Food & Wine Pairing with White Wine

"Hi, I’m Farley and continuing today’s wine education and I think one question comes up fairly often when it comes to wine is how to prepare food and wine. For me it’s one of the most fun aspects of wine and while some people choose their food and decide which wine to go with it, I usually work in the opposite direction picking the wine I want to drink and what food I am going to cook with it. Today I am going to actually break this up into parts because it is so much information so we will talk about white wine first and then we will come back and talk about red wine. So you have chosen your wine, chosen your food, so let’s say the rule of white wine with poultry and fish and red wine with meat. Some times that is true and if you feel safe sticking with that then let’s do that. So you got a chicken dish. If it is a plain chicken dish you are going to want a white wine. With a lot of meals the sauce is what is really important so if you are doing a chicken with a creamy Alfredo sauce for instance then you are going to want a wine that can stand up to that, something that has a little butter and cream. So say a Chardonnay or Pinot Blanc which is similar to Chardonnay. Now if you have a light piece of fish that has been grilled with some lemon, because you are trying to cut back and be healthy, you are going to want a lighter light wine, something that is crisp and dry that is going to compliment the dryness or the crispness of the lemon and the sauce. With that you want to do maybe do a Pinot Grigio or a Sauvignon Blanc, something that is dry and not too buttery. While we are talking about Sauvignon Blanc I would like to point out that it is one of the most versatile food wines especially from whites that there is. It is one of my favorite wines when I am cooking because there are many foods that are classified as non-wine foods like asparagus, onions, artichokes and vinaigrettes, Sauvignon Blanc can actually stand up to. So if you are using one of those items, making a salad, making asparagus, prepare with Sauvignon Blanc especially one from New Zealand which is an up and coming wine region. There are actually times when you can have white wine with meat like red meat which some people think that it is unheard of but when it comes to something spicy like Thai food or Indian food, say beef curry or beef and broccoli or something like that then the Gewürztraminer or Riesling are perfect choices to pair with that because the wine has some spiciness that goes along the spiciness of the food and a little bit of sweetness which also tends to refresh your pallet as you are eating. It cools your mouth down. A few other pairings for white wines would be fried foods. So if you have calamari or fried shrimp or something like that then a nice crisp sparkling wine can stand up to the fattiness and saltiness of the fried food or something dry like a Pinot Grigio. If you do have a food that is very rich and fatty, like foie gras, an appetizer that has been banned in Chicago recently - it is made from fatty duck or goose liver in France. So essentially when you are trying to pair foods you can stick with what you know and the key is to look at the meal as a whole. Don’t just look at the chicken but look at the sauce you are cooking it in and try to make the wine stand up to that."