Simple Food and Wine Pairings

[David McDuff]

Discussions on recent food and wine pairings which worked surprisingly well together. Easy food, simply prepared, and good wine.

[David McDuff]

Wine: Langhe Nebbiolo Gavarini, Elio Grasso 2004

Food: Fettuccine with Sage and Brown Butter

Gavarini is a cru in the Barolo commune of Monforte d'Alba. Elio and his son Gianluca Grasso make beautiful Barolo from their portion of the vineyard. From their younger vines on this hillside, they also make a varietal Nebbiolo, vinified and aged only in steel. The wine is meant to be immediately approachable and to be saved not much beyond its fifth birthday.

In spite of the wine's delicacy and fruit-forward nature relative to its sibling Barolo, I still usually think of it as an ideal pairing for meat. Veal chops, roast beef and a more robust preparation of pork all come to mind. Recently though, one of my coworkers was discussing the wine on the telephone with Martina Grasso, Elio's wife. She appreciated Joe's feedback and also let him know that she often enjoys their Langhe Nebbiolo Gavarini with a simple family meal of pasta dressed with sage and butter.

Getting a late start on dinner last night and facing a somewhat depleted cupboard, I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to put Martina's suggestion to the test. The meal couldn't have been easier: cook a pound of pasta (I used DeCecco fettuccine, cooked al dente), pick some fresh sage from the herb garden, melt a stick of butter, chop the sage, add it to the butter and cook over low to medium heat until golden brown. Toss pasta with the sage butter, season to taste and grate, if you choose, some good pecorino or parmigiano.

The wine's gentle tannins turned out to be quite right for the toothfeel of the pasta. With aromas and flavors of red raspberries, red licorice and dark flowers, it sychronized surprisingly well with the sweet, nutty brown butter and the musky aromas of the sage. In theory, the combination seemed almost counterintuitive but in practice it worked so well I'll happily add it to my list of pairings to enjoy on a more regular basis.

[JohnL]

Ya know--based on what you wrote-I am going to find the wine and try the pasta with it!

Thanks!!

ps

I too have found it pays to be counterintuitive at times.

[David McDuff]

Wine: Bordeaux Clairet, Chateau Turcaud 2004

Food: Thanksgiving leftovers

I'm working from memory here, so please forgive me if the details seem a bit hazy. In spite of having a number of great friends and family members over for the Thanksgiving meal in 2005, we had enough leftovers to make for several additional lunches, snacks and dinners. Aside from the turkey, which was simply oven roasted with thyme and shallots, the main dishes were coriander glazed sweet potatoes, sausage and corn bread dressing, braised brussel sprouts with pancetta, and oven roasted string beans with wild mushrooms. Of all the wines we enjoyed on Thanksgiving Day, plus all the wines which I tried with the leftover meals, this Bordeaux Clairet was the most memorable and harmonious match.

A traditional but fairly uncommonly found AOC Bordeaux, Clairet is a style of red wine produced from a maceration of the allowed red grape varieties for approximately three days. To the eye, it looks like a deeply colored rosé. And not surprisingly, on the palate the wine drinks like a cross between a structured rosé and a lighter-bodied, everyday red. Turcaud's version shows a distinctly briny character, with bright and fairly solid red stone-fruit flavors and a fully dry finish. With the leftovers, this brininess subsided, more lushness came out of the fruit and the flavors of the turkey, dressing and wine essentially just melted together in a perfectly comforting way. A prime example of why it's often best to choose a very simple wine when serving a wide and disparate array of dishes, flavors and seasonings.

[Brad Ballinger]

I would imagine there are an infinite number of possibilities under this topic. Again, most wine goes with most food -- as long as the food is in balance and the wine is in balance.

[David McDuff]

I would imagine there are an infinite number of possibilities under this topic.

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Quite right, Brad, if this were meant to be a catalog of any and every food and wine pairing akin to the "What did you have for dinner?" and "What beer did you drink today?" threads. The idea here is to present a forum for counterintuitive matches -- things that would not have been expected to work well together -- that don't just work well but actually result in something more than the collective flavors of the dish alone and the wine alone. As a coworker of mine likes to say, "A two plus two equals six pairing..." -- and a surprising one.

[esme]

wine: A & P de Villaine Bourgogne blanc (sorry, I don't remember the vintage)

food: mushroom consomme with orange agrumato (hazy on the exact mushroom as well)

A few years ago, I was pairing wines for a meal at the restaurant where I work. We had a variety of wines, white, pink, & red, open for comparison with each of the dishes we were sampling. This was one of the most perfect matches I have ever tasted. They really became one in your mouth. The gentle oaking of the wine gave depth to the consomme and the earthiness of the consomme added complexity to the wine. Other than the fact that the wine was there and open, I don't think that I would have ever thought of combining the two.