Wine Food Pairing | Wine Cooler Blog

Wine Food Pairing: Turkey And Wine

This past Thanksgiving we were blessed to be invited to a dear friend’s house. This was the first time in years that we were just able to enjoy the feast and company of friends without the messy clean-up that comes with entertaining in our own home. I did not have to stuff the turkey or roll up my sleeves at the sink trying to get the baking pan clean. My joy was short lived when my wife made the Thanksgiving announcement that, “Everyone is invited to our house for a big December holiday feast”. There was a resounding cheer at the gathering from everyone at the table. Hands were raised and voices heard to say, “We will be there”. At the last count we had fifteen couples, my daughter, two grandkids and one obnoxious “grand-dog” called Bones.

Preparation Work Detail

When December rolled around, my wife started preparations immediately. First, we had to do spring cleaning in December, which included walls, furnace registers, base boards, floors, etc. The next step was the obligatory decorations that needed to be scattered around the house, including an ornate light display for the outside that had me untangling and hanging lights for days. I was sent to the Party Store to rent tables, chairs and huge serving platters for the food. My final assignment was to get “The Birds” and the wine to go with it. I was beginning to wish we had entertained at Thanksgiving.

Ask The Right Questions

Before I left to do the shopping, my wife told me, “Make sure you talk to someone at the wine store so you get the right wine to compliment the turkey”. I said, “Why didn’t you ask everyone to bring their own wine, instead of us risking that we wouldn’t buy their favorite?” My wife raised her voice at least one octave and replied, “We are doing the entertainment so it is our responsibility not theirs and besides I want everything to be just perfect”. I love my wife dearly and I have learned when it is best to just say, “Yes Dear”. Before I left, I hopped on the computer and did my research so I could portray to the wine store clerk how knowledgeable I was about pairing turkey with wine. I didn’t want to embarrass myself at the wine store. Some sites that I found interesting are Chiff.com, Thatsthespirit.com and an article by Collen Graham found at: http://cocktails.about.com/od/foodbeveragepairing/f/turkey_pairing.htm.

Red Wine or White?

The general consensus from the web research was for a lighter red (not over burdened with tannins) or several white wines that tended to be fruity and slightly sweeter. Another caution, that seems well advised, is during dinner stick with wines lower in alcohol content. Northhamptonwines.com stated, “Save the 15 percent alcohol ‘in your face Zins’ for after dinner when it is OK for folks to go to sleep.”

The top choices I found for red wine lovers were Pinot Noir, Merlot, Shiraz and Red Zinfandel. White wine enthusiasts might enjoy a Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Beaujolais Nouveau or White Burgundy. If some of your guests have a sweet-tooth, then try White Zinfandel or Cranberry Wine. Save the desert wines for after the main meal when it is time to devour the pumpkin and pecan pie.

Not A Wine Drinker, Try This.

Not everyone is a wine drinker. I also ran across some advice for people for pairing turkey with beer and cocktails. The consensus was that a beer should be complex but not over bearing. A good choice might be pale ale from one of the smaller breweries. Another website suggested that for the cocktail drinkers, gin cocktails like an English Rose, Park Avenue or Verbena Martini would work.

I went to the wine store and made my selections with an air of “I know what I am doing”. When I arrived home my wife said, “What wine did you decide on?” I smiled and told her, “One of each, a total of 12 bottles”. She exclaimed, “We won’t be able to serve all that wine at dinner!” I responded, “I wouldn’t think of doing that. I am going to raffle off any that we don’t serve.” My wife grabbed her forehead and walked away stating, “What I am I going to do with you.” I let her have the final word and started preparing the raffle tickets.

I always maintain that there are a lot of people that will tell you what wine to pair with what food. In the end, as I always say, buy the wine you like, store wine properly in a wine refrigerator, serve it at the proper temperature and enjoy it immensely.

Author: Ronald Senn, Vice-president, Ideal Wine Coolers

Wine Food Paring: Easy Wine and Cheese Party Tips

Wine Food Pairing: Wine and Fish-A New Trick for an Old Dog

You work for days on end until the time arrives when you get a day off from work. It only took seconds to kiss my wife, grab my gear, hook-up the boat and hang the “Gone Fishing” sign on my office door. My wife yelled at me as I was going out the door: “Don’t catch anything if you don’t want to clean it”. Ten relaxing hours later, I appeared at the kitchen door with a stringer of bass, crappie and catfish. Before my wife could corner me, I started immediately to clean the fish at the kitchen sink. Of course, my wife would have preferred that I clean them outside. She did give me the go ahead as long as I took the fish remains to the out door garbage can, scoured the sink with Lysol, mopped the floor and sprayed some aerosol fragrance that I will call “Odor de Normal”. Time spent traveling to fish, catching the fish, cleaning the fish and sanitizing the kitchen totaled 12 hours and 27 minutes. This was still better than 8 hours behind my desk.

Couple of weeks later, I declared, “Tonight we are having those fish I caught for dinner.” My wife said, “You cook and I will go to the store for some wine”. She then asked a series of perplexing questions, “Are you leaving the skin on or taking it off?”, “Is the meat from these fish white, pink or red?”, and “How are you going to cook the fish?” In a somewhat sarcastic way, I responded, “Skin on, white meat, grilled.” She left me with the passing comment, “That is all I needed to know” and off to the store she went. I did not have to be told that she knew what she was doing, because the “smarty-pants” grin on her face told me. The fish and wine combination that resulted from our joint efforts made the evening for us.

What she knew about wine and fish, I obviously needed to learn without her knowing it. I do not do well when “smarty-pants” is right. Research with help from the search engines was undertaken immediately. I found a posting by Kara Newman in what she calls a “Whimsical Guideline” for wine and fish/seafood combinations. She said, “White wine with white seafood, pink wine with pink seafood, and red wine with red seafood”. I thought that rule might be too easy to be true. More research merely uncovered the wide range of opinion and advice on this topic.

I discovered there are principles to follow to get the right combination of fish and wine. The principles involved are the weight and texture of the food, the intensity of flavors, the need to balance tastes and the need to match flavors, unless a counterpoint flavor would be better. This did not make sense to me until a read an article on DrinkWine.com called Basic Principles of Successful Food-Wine Pairing. I even found out what “umami” was.

The WineDoctor.com has a whole series of paring wine with everything from soup to nuts. The most important pairing that they tout is the paring of wine with people. I am a firm believer that you should drink the wine that you enjoy the most and worry less about what food you may have paired with. They said pair red wine with fish, but they also added plenty of “ifs and buts” to their basic rule. I also came across an article by Sheral Schowe called “Choosing the Best Wine for Fish”. Her article provides more specific input on the wine and fish combinations. Another website, Ehow.com has a complete array of instructions, tips and warnings to help guide your fish and wine selections.

My research was complete and I was ready for the next time we had fish for dinner. It did not take long for my research to pay off. My wife said, “I bought some fresh halibut at the store for dinner tonight”. I replied, “That sounds great to me. You cook and I will pick up the wine”. She responded, “What wine were you going to get”. Without hesitation and with a Cheshire cat grin of my own, I said, “Without a doubt a Chardonnay, Condrieu or Rousanne would be the perfect match with halibut”. The dumbfound look on my wife’s face was worth the research. Who says that you cannot teach an old dog a new trick?

Remember what I always say store your wine properly, serve it at the right temperature and enjoy it completely.

Author: Ronald Senn, Vice-president, Ideal Wine Coolers, June 2010