Myths, Chocolate & Other Sweet Mysteries of Life

Oh, to be blissfully unimpeded by thought or effort when matching wine with food. There’s nothing wrong with the “drink-whatever-you-like” approach when it comes to that. Not much different than when it comes to cooking: whenever you’re hungry, just open up a can of your favorite food or stop by the nearest fast food joint on the way home.

But if you give what you want to eat some considerable thought – weighing the proportions of herbs and spices, picking out the exact fresh ingredients you need – you know darn well that you can prepare something far better than what you can get from a can or drive-through. Just like if you give the wine for your dish some thought, weighing the components in each to make the most sensible choice, you can get a match that can turn an everyday meal into a repast worthy of Lucullus.

Most of us end up following at least a few general guidelines, beginning “white wine with fish, and red wine with meat.” Fair enough. Except for the fact that in numerous circumstances red wine tastes perfectly delicious with fish. So much for rule #1. Then there are numerous other “rules” that you can actually still read about in books or hear in conversation that also hold little water. So here’s what I say: forget the “rules.” Although it might be helpful to understand why and when they work, you also need to understand why and when they don’t work.

But first, let’s throw out these commonly repeated myths often passed as rules:

That “Great” Wines Make the Greatest Food Matches – In actuality, almost the opposite is true. Because I can’t put it any better, I’m going to let Kermit Lynch (quoting from his Adventures on the Wine Route) explain this to us:

When a woman chooses a hat, she does not put it on a goat’s head to judge it; she puts it on her own. There is a vast difference, an insurmountable difference, between the taste of a wine next to another wine, and the same wine’s taste with food…

Test it yourself. Take two impreccable wines, the Domaine Tempier Bandol rosé… and a bottle of Château Margaux, which many critics consider the finest Médoc of the day. Compare the two side by side. Award points. Do not be surprised if the Margaux wins handily. Now serve the same two wines with a boiled artichoke and rate them again. The Margaux is bitter and metallic-tasting, whereas the Bandol rosé stands up and dances like Baryshnikov… which is the better wine? Which wins?

That Lighter Style "Food Wines" Are Excuses for Weak, Inferior Wines – Nonsense. If you take a look at the wines of the world with the longest track records in the context of regional cuisines – Chianti in Tuscany, Sancerre in France, Rioja in Spain, and even the various pink, white and red wines of the French and Italian Riviera – you can see that they're all light, easy to drink, and relatively lacking in the taste of oak and the feel of high alcohol which characterizes most of the "serious" wines of today. Just because a wine is light in body and flavor doesn't make it inferior. The fact is, lighter, less expensive wines are most likely to go better with food – which in the average consumer's book would make them "better."

That Big "Oaky" Chardonnays Don't Go with Food – There are actually a lot of dishes with which a fuller bodied wine with the rich taste of oak – a vanillin or creamy, often smoky or even charred taste – would do a lot better than a lighter, pure fruit style of wine. Smoked or wood grilled meats, for instance, love a smoky, oaky wine. California style Chardonnays tend to be quite full and richly oaked to the point of creaminess (or as they say, “buttery”) – perfect for your everyday roasted chicken, dripping in naturally buttery, fatty juices. Then there are pork roasts, braised veal, sautéed sweetbreads, wood grilled swordfish, salmon in poaching broths… the list of oaky Chardonnay loving dishes goes on and on. In fact, there probably is no better wine for a holiday turkey – especially if cooked in a charcoal or wood roaster and stuffed with Chardonnay friendly sage, bread crumbs, and even seafood sausages or oysters – than any number of these "big, fat mamas," as David Rosengarten once described California's unsubtle style of Chardonnay.

That Higher Acid Wines Are Best with Food – Wines with crisp, lemony sharp acidity are indeed wonderful for food; especially if you're having plainly cooked fish that an acidic white wine can zest up like a squeeze of lemon. But put that same fish in a buttery sauce or rich, creamy or slightly salty shellfish stock reduction, and all of the sudden a high acid wine tastes thin and puckery, and the dish tastes oily and filling. In other words, low acid wines have as much a place with food as high acid wines. In fact, low acid wines are what Mediterranean gastronomy is all about! When you look at them, most of the wines of Italy and Southern France are fairly low in acid, and "fat" with fruitiness -- which only makes sense with foods driven by the taste of olive oil, plump beans and nostril tingling garlic.

