Perfect Pairings. Evan Goldstein

fried chicken, and fillet of sole amandine are good options for pairing with a developed Chardonnay.

       PAIRING POINTERS

       Chardonnay works well:

      • With dishes that have rich textures and flavors, especially if the Chardonnay has texture (as from oak aging or lees stirring).

      • To counterbalance rich dishes by “cutting” richness with higher acidity (especially unoaked, cooler-climate examples).

      • With most mild and sweet shellfish, including lobster, prawns, shrimp, and steamer clams; but choose unoaked types when matching with mussels and most oysters.

      • With butter, cream, melted cheeses, and anything adding coarse texture (such as white beans, macaroni, polenta, or grits).

      • With many sweet spices, which mirror the flavors derived from oak barrels, including nutmeg, cinnamon, five-spice powder, and dried ginger.

      • With nuts, and recipes incorporating nuts. As an inherent flavor characteristic of Chardonnay, nuts of various kinds, and especially toasted nuts, are sublime, especially with aged and older, developed wines.

      • With milder white mushrooms (standard button mushrooms, chanterelles, shiitakes, oyster mushrooms, etc.), especially when they are sautéed with butter. Other textured and mild ingredients are also great platforms for Chardonnay, including avocado and squash.

      • With onions and garlic; served with earthy Old World examples (such as those from Burgundy or northern Italy), these pick up on the wine's terroir.

       Chardonnay doesn't work:

      • If it is too oaky to match with food. If you are serving a rich and oaky Chardonnay, play to it with ingredients that mirror the flavors of the wine or, better still, with cooking methods that match well with the oak (such as grilling and smoking).

      • In showing off hot or spicy dishes. The explosion of capsaicins, the heat-invoking elements in chiles, blows out the subtlety while accentuating the oak and the alcohol in the wine.

      • With very sharp ingredients. Most oak-aged Chardonnay is diminished when paired with items such as leeks, olives, asparagus, capers, zucchini, tomatoes, and broccoli rabe. Unoaked and sharper examples, however, can be brilliant.