World of Wine | The Basics of Food and Wine Pairing

BY MIRA HONEYCUTT

WORLD OF WINE

Basics of Food and Wine Pairing

Oh, the challenges of pairing food with fine wine! We’ve all been there. Planning that memorable experience of pairing your culinary skills with the wine stocked in your cellar.

Food, when consumed with wine, has an effect on the way a wine tastes and vice versa. Generally, though, food has more impact on the way wine will taste than the other way around. There is an art and science to this approach. Let’s start with basic flavors of food — sweetness, saltiness, acidity, chili heat, and umami.

Sweetness in food — increases the perception of bitterness and acidity in the wine; and decreases the perception of body, sweetness, and fruitiness in the wine. So, for dishes containing sugar, a general rule is to select a wine with a higher level of sweetness.

Acidity in food — increases the perception of body, sweetness, and fruitiness in the wine; and decreases the perception of acidity in the wine. Some acidity in food generally is good for pairing as it can bring balance and fruitiness to high acid wine.

Salt in food — increases the perception of body in the wine; and decreases the perception of bitterness and acidity in the wine. Salt can be a wine-friendly component of food and can help wine taste richer and smoother, softening some of the harder elements.

Chili heat in food — increases the perception of bitterness, acidity and alcohol burn; and decreases the perception of the body, richness, and fruitiness of the wine. The tolerance of chili heat, which is a tactile sensation rather than one of taste varies from person to person. Alcohol kicks up the chili’s burning sensation, which can be enjoyable for some people. Pair with white wines or low-tannin red and wines both with low alcohol content.

Umami in food is a savory taste associated with flavors like the salty taste of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) or cooked/dried mushrooms. Foods with high levels of umami without salt are challenging to pair, such as asparagus, eggs, and mushrooms. However, certain foods that are high in umami and salt, can counteract the effect of umami on the wine, foods such as cured meats, and hard cheeses. Pair with white wines, Rosés, or low-tannin red wines.

To get an expert’s take, I reached out to a couple of Paso Robles-based chefs such as Rachel Ponce, who creates memorable pairings with local wineries, and Michael Learned, executive chef at Robert Hall Winery.

Both chefs, surprisingly, had a similar take to approach the meal’s protein as a blank canvas. “I’m really pairing with seasonings and sauces,” said Ponce. Learned concurred, “You don’t taste the protein itself but the flavors around it.”

“The main characteristic of the wine should be there,” Ponce explained. “Food should not alter but lift the wine’s character, elevate the experience.”

Recently I tasted some of Ponce’s appetizers at Nenow Family Wine in Paso Robles. Such as the Asian chicken meatballs accompanied by teriyaki-aioli sauce paired with a bright and citrusy viognier. The wine added a touch of acidity, thus complementing the sauce’s umami taste.

“Think outside the box,” advised Learned. For example, how to enjoy big red wines in summertime. His answer: a cabernet sauvignon paired with beef in lettuce wraps. Or, for a vegetarian option, a beetroot Napoleon layered with a combination of mascarpone and blue cheese that I tasted, which paired brilliantly with a Robert Hall cabernet sauvignon.

How about comparing and contrasting flavors of food with wine?

Such as contrasting sweet and salty flavors, a match made in heaven — think sweet wine with blue cheese. Or spices with dessert wine, suggested Ponce. “Sweetness of wine works well with spice.”

How about fatty foods with high acidity wines, which gives a pleasant experience as the wine’s acidity cuts through the food’s richness leaving the palate with a cleansing sensation.

In comparing flavors, Learned refers to his sticky rice dish enhanced with elderberry reduction paired with a petite sirah. “The fruit notes in the wine go well with the berry flavors of the sauce.”

When it comes to pairing intense flavors both in food and wine, be mindful that they don’t overpower each other. Such as pairing intensely flavored curry dishes. For a tropical Thai curry, an ideal pairing would be a riesling or gewürztraminer; for a North Indian curry rich with cinnamon and cloves, a Southern Rhône red blend would make a good match.

While the above guidelines provide the basics, at the end of the day, it’s what your palate desires and your own culinary inspiration to create that memorable food and wine experience. 

