Some Cabernet with Your Eggs?

Are Americans becoming libation liberals when it comes to wine pairings? Are we finally taking a more relaxed approach to wine and food? Many of us have thrown out the rulebook and have loosened our grip on the classic rules of wine and food. No longer are we stuck with the typical pairing of red wine with meat and white wine with fish. We have a more casual relationship with wine and food as we bring to the table a newfound understanding of the personal pleasure associated with the wine and food experience. Lest we forget, the ultimate goal is pleasure. One thing is certain. When you pair wine and food together they change. Hopefully the whole is more satisfying the sum of its parts. How can you go wrong if you drink the wine that you like with the food that you like? The rest is nuance. This gloriously simple and laissez faire approach to pairings serves us well and gives you the opportunity to sit back and play with your food…and wine.

That been said, historically there have been certain pairings — Wine and chocolate, wine and eggs, wine and artichokes, and wine and salad that must be avoided at all cost. These twosomes are a recipe for disaster. Akin to taking nails to a chalkboard, they can make a sommelier shriek in horror and run for a light beer. I say take ‘em on! Wine can work with anything. Let’s toss these out theories quicker than a dull corkscrew…

Pairings: Wine with Salad
The common theory: Salad can be problematic with wine, especially if the dressing has a large amount of vinegar. It will make the perception of a wine’s acidity diminish creating a flabby, course and alcoholic taste in the mouth.

Reality: While vinegar can alter the taste of a wine in a negative way, wine can indeed work with salad. Simply go easy on the vinegar and consider working in an additional protein such as nuts, meat or cheese.

Taste test: Try a wine with good acidity to stand up to the acids in the salad and if there are sweet elements in the salad such as beets on fruits consider a wine with a touch of residual sugar. Chill up a bottle of Beaujolais or German Riesling and you will be amazed!

Pairings: Wine with Eggs
The common theory: There is no theory. Maybe it’s our association with eggs as the breakfast ingredient, but a more logical explanation could be the fattiness of the eggs. Pair a wine with high alcohol and you may be on the road to a wine that tastes overly alcoholic and coarse.

Reality: Wine can work with eggs though the pleasure factor may be increased if you work in additional ingredients like cheese or meat. In fact, there are classic French egg dishes often call for a wine in the recipe – think of the classic Oeufs en Meurette which calls for eggs to be poached with Beaujolais.

Taste test: Open up a crisp white or red wine, preferably one with an alcohol level under at the top 12%, make the hollandandise and make someone happy!

Pairings: Wine with Artichokes:
The common theory: Cynarin. A chemical in artichokes that makes anything you taste after tasting an artichoke taste sweeter. That’s the culprit.

Reality: If you want your wine to taste sweeter, don’t do a thing! If you want to preserve a wine’s dryness, serve a wine with very high acid. Simple as that.

Taste test: Try a Chinon or a Savennieres from the Loire Valley, or a Dolcetto or Barbera from Italy’s Piedmont region.

Pairings: Wine with Chocolate:
The common theory: Chocolate is a strong ingredient that will overpower the nuances of many wines, rendering many sweet wines drier than an Alto Adage Pinot Grigio.

Reality: Chocolate can work with wine. Work in an acid ingredient like a berry coulis to tone done the sweetness factor and serve a straightforward not overly complex dessert wine that is high in alcohol to give the pairing added power. The complexity of an expensive dessert wine will get lost with most chocolate desserts.

Taste test: Try a PX Sherry, a non-vintage port or a Malmsey Madeira and get your just desserts.

Photo of food pairing courtesy Flickr Creative Commons. Photo credit: Joan Nova