What a great idea! At our last ABC Wine Tasting we set up our guest caterer across from our ABC Promo Wine table and paired food and wine. I might call this a “blind pairing” because I did not know the menu that our local caterer, Take Away Gourmet, intended to bring (we leave that up to them). We’d already chosen the wine to share with our guests at the Promo table, so perhaps “extemporaneous pairing” might be more accurate, since I‘m not blindfolded. I just have to make quick decisions to find the perfect pairing. Maybe an “impromptu pairing” would be the best term. First, Darleen, from Take Away Gourmet, had to describe her offerings: garlic parmesan-stuffed mushrooms, spicy curried chicken salad, smoked apple, bacon and caramelized onion tart, and a lemon cheesecake tart with blueberry compote.

 We’d already chosen our wines and typed up the list, so I really couldn’t change the line up, but I could find a way to line up these two lists. Here is the wine on that table: Young Meg 2010 Sauvignon Blanc ($12), 2009 Graham Beck Game Reserve Chenin Blanc ($15), 2009 Undone Dry Riesling ($11), 2009 St Jean Honoré Beaujolais-Villages “ Les Cotes Saint Cyr” ($10), 2008 Undone Pinot Noir ($10), and the 2010 Nadia Malvasia Oltrepo Pavese ($14). I was glad we had a nice range of wine styles to fit these different small bites including softer reds to work with lighter recipes.

 The garlic Parmesan stuffed mushrooms had some dried herbs and breadcrumbs to fill it out, but the garlic and Parmesan were the strongest flavors. I had two pretty good options: Young Meg and Graham Beck -- New Zealand and South Africa. My first thought was the 2010 Young Meg Sauvignon Blanc, due to its gooseberry characters coupled with grapefruit and green grass and a great bite of acidity on the palate, perfect to cut through the cheese and elevate the garlic. I thought the 2009 Game Reserve Chenin Blanc would also pair nicely, since it’s a drier form of Chenin Blanc than you might expect from South Africa. I get a hint of Vouvray-like perfume on the first whiff, but the bright mineral acids come across very forcefully on the palate. I might also choose to pair this Chenin Blanc with the next hors d’oeuvre, spicy curried chicken salad.

 It was that extra spice that finally led me to the 2009 Undone Dry Riesling from the Rheinhessen in Germany. Not a super-sweet Riesling at all, being from farther south in Germany than the typical Mosels. There are still green apple sweet notes, married with plenty of bright acid flavors. That hint of fruit softens the curry spice in my mouth without taking away from the exotic flavor, and I must admit that I often pair Indian food with dry Rieslings. The finish has a hint of minerality, which cuts the sour cream in the chicken salad perfectly. I’d love this salad on mixed greens with a light vinaigrette, paired with either wine.

 The next food item, the caramelized onion, smoked apple and bacon tart had a little more meatiness and a sweet smokiness that could have worked with whites (like the Graham Beck Chenin Blanc) but we had two soft reds and I thought the Beaujolais-Villages would really play off of the caramelized onion and bacon, while the Pinot Noir might dance better with the apple. Both of these reds are low tannin, high acid, lower alcohol wines from Europe. They were more similar than different (and they are genetically related, with Pinot Noir being one of the parents to Gamay Beaujolais). With this lovely Beaujolais-Villages (not be confused with its lighter cousin Nouveau) I smell earth and cherries, blueberries and bright acid, as I often smell with Gamay wines. That hint of earthiness is what worked so well with the caramelized onion, yet still played nicely with the apple and bacon. Both wines cut the fattiness of the tart bringing out the subtler apple flavors and that hint of smoke from the bacon. The 2008 Undone Pinot Noir is just a tad lighter and more acidic but pairs almost as well with this tart.

 The last pairing was almost a godsend, since the lemon cheesecake was perfect to play off the floral and honeyed sweetness of this delicious Malvasia, made in the Moscato d’Asti style, frizzante, with a hint of bubbles. It’s the incredible perfume that makes this wine so amazing; honeysuckle, jasmine, orange blossom and apricots leap out of the glass. With only 7% alcohol there is plenty of fruit on the tongue, so this is truly a fine dessert wine, just lighter than its heavier dessert wine cousins like Sauterne. The Nadia still cut through the cheesecake and harmonized with the citrus, even matching up to the blueberry compote topping, which grounded the wine. At $14 per bottle, this is an amazing wine to explore your sweet tooth, and well worth a try, but it’s the nose that knows.

 Most wine and food pairings work out better than not pairing at all, so I’ve become more and more comfortable matching limited choices. Seeking a particular flavor in the food to bring out a similar note in the wine is the best way to start and works just about every time. Playing with some of the differences in similar wines and pairing them with the same dish can also teach us the nuances between said wines and their differing impact on the entire experience. Confidentially, pairing is often a wine consultant’s favorite task, because we’re all closet foodies, as well as out of the closet wine-geeks. Stop by your local ABC that has a wine consultant and see for yourself. Cheers!

 Daniel Eddy, Fine Wine Consultant for ABC in Gainesville, Florida

Read more of Daniel's wine and food pairings on Examiner.com: http://www.examiner.com/wine-pairing-in-gainesville/daniel-eddy