They battled at the frothy shoreline, bouncing off each other like two mighty sumo wrestlers. They hacked at each other’s necks, thick in pink, raw callouses. The sound of it was an impactful thud to drive the other into submission, but neither was giving ground. The more dominant northern elephant seal bull was larger, taller, heavier, approximately all 5,000 pounds of him. However, his challenger was putting him to the test. The younger, smaller bull was not backing down, holding its own on a cool, crisp February morning.

Persistence

As their steamy breaths wafted skyward, the battle ventured into deeper water, the larger bull driving the girthy upstart into the surf. The young bull didn’t give up, though. He circled 50 yards northward and surfed back into the windswept beach near the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse along the San Simeon coastline. With the larger bull preoccupied with taming its extensive harem, the younger challenger attempted to take advantage of females on the northern fringe of the beach. He immediately thrust himself upon a female in estrus. Seemingly, the dominant bull had eyes in the back of his broad head. He scooched swiftly to the other end of his beach and harem. And once again, he sent the young bull retreating back into the surf.

While observing the drama unfold with girlfriend Holly Lohuis, a marine biologist, we agreed that it was only a matter of time before this young bull claimed its own territory and accompanying harem. Before watching it battle with the powerful beachmaster, we noticed a gaping, crescent moonshaped wound on its right flank. Several days later, I sent a photo to wildlife biologist Tony Orr from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association (NOAA), who studies these marine mammals on nearby San Miguel Island, and asked him where he thought the wound came from.

CALIFORNIA COASTLINE: SAN SIMEON

Clash of the Titans

BY CHUCK GRAHAM

“That looks like a great white shark bite to me,” said Orr, who has spent over 20 years researching pinnipeds at Point Bennett on San Miguel. “Pretty impressive.”

If it could shake off a gaping wound like that, then I surmised this young bull would one day soon possess the chops required to rule its own stretch of sand.

Cycle of Life

The chess match continued into the afternoon, the younger bull continuously wreaking havoc on the beachmaster’s harem. Amongst the battles, dozens of weaners - elephant seal pups - squawked for their mothers to nurse. Some of the pups had already been weaned and were forming their own groups, huddling together in the wind and flipping sand onto their backs.

Various gulls and turkey vultures scavenged over unfortunate pups who hadn’t survived, but nothing goes to waste at the rookery. Where pups gathered against weathered bluffs and flotsams of tattered, gnarled giant bladder kelp and Elkhorn kelp, shorebirds such as black turnstones and killdeer tiptoed amongst the weaners, foraging for food as the morning high tide surged within the rookery.

Once the weaners are finished nursing, their mothers leave the rookery, and the pups fend for themselves. Full of milk, they have enough fat to sustain themselves while remaining at the rookery. They are not strong enough to make the long, arduous migration northward to the Bering Strait in Alaska, so they spend their first year of life along the rugged coastline in San Simeon. They’ll spend that time storing up reserves, feeding in the local waters with the hopes of making that challenging journey the following year.

Between the battling bulls, other displays of dominance took place, the male’s pronounced proboscis sounding off with bellowing knocks as the behemoths reared upward, standing over 6 feet tall. Their floppy snouts are long and hollow, the bigger bulls possessing the more impressive proboscis, which swung back and forth as the bulls lunged forward across their precious territories. Robust Rebound

Northern elephant seals were once thought to be extinct due to commercial sealing, the thirst for oil extracted from their blubber resulting in their demise. In the late 1800s, a small population was discovered surviving on a remote Mexican beach. Protections were set in place, and the population began to steadily increase in the early 1900s.

Due to such a low number of individuals being responsible to replenish the gene pool, concerns about inbreeding and diversity still weigh on the minds of biologists.

“Yes, I would assume it’s an issue as their genetic variability would be low,” continued Orr. “If something (e.g., disease) attacked them, I would assume that their population would decrease significantly due to the bottleneck effect.”

Despite that potential concern, today, their robust populations continue to grow, evident on beaches surrounding Piedras Blancas, San Miguel Island, Point Reyes National Seashore, Ano Nuevo State Park, and Guadalupe Island off Mexico. Populations of northern elephant seals all derived from those few individuals that survived in Mexico so many years ago. 