That Sweet Wines Interfere with the Taste of Food – In many cases, yes. But in many other cases -- a sweet/sour/salty Chinese dish, chili spiked Thai food, a sugar laced barbecue sauce, or even a pizza with sweet tomatoes and caramelized onions – wines with a touch of sweetness, such as Riesling or even White Zinfandel, are a better balanced match than completely dry wines. Especially when dishes are really hot and spicy – in which case, slightly sweet wines can cool and freshen the palate like no others.

That Salads and Vinaigrettes Are Bad for Wine – Leafy greens tossed in harsh, acidic cider vinaigrettes are no good, with or without wine. But vinaigrettes made with soft, round, aromatic fine vinegars – such as balsamic, sherry, or rice wine vinegars – actually enhance, and liven up, the taste of wine. Throw in lush, vine ripened tomatoes, crunchy sweet onions, and salty, sensuous chunks of Roquefort, and you've got a fine match with off-dry Riesling, a fruity Chenin Blanc, or a well chilled pink wine made from Grenache, Zinfandel or Pinot Noir. With fresh herb crusted goat cheese, it's hard to beat a crisp, dry Sauvignon Blanc. Throw whole grain mustard into the dressing, and top things off with shredded duck or slivers of cold beef, then light, fragrant reds such as Pinot Noir and Beaujolais (made from the Gamay Noir grape) come into play. The bottom line is that when it comes to salads, the choice of wine is as endless as what you put in them.

That the Richest Foods Need the Richest Wines – This thinking will take you only so far. It works for red meats – Cabernet Sauvignons, for instance, are just right for fatty beef and lamb dishes. But when you slow cook red meat, achieving more intense, caramelized, complex flavors, a round, soft, even feminine Pinot Noir beats out a big, brash Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot any day. For things like lobster, shrimp, crab and other sweet shellfishes, fairly light dry whites – such as Fumé Blanc, Pinot Blanc, or Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio – tend to make a fresher combination than thick, heavy Chardonnay based whites from California or Burgundy in France. With spicy hot Asian foods, full bodied, dry style Gewürztraminers from Alsace or California usually taste harsh and bitter; whereas a delicate Riesling or a medium sweet, low alcohol Italian Moscato is more likely to out the flavor, rather than raw heat, of exotic, spicy seasonings.

That Chocolate Is an "Enemy" of Wine -- While not a card carrying member of the champagne-with-chocolate club, I say that anyone who hasn't had a Tawny Port with dense, bittersweet chocolate just hasn't lived. It's true that typical, sweet chocolates wreak havoc on things like bone dry champagne and sweet white wines, but sweet red wines handle – in fact embellish – the taste of chocolate with aplomb. Other sweet reds of this type include black, juicy Banyuls from France, rare Recioto di Valpolicellas from Veneto, and the occasional "varietal" Ports (such as Justin's Cabernet-based Obtuse) and “Late Harvest” Zinfandels from California

But wait, there’s more…

CHOCOLATE & DRY RED WINE MATCHES

Does chocolate necessarily require just sweet red wines to make a good match? In recent years I have been tackling that question in earnest, experimenting with a number of chocolate matches wit wines going beyond sweet reds, and have found that dry red wines can indeed make delicious matches providing these factors…

• The chocolate is made with the addition of zero or little sugar, plus zero to almost minimal amounts of the usual “fillers” (like milk, butter or eggs) to dark chocolate bases.

• The chocolate might contain the bitter shavings of raw cacao

• The chocolate is flavored with wine-friendly, scented ingredients

Withal, I have found that hand rolled or truffle molded chocolates made in this fashion can compliment an amazing range of dry red wines, as well as some sweet whites. A few particular favorites:

• Framboise laced chocolate with silky, raspberryish Cabernet Franc or Cabernet Franc based blends (suggestions: Lang & Reed’s Napa Valley “Premier Étage” or Justin’s Paso Robles “Justification”)

• Hazelnut specked chocolate with refined, woodsy Tuscan Sangiovese (suggestions: Avignonesi’s Vino Nobile di Montepulciano or Castello di Fonterutoli’s Chianti Classico)

• Espresso bean chocolate with lush, nut nuanced Amarone (personal choice/favorite: La Colombaia’s Amarone della Valpolicella)

• Raspberry flavored chocolate with big, thick, luscious, berry/jammy Zinfandels (suggestions: Lodi grown Zinfandels like Jesse’s Grove’s “Earth, Zin & Fire,” Earthquake or Macchia)

• Mocha flavored chocolate with tobacco-smoky, earthy, berryish Spanish Tempranillo based reds (suggestions: Remirez de Ganuza’s Rioja or Tinto Pesquera’s Ribera del Duero “Crianza”)

• Milk chocolate with shaved raw cacao, with fuller, black fruit toned Pinot Noir (suggestions: Radio-Coteau’s Sonoma Coast or Tandem’s Sonoma Mountain Pinot Noir)

• Black chocolate with shaved raw cacao, with velvety, fruit forward, medium weight Cabernet Sauvignon (suggestions: Faust’s Napa Valley or Justin’s Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon)

• White chocolate with key lime, with fragrantly sweet Moscato (suggestions: Saracco’s Moscato d’Asti or St. Supery’s California Moscato)

Sound like a party to you? Works for me!

