wonderful when paired with a range of savoury foods, especially very strongly flavoured foods and cheeses that are notoriously difficult to partner with most other wines.

Sample Pairings • Vintage Port + dark chocolate • Pedro Ximénez Sherry + rice pudding

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• Tawny Port + crème brulée • Ice wine + green curry • Moscato d’Asti + fruit salad

Calgary Wine Guide


Edmonton Wine Guide

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sparkling wine This is your fallback category when you just aren’t sure what to pick: sparkling wine is an incredibly versatile food-pairing wine. The secret is the bubbles—the wine’s carbonation acts as a palate cleanser, refreshing and renewing your mouth in-between bites. Given their celebratory, “special occasion” reputation, it might surprise you that some of the best foods to pair with sparkling wines are very lowbrow, even downright greasy: potato chips, popcorn, French fries and anything else that’s battered, fried and beige. Sparkling wines are also excellent partners to salads and other vegetable-based dishes, as well as cheese, fish and other seafood, poultry and all manner of appetizers. Sweet bubblies like Moscato d’Asti, Lambrusco, some Proseccos, and Sec or DemiSec Champagne are wonderful with a range of desserts. Though Champagne is the most famous sparkling wine, various types are made all over the world. Prosecco from Italy and Cava from Spain are two other very common categories, though plenty of others exist across all the world’s wine regions. The majority of sparkling wines are white, and they tend to be made from grapes with very high acidity—another reason why they are great food wines—while a few are rosé and a small amount are red. These red bubblies (sparkling Shiraz from Australia is a common variant) are the few bubblies that can truly stand up to heavy red meat dishes.

Sample Pairings • Champagne + caviar • Prosecco + arugula salad with prosciutto • Cava + fish and chips

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• Crémant de Bourgogne Rosé + lamb ravioli • Sparkling Shiraz + roasted venison with blackberry compote

Calgary Wine Guide


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