But when you’re cooking at home and have chosen a wine to match the weight of your main ingredient, you can tweak the pair by understanding that certain “bridge” components will help tie your dish to a particular wine varietal.
Let’s look at four popular grapes to demonstrate how you can add a bridge ingredient to enhance a recipe and create an affinity between your chosen food and wine. When you understand the flavor profile of a particular grape, you can then pick a simple enhancement to improve what might otherwise be a questionable match.
Most bottles of sauvignon blanc can usually be put into one of two camps, citrus or herbal. It matches well with shrimp, mollusks, light white fish or poultry (as long as the protein is cooked in a manner that’s not too caramelized, i.e., poached vs. grilled). After you taste the particular wine, adding a squeeze of citrus or some chopped fresh herbs can seal the deal. This grape likes tart accents, so goat cheese, sour cream or yogurt work well. Fennel or bell peppers also bring the flavors together. There are hundreds of combinations. Think like a chef. What else provides tartness to match acidity? Sun-dried tomatoes, capers, Dijon mustard, green olives, etcetera.
Unoaked chardonnay is medium-bodied, but most of what you’ll encounter is barrel-aged with mouth-filling toasty oak flavors. You’re likely to find orchard or tropical fruits, plus toast, vanilla or honey. It’s great with lobster, and oily fish like salmon, tuna or swordfish, plus lighter meats, like game hens, veal and pork. It likes rich food, so butter and cream are your friends. Also try apples, avocado, bacon, tropical fruit or a sprinkling of toasted nuts or sesame oil for a simple but effective bridge. The richness of pumpkin or squash also mirrors the wine’s flavors.
Pinot noir is one of the most aromatic of wines, with a heady nose of light berry fruits, earthiness and spice. Depending on whether or not you’ve got a lighter Old World style or opt for New World ripeness, it’s a favorite with duck, lamb, grilled salmon or ahi tuna. Great bridges are dried cherries, mushrooms or (my favorite) a drizzle of white truffle oil, which I often use on cheese when I want to serve pinot. It’s magic.
Cabernet sauvignon matches perfectly with meats containing fat. Beef, venison, buffalo and squab coat the palate to balance its youthful tannins. Adding walnuts or pecans lessons the perception of the tannins (the pucker factor). Herbs like rosemary, thyme, basil or oregano highlight those flavors that linger behind the dark berry fruits. A splash of balsamic vinegar or some black olives tie it all together.
Of course, another obvious bridge is to splash a bit of the wine you’re drinking into the dish. Think of it as vino “self-help.”
This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2015.