Great Plonk & Ideal Syrah Food Matches

By now, everyone who appreciates good wine has been long aware of the fact: South Australia produces some of the greatest red wines of the world, and its centerpiece is the rich and unruly Shiraz (otherwise known as Syrah in the rest of the world).

Without a doubt, the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, and Coonawarra are the three best known regions for Shiraz production in South Australia. Because of the fame of these districts, we are also beginning to see other wines from this state which bear less familiar regional distinctions; such as Clare Valley, Eden Valley, Langhorne Creek, Padthaway, Limestone Coast, Adelaide Hills, and the least known of all, Kangaroo Island.

But even Kangaroo Island – only recently cultivated to wine grapes – is already producing wines of serious import. Meaning, Shiraz based reds that knock your socks off, and blends of Shiraz with Cabernet Sauvignon or Grenache that fuse power with grace.

In my two visits to Australia I never did get to cross the chilly waters south of Adelaide to Kangaroo Island, but I have gotten many a good, hard look at bottlings exemplifying what makes South Australian wines the way they are.

Perhaps the biggest advantage that South Australia has over other wine regions of the world is its wealth of old vines planted on their original rootstocks. Virtually all the vineyards of Europe and the U.S., by contrast, were wiped out by phylloxera – a root louse which continues to wreak havoc even up until today – by the beginning of the 20^th century, and had to be replanted on non-vinifera rootstocks.

Much of South Australia, on the other hand, has been unaffected by phylloxera. And so to this day, many of its original, ungrafted plantings of Vitis vinifera – vines of 75, 100, and even over 125 years of age – continue to produce wines of enormous concentration, buoyed by the natural balance of low yield, moderate leaf canopy and bunch growth typical of old vine viticulture.

What I have also always found pleasantly surprising about Australia is its sea of young vines – vineyards less than ten years of age – producing beautifully intense wines almost right out of the box. While varied, the districts of South Australia tend to be warm and very dry. In other parts of the world this may translate into thin, overripe wines.

However, South Australia's vineyards are largely made up of extremely shallow, gravelly, clay dominated soils layered over hard pans and hillsides that vine roots have difficulty penetrating -- the type of highly limiting, low vigor conditions that wine grapes tend to love. Vines in McLaren Vale, for instance, are typically grown in just six to twelve inches of topsoil; the vineyards located right alongside deeply carved quarries that yield blue colored gravel used for concrete. No wonder McLaren Vale is often singled out for such dense, gnarly, powerfully fruited wine!

The proof, as always, is in the pudding; and in the U.S. we are seeing a broader range of these top quality South Australian brands than ever before. For a good introduction, here are a few of my favorites:

PURE SHIRAZ

Mollydooker, “The Boxer” South Australia Shiraz - After many years of working with the incredible wines of Sparky and Sarah Marquis (famed for Fox Creek, Henry’s Drive, Marquis Philips, et al.), I only recently learned that their last name is correctly pronounced as mar-kwis. This, even after having visited with them (in 2001) in South Australia to find out the “secret” behind the consistent high-flying intensity and pure velvet textures of their wines, virtually across the board. What can I share? There is no secret – just a smart, meticulously detailed approach to winemaking from the ground up. Mollydooker is the couple’s most recent venture, and the silly thing about the “The Boxer” is that its plush, juicy, wham-bam quality is no less intense than Shirazs selling for two, three times more. Expect pungent American oak (vanillin-coconut notes) along with typically Aussie, round, fruit-bomb flavor; but its price (as little as $14 retail in some markets) makes it a one of the world’s greatest wine values.

St. Hallet, "Blackwell" Barossa Valley Shiraz - To the Aussies, everything is bloody this and bloody that; the first drink of the day is a heart-starter; and when it's a good one, evidently it's good-on-ya. I'm beginning to see the pattern; as this bloody red, sinewy wine certainly gets your heart pumping with sweet and lush aromatic qualities that later dive bomb onto the palate like raspberry napalm. Like their footy (football), this style of winemaking is strictly "Australian Rules."

