Holiday Wine and Food Pairing

As we roll into the festive time of year, we start enjoying more time with friends and family.  With these gatherings we are probably are eating sweets, cheeses and other wonderful foods. So, what wines do you pair with these? Let’s review a few delicious options!  

Let’s start with chocolate, and who doesn’t love chocolate! Dark chocolate is the most intense, and richly-flavored, and is composed of 70% to 100% cacao. Because of the intense flavors, bittersweet and dark chocolates need to be paired with strong red wines.  Look to Merlot, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon as well as ports and fortified wines. Milk chocolate has a higher percentage of sugar and smaller percentage of cacao, and is the sweetest of all chocolates. Milk chocolate is not bitter, so sweeter Sherries like a cream sherry or Pedro Ximenez  are always delicious combinations. A Hungarian Tokaji or a Tawny Port can also work well with milk chocolate.

Dessert time? Port and Madeira have red cherry, dark raisin and fig flavors so try these with coffee and caramel based deserts.  Madeira (Bual and Malmsey) are great with nuts, toffee and butterscotch. Try Bual Madeira with Pumpkin pie! Ice Wines are great pairings with desserts like cheesecakes, berry cobblers, lemon tart, peach desserts, and short bread cookies. The bottom line is, the wine should always be sweeter than the dessert, or otherwise the wine can taste dull and acidic.

We can’t forget those wonderful cheese plates! Soft Cheeses like Brie, Camembert, Neufchâtel, Provolone are creamy and lower in fat than hard cheeses. White wines such as German or Austrian Riesling with a little bit of sweetness, semi-sweet champagne, or sparkling wines pair well. What about hard Cheeses like Gruyere, Longhorn, Gouda, and most cheddars? Red wines go well with these as the tannins soften the fat and protein of hard cheeses. Select wines such as Bordeaux, Amarone, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Barolo. Goat Cheese is tangy with a chalk like texture. Crisp young white wines like Sauvignon Blanc or Sancerre pair well.

The holidays wouldn’t be the same without Champagne.  Champagne is incredibly versatile with food.  In general, appetizers, asparagus, butter sauces, Caviar, eggs and eggs dishes, lobster, oysters, shellfish, popcorn, smoked salmon pair well.  A few other options to Champagne which are considered sparkling wines would be Cava. Cava is a type of Spanish white or pink sparkling wine produced in Spain.  Moscato d'Asti or Prosecco are other sparkling wines choices.  Both are off dry to sweet, low in alcohol, and often enjoyed with dessert. Try poached pears with Moscato d’Asti.  Prosecco, is delicious with Marcona almonds.

Happy holiday pairing, and until next time, cheers!

Wine Lingo

Have you ever been in a wine conversation, or overheard one with someone describing the wine as “this wine is complex”, “it’s full bodied”, “and high in acidity”, “tannic and it has long legs in the glass”. What the heck do all those things mean? Let’s explorer and demystify some wine lingo.
Or, you’re shopping at your favorite wine shop trying to pick out a good bottle of wine for dinner. As you cruise down the aisles, you pause to read a review taped to the shelf, and you suddenly realize you don’t understand half of what you’re reading. Well, take comfort: you’re not alone. Here are a few terms, and easy to understand definitions.

Acidity: refers to the tartness of a wine. A wine can be described as crisp or soft, depending on the amount of acidity. Usually high-acidity wines will be described as crisp, while those with low acidity are called soft. Acidity is a key element in successful food-and-wine pairing. Generally, the most food-friendly wines have moderate alcohol with a crisp acidity.

Body: wines that feel heavy and rich in your mouth are full-bodied, you may also hear the term “big” to describe these types of wines. Light wines with little to no mouth feel are light bodied. Medium-bodied wines fall in between. The amount of alcohol can also determine a wine’s richness and body, and also the intensity of flavor. Wines with low alcohol will feel light-bodied.

Complexity: refers to the aromas and flavors in a wine and how they interact with each other. The more layers of flavor and aroma, the more complex the wine and usually the higher its quality.

Finish: describes a wine’s aftertaste, be it a fruit, its acidity, or the oak, or tannins. Generally, the longer the flavor lasts after you swallow the better quality the wine.

Tannins: these come from the skins, seeds, and stems of the grapes and also from the barrels, and are usually found in red wine. Tannins can make your tongue feel fuzzy, or have that puckering effect. If so, then there is a good deal of tannins in the wine. Wines high in tannins are often described as firm or chewy, and those without a lot of tannins are called soft or supple.

Fruit-forward: wines are dominated by the flavors of fresh fruit—berries, apples, cherries, and so forth.

Jammy: wines taste of very ripe, almost overripe berries. Zinfandels are often described as “jammy”.

When you get ready to taste your wine look for the legs (or tears) as they trickle and run down the inside of a glass after you swirl it. The legs are clues to how much alcohol or residual sugar the wine contains; legs that are slow to run down the inside of the glass indicate a wine with more alcohol or residual sugar.