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

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

A common rule of thumb is to match the wine with the how the beef is prepared.  With every rule, there will always be an exception.  The exception in this case is when a heavy sauce accompanies the prepared beef.  In this case, you should select the wine to match the sauce.  Many websites offer suggests for pairing wine and beef.  

If you prefer red wines, select a Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Bordeaux to compliment that beef dish.  If the red wine selected is “young”, cook your beef to be on the rarer side.  For “aged” red wines, cook the beef a little longer than normal.  There is a consensus that a red wine best accompanies steaks, beef stew, beef stroganoff, short ribs and burgers.  If grilling the beef fits your taste or you like steak tartare, try the Cabernet Sauvignon.  Peppered beef will taste better if complimented with a Merlot.

If your wine preference resides in the white wine category, select a Beaujolais or white Pinot Noir.  Sweet wine lovers might prefer a White Zinfandel, Syrah/Shiraz or Rhone wine with their beef.  White wine and barbequed beef make a great combination.  If garlic seasoning is dominant to the beef preparation or the beef is smoked, try a Shiraz.  A complete discussion of wine can be found on Wikipedia.

One of my favorite ways to prepare beef is to slow-cook it in a crock-pot all day long.  The beef ends up tender enough to just “melt” in your mouth.  The other neat thing about cooking beef this way is you can add your favorite wine to the “brew” to obtain a delectable, combination of flavor.  Crock-pot recipes are limited only by your imagination on what to toss in the mix.

Many combinations of wine and beef can compliment each other and add to your overall enjoyment of food.  As I always say, each person’s palette is different.  Even if your favorite wine is not necessarily touted for drinking with a beef based meal, drink it anyway.  The fun of combining different wines and food together is the experimenting required in doing so.

Find out more about keeping your wine stored properly so it won’t spoil before you get to the store to get your beef.

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