Peter Lehmann, "Stonewell" Barossa Valley Shiraz - Typical of the Australian style, the Stonewell is not shy in the oak department. Yet the immensely rich, sweet pepper and violet-on-leafy-green fruit fragrances seem to suck in smoky/vanillin wood like a black hole; in the same way that the wine's brawny, tannic structure is absorbed by layers of juicy, concentrated fruit flavors.

Henry's Drive, Padthaway “Reserve” Shiraz - Henry's Drives exhibit great power but never without a deft sense of balance – like this one, charged up with sweetly perfumed, juicy, briary, black pepper and allspice-like fruit, going full blast in the nose, and giving a layered, meaty, gripping, yet miraculously round and pliant feel on the palate.

Dutschke, "St. Jacobi" Barossa Valley Shiraz - This wine comes with a heavy metal jacket of tannin (non-tannin lovers need not apply), while also epitomizing the compelling strengths of South Australian style Syrah – luscious, smoky oaked fruit aromas punctuated with spice steeped plums and cracked peppercorn nuances, followed by full, almost fat, yet massively structured, velvety flavors that go long into the black night.

Clarendon Hills, "Hickinbotham Vineyard" Shiraz – This pure Syrah, from a spectacular, higher elevation, rolling hillside estate, combines the blunt, brutish, clobbering structure associated with South Australia with a sumptuously rich, oily, satisfyingly lush taste. Does it mean that it's conflicted? No, it means that a wine lover needs to take it for what it is; and if you can handle its brash, full throttled character – and the Parkerized $70+ price points – you'll greatly appreciate its richly fruited, meaty, nostril tingling qualities.

Wild Duck Creek, “Springflat” Heathcote/Victoria Shiraz - Another ultra-ripe, almost raisiny black and plummy aromatic style, with strapping tannins lending a mouth watering note to a thick, round, juiciness on the palate. “Over the top,” you might say, but no doubt just right for hardcore Shiraz drinkers.

Fox Creek, McLaren Vale "Reserve" Shiraz - Is it any wonder that the most extreme style of Australian Syrah is now considered the finest? Praise the lord and pass the toothbrush, as this wine is black as a dungeon, with purple stained tones. The nose is huge – a sweet, billowing concentration of blue and red berry Syrah qualities, practically sensed by the eyelids – followed by opulent flavors bursting through a powerful, iron clad structure bolstered by gripping tannins.

Torbreck, “Runrig” Shiraz – In the heart of the Barossa Valley, Torbreck cultivates a stable of powerful, Shiraz-dominated, dry farmed vineyard bottlings, but the Runrig is the sum of the estate’s best parts. Proprietor David Powell describes it as “Vintage Port-like,” and that’s as good a description as any. Its size seems to go far beyond its typical 14.5% structure, and it breaks the scale with blackberry and dark roasted coffee intensity, stirred up with drops of marmalade and the slap of leather typifying the house style. If there’s any one Australian wine worthy of its $100-plus price point, this is probably it.

SHIRAZ/GRENACHE/MOURVÈDRE BLENDS

Classic McLaren, "La Testa" Grenache/Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon - This brand is aptly named, as it demonstrates the classic South Australian blend that takes the best of the Grenache (a white peppery, sweet raspberry fruitiness), Shiraz (black pepper and violet perfumes plus strapping, meaty structure) and Cabernet Sauvignon (black licorice and blackcurrant liqueur-like concentration) grapes, and combines all of this into a big, burly, yet round and seamless structure, enthralling the senses as much as intellect.

d'Arenberg, McLaren Vale "d'Arry's Original" Shiraz-Grenache - Don't think of this as a masterpiece, but as a kinder, smoother, seemingly effortless two-way blend by one of South Australia's most dependable producers. Here the sweet strawberry nose is shot through with black peppercorn and black fruit perfumes, tinged by sweet dill-like, leafy-herbal notes. On the palate, the d'Arry's is fruity and round, happily supported by the taste of warm oak and smooth tannins.

Grant Burge, "The Holy Trinity" Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvèdre - This bigger priced behemoth of a red offers stupendously aromatic fruit – smoky oak, plummy-sweet fruit, black leather, black pepper and star anise-like spice – as well as a deluge of thickly tannic, yet sweetly layered flavors. If you're easily undone by a big wine's deleterious effects, I suggest you stay clear; otherwise, you're likely to see angels.

Torbreck, Barossa Valley "Woodcutter's Red" - A sweetly oaked and concentrated (yet perfectly big and dry), juicy rich blend of three classic Southern French grapes – mostly Grenache, and usually equal proportions of Shiraz and Mourvèdre. Thick and chunky on the palate, a propensity towards leathery brett nuances, yet with sweet cassis-like flavors that slip and slide fairly easily across the palate despite an animal-like girth and generosity.

