A couple of years ago Dana Cowin (of Food and Wine Magazine fame) guest-judged on Top Chef, and the theme was creating a menu based on a wine. In an offhand comment at the show’s opening, she  empowered all foodies to feel better about wine pairing: “10% of pairings are just awful and 10% of pairings are genius.” The subtext is that 80% of pairings are within the tolerable to very good range, and those are pretty good odds. This agrees with my contention that the vast majority of the time, all food is improved with wine and vice versa. What I have also learned in my 20+ years of professional wining and pairing is to keep it simple. Wine pairings fail when one tries to match all the flavors one perceives in a wine; instead, focusing on one or two works much better. This is what I call the essential strategy. My other cheat is the regional strategy, or pairing wines with recipes from the same region. Both strategies make “unknown” pairings much easier and make any neophyte oenophile feel like a sommelier.

The essential strategy focuses on one or two scents or tastes that one finds in a wine to then brings those flavors into the meal. Again, do not try and match all the flavors within a wine. There can be many
flavors, and if you are choosing similar options in the food, all those flavors can seem muddled. Let’s say there is a hint of blackberry in your Shiraz; perhaps utilize a blackberry coulis with your pork tenderloin or use black fruits in the marinade. If you taste or smell chocolate in your Cabernet Sauvignon, then
pair with a mild molé or add some cocoa to your chili. This may seem simplistic, but it works. The essential strategy requires sampling the wine before choosing your menu, but this is easy to do at
most of our larger ABC stores who have a Napa Tap wine sampling system and a wine consultant to talk you through it.

The regional strategy works best for European wines, since they generally have centuries for specific recipes to have evolved with regional wines. In the New World we don’t tend to have the same history or
culture of food, but since the vitis vinifera varietals all originated in Europe and the Middle East, we can
look to their region of origin for some guidance. This strategy becomes most clear when you get to travel to wine regions and sample their local wines with their local fare. Say you are in a region that grows truffles. The wines from that region pair particularly well with truffles, having their own earthy richness. Last October I was fortunate to go on one of these special trips to Italy with importer Nadia Galati, and we were treated to many fantastic wines paired with local foods. The simplest pairings were the local wine with the
local cheese, but here are three of my favorite wine dinner pairings:

In the Veneto we visited Collalto, in Susegana, the heart of Prosecco Superiore, but my favorite pairing was actually their Manzoni Rosa Bianco with a savory pumpkin risotto topped with speck ham. The
pumpkin was local as was the ham; speck is a little saltier than prosciutto and just a hint smoky. Dr. Manzoni created this cross in the 1930s in this region. For this wine, they take a rosé grape but vinify it white, like a Blanc de Noir Champagne. The vibrant acidity of the wine cuts through the sweet thickness of the risotto, while the wine’s slightly sweet fruitiness balances off the saltiness of the ham. This pairing
could also function as an essential pairing, since the wine and the risotto both had an earthy sweetness, a similar element to create harmony.

In Asti, in the Piedmont region, we visited Pavia & Figli, and enjoyed an array of Barbera wines in different styles, either stainless steel-fermented or barrel-aged. Therefore the same grape had different expressions and could pair with different menus. The Pavia Blina, fermented and aged in stainless, shows a bright, cherry fruit acidity that they paired with Agnolotti Ravioli, a favorite, local dish of homemade ravioli stuffed with rabbit, pork, beef and veal. The bright acidity of the Blina balanced the hint of gaminess from the rabbit without over-powering the mélange of meat. The barrel-aged Pavia Moliss they paired
with roasted faraona (called the “royal turkey”), a fowl with a stronger flavor somewhere between turkey and duck. The toasted oak of this barrel-aged Barbera gives the wine more depth, which resonated with the richer flavor of this fowl (similar to a Guinea Fowl). Both are local dishes, but since the two Barberas had some significant differences we might say again that both strategies were used.

In Bardolino we visited Giovanna Tantini’s winery and enjoyed her classic Bardolino but also her “Super-Veneto” wine Ettore. Named after her son, Ettore is a non-traditional blend of local grape Corvina Nero (also used in Valpolicella) and two French varietals, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Giovanna paired Ettore with grilled Florentine steaks (the steaks came from Florence, as Tuscany is known for their beef) served with local roasted vegetables. Here the pairing was a little less regional, since the steaks were “imported” (by here husband, Marco, who picked them up while visiting Tuscany the week before). Ettore is fermented in stainless but aged in oak barrique, and that smoky oak character played off the smoke from grilling. The steaks had a fresh herbal rub and those subtle basil, oregano and thyme flavors also emerge in the wine. Sometimes the food will actually pull flavors out of the wine that might have gone unnoticed without a pairing.

Regional pairing represents the magic of French terroir, whereby a wine is more than just fermented grapes, but is a representation of the region where the wine is grown. While essential pairing reminds me of homeopathy, where just a small note of a scent or flavor can be enough to harmonize a wine with a meal. These are just two methodologies, there are more, but I find these two to be very effective and simple to implement. One of my favorite guest visits is when a guest comes in with a menu, and I get to play sommelier and find the right pairing. Originally I found this daunting, but no longer, and it certainly helps that 90% of the time, the pairings work! So stop by your local ABC with a menu and let your wine consultant play sommelier. Cheers!

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

Wine Pairing Examiner for Examiner.com