Much of the world's quality wine is being discussed and consumed in a vacuum. Horizontal tastings of Riesling across geography, verticals of Chateau Doesn't-That-Impress-You, and samplings of the latest and greatest release of Evan's “Acme Vineyard” Zinfandel are, for the most part, served, judged, and revered in isolation—in the complete absence of anything resembling food. And although the “wine and food thing” has been on the rise over the past few decades, and more and more people are expressing an interest in learning about it, most of them feel as if they are on the outside and do not really know where to begin.
That's where I hope this book can be of use. Over the last twenty-plus years and in varying professional capacities, I have taught well in excess of twenty-five thousand people about wine, food, and the enjoyment of both. Along the way I have discovered that people want to know what wines are “like” (dry or sweet, tannic or not tannic, what style they're made in, and so forth), how they taste, and, finally, what foods they pair best with. That's about as far as most of us want to take it. Some get deeper into the subject, but they are in the minority.
Intriguingly, however, even these relatively wine- and culinaria-obsessed folks confide that there is not much out there that covers the pairing of wine and food—why and how they work together. For those people, it is my intention to provide solid, nuanced information. In collaborating with the renowned chef Joyce Goldstein (aka Mom) in developing and exploring particular recipes tailored to different types of wine, my aim has been to create a forum in which both the wine buffs and the foodies feel comfortable and included in this book's broader audience. It's a risky but deliberate strategy.
Many authors make wine and food pairing much more complicated than it needs to be. I believe that if you have to think too deeply, it's simply not worth it. A better goal is to reach a personal comfort zone of wine and food in which you can decide effortlessly whether it's the wine or the food that will drive a particular dining experience. Whether you choose the wine first and pick compatible recipes, or choose your menu first and then the wine to accompany it, you will ultimately find pairing as intuitive and natural as breathing.
So read on—there's something here for everyone. For the novice or the more experienced wine lover, the professional wine and food geek, or the weekend “let's-try-this-wine-with-this-dish” warrior, Perfect Pairings can help.
And always remember, as we say at my house, if you don't like the wine you selected, you can always run downstairs or to the fridge and pick out something else!
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
This book is designed to be a practical and easy-to-use guide for learning about wines and their styles and how to pair them with food. The flow is logical, beginning with an introduction on how to taste wines with thought and increasing discernment. The goal of this section is to provide you with some coaching and direction that will help you discover a thoughtful approach toward wine tasting and evaluation and develop a more confident palate.
Once we've established a wine comfort zone, the next section of the book explores cooking for and with wine and how recipes and ingredients can influence the choice of wine to accompany a meal. This section, which includes opinions, pointers, and discussion of a few wine-friendly foods and their tricks, seeks to (as the title of my son's first-grade reading development book eloquently put it) “explode the code.” Here, that means addressing and at times challenging the orthodoxies of wine and food philosophy (for instance, the idea that you must always serve red wine with meat and white wine with fish).
The heart of the book is the separate chapters looking at twelve varietals (grape types), along with sparkling wines and dessert wines, each exploring the where (where the grapes are from and the wines are made), the how (how they are interpreted and produced to define their style), and the what (what they taste like). Finally, we consider what you need to bear in mind when cooking to accompany the specific styles of each wine.
Each varietal chapter concludes with a selection of recipes that have been created specially for this book to highlight particular interpretations and styles of the given wine. Each recipe is followed by comments from Joyce and me about the rationale behind the dish and its pairing with the wine. In the Chardonnay chapter, for example, I discuss four acknowledged and readily available styles of Chardonnay: oak-aged and influenced by malolactic fermentation, European and mineral-scented, explosive and tropical-fruit-packed, and aged/mature and nutty. We've developed dishes that highlight each of these styles. Every varietal chapter also includes a lexicon of tasting descriptors associated with that varietal and recommendations of producers who make wines that are representative of their regions and geographies in different price categories.
To round out the book, we present several menus that are mixed and matched from the book's recipes to create fun and educational dining events. Perfect Pairings is interspersed with tips, useful pointers, and a “cheat sheet” to reinforce and summarize key points. It concludes with a glossary of everyday wine terminology that will help you understand more about how wines are made and how they are described.
Throughout this book I encourage experimentation. Whether you choose to do informal wine tastings to learn about grapes, wines, styles, and geographies or to create delicious meals to further your learning and pleasure, it's all about fun, enjoyment, and what works best for you. Remember that, ultimately, what gives you the most happiness along the wine and food journey is all that matters.
So, let's move on to the basics of tasting.
TASTING AND ENJOYING WINE
Nobody is born with a wine palate. As nobody consumes Merlot as mother's milk, wine appreciation is completely learned. Learning to enjoy and to discriminate among wines is an acquired taste or skill and one for which everybody, regardless of level of perceived sophistication, is entitled to his or her own opinions.
Think about it. As my friend Steve Olson once put it, on the day you figure out you can spit out the strained spinach and have seconds on mashed bananas, taste opinions are born. Your point of view ultimately determines your wine preferences. I want to help you learn to feel comfortable saying, “Delicious!” or “Blech!” and to understand why you have the preferences that you do. Once you know something about a wine's background—the grape type, characteristic flavors, region of origin, production style, and so on—you'll know what to expect from your first sip.
The idea of wine evaluation is implicitly bizarre. No other consumer product causes such paralysis by analysis. Certainly we do not experience angst when shopping for soda, mineral water, shampoo, or chocolate-chip cookies! Although wine is no longer the exclusive domain of the so-called wine snobs, people are nevertheless intimidated by the variables and complexities of this magic beverage.
Learning wine appreciation is much like training for running a marathon: you have to temper your initial expectations. Wine lovers aren't born overnight but are formed with focused practice, best accompanied by the feedback, company, and direction of someone whose palate they trust and respect. Eventually you'll experience a moment when the lightbulb goes on. For me it was listening to dining-room babble while sipping a red Burgundy at Thanksgiving when I was about sixteen years old. The wine's complexity and layering of flavor all of a sudden made sense, and, as a reminder of that day, I still have the empty bottle, displayed with many others along the walls of my dining room.
Wine evaluation or tasting is a series of cross-references, with tastes framed against past experience. Once you've tried twenty or thirty Zinfandels, your palate will begin to recognize a basic varietal character linking those different bottles. With the recognition of that varietal “signature,” you can taste each successive Zinfandel