Charles Melton, "Nine Popes" (Grenache/Syrah/Mourvèdre) - This rare, New World classic hums like a street symphony – sweet raspberry, breathy oak, and soft yet muscular textures -- which gel into a thick, powerful, heady finish. Stops the heart, then gets it pumping again.

SHIRAZ/CABERNET SAUVIGNON BLENDS

Scarpantoni, McLaren Vale "School Block" Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot - Not all South Australian ultra-premium wines of today are ultra-premium priced, and neither are all of them tempests in a teapot. This one, in fact, is a calm, cool, and collected $15-$18 wine (terrific value!); a velvety textured blend of rich chocolate, brown spice, soft leather, and ringingly bright, cassis-like fruit, stretching round and smoothly across the palate.

ADW, "The Hattrick" - The Hattrick is winemaker Tony DeLisio's (who also crafts the Classic McLaren wines) vinous equivalent to a Triple Crown, combining mostly Shiraz with Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon from three different regions, and it's usually phenomenal – a powerful nose, spraying black pepper and lush, sweet black fruit all over the place, following up with a magnificently full, thick preponderance of Shiraz flavor, hitting the palate with both hip-hop style and classical grace.

Parson's Flat, Padthaway Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon – Parson’s Flat’s original winemaker/architect, Sparky Marquis, loves to talk in terms of "matrix" and “synergy” when discussing his endeavored flavor profiles. It all becomes clear, however, when you taste a wine like this, which takes off on all cylinders. A huge, heady nose – aromas of black and green pepper, smoke, succulent black fruit, and an entire forest of leafy, woodsy trees – plus its full, fleshy, chocolaty, black fruit and glycerol textured flavors, lashed against thick, brawny, muscular tannins.

Wolf Blass, "Black Label" South Australian Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz - While dominated by vanillin, slightly dill-like, charred oak aromas, this classic brand delivers a sumptuously round and intense harmony of Cabernet (blackberry liqueur) and Syrah (peppery spice) flavors; stuffed to overflowing, yet coming across as fine and elegant on the palate.

THE IDEAL SYRAH/SHIRAZ FOOD MATCHES

• Syrah is a quintessential “big red” calling for red fleshed foods – from beef and lamb to tuna and game.

• It pays to play up to Syrah’s spice (suggestive of black pepper and smoky incense), a complexity that is more subtle that often assumed; and this can be done with use of aromatics like garlic and alliums, peppercorns and peppers (bells as well as chiles), cinnamon and clove, all mushrooms, mustards, ginger, bay, basil, mints, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.

• The violet and floral qualities of Syrah can be highlighted with the use of plum, berries and cherries (fresh or dried).

• Grilling and roasting are always good ideas, but bringing out the sweetly scented berry or plum qualities of Syrah by first marinating any number of ways is also good. We’ve had luck with soy sauces infused with ginger, garlic, scallions, star anise, lemon grass, and even chili pastes, balanced by sweeteners like palm sugar (I’ve met connoisseurs of Chinese cuisine who swear by Syrah as their single most versatile wine for their complex seasonings and sauces).

• There is enough of a sweetly fruit forward quality in top drawer Syrah to be successful with stews and braises; classically in seasoned natural stocks (especially with quatre-epices), and innovatingly in Japanese, Chinese or Korean inspired stocks.

And a few of our culinary blasts from the past:

• Twice cooked duck and mesclun salad with confit of garlic in a Syrah reduced balsamic vinaigrette with Chave’s sprightly, smoky, slightly gamey and smoothly rounded Saint-Joseph “Offerus.”

• Cracked peppercorn crusted tuna in a garlic thyme Syrah syrup with a moderately tannic, black peppery perfumed Bonny Doon “Sir Rah” Syrah.

• Grilled quail and wild mushroom terrine in a spicy roasted red bell pepper sauce with a round and fruit driven Qupe Central Coast Syrah.

• Cassoulet of lamb, oxtail and pig’s ear with a classically huge, muscular Cornas by Allemand.

• Australian free-range lamb chop in a wild cherry Shiraz reduction with a powerfully sculpted, sinewy, scented Penfolds Grange-Hermitage.

• Hoisin marinated tenderloin of lamb in a tamarind plum ginger glaze with wasabi mash, matched by a massive yet sweetly concentrated Peter Lehmann “Stonewell” Shiraz.

Enough to get you started? Let the games begin!