Matching: The Art & Science

A few simple guidelines will help you hit the bulls-eye

Harvey Steiman
Issue: September 30, 2010
Something magical happens when a food as simple as fresh goat cheese meets a tangy, straight-
forward Sauvignon Blanc. The wine's grassy, herbal, citrusy flavors add extra dimensions to the
cheese's milky, slightly animal qualities. The high level of acidity in the soft white cheese's
profile brings out mineral flavors in the wine. Instead of 2 plus 2 equals 4, the match can add up
to 7 or 8.
That sort of synergy between specific elements in food and wine drives the classic pairings.
Champagne's bright acidity and sparkling texture complete the luxurious richness of caviar,
especially when a dab of crme frache tops the roe to smooth out the match. The sweet, gamy
notes of roast lamb (at one time always served with mint sauce) play well against Cabernet
Sauvignon's minty edge and plush tannins. Sauternes' unctuousness, sweetness and rich fruit
character act like the fruit preparations that often accompany foie gras, making that a classic
pairing.
Those conventional matches were formed when the wine world followed the French, and most
wines came from Bordeaux and Burgundy, or at least from their traditional grape varieties. As
the wine world becomes more complicated, finding the path to wine-and-food enlightenment
poses more of a challenge. Today, we eat dishes that incorporate Asian, Latin and Mediterranean
flavors and styles, and wine lists bristle with bottlings made on several continents and from grape
varieties originating in southern France, Italy, Spain and Germany.
Although we are accustomed to searching the cellar for a wine to go with a set menu, another,
more flexible, route to a good wine match adjusts the food to the wine. Armed with knowledge
of how pairings work, it's possible to tweak the food to make a better match with whatever wine
comes to the table.
Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck has an uncanny ability to create dishes that mate seamlessly with
specific wines. For years he has created private dinners for wine collectors at his flagship
restaurant, Spago Beverly Hills, to serve with their tastings of great collectible wines.
To cook something for a Chteau Margaux tasting, for example, Puck began with the wine's
flavor profile. "Margaux has this wet, stony thing going on, so I think, maybe we have a wild
pheasant with it, which has this minerally taste of its own."
He starts to free-associate. "We can't overpower it, so I think maybe we put in a little juniper
berry, which is good with game. To match up with the tannins I might put in some chocolate
with no sugar. That [bitterness] makes the wine feel sweeter. If it would be younger wine, I
would put more fruit in the dish. Right now it's cherry season, so you could put cherries in it, but
not to make it sweet, or you won't taste the roundness in the wine. I would add spices just until it
finally rises to that level where you can perceive them. You have to stay out the way of the
wine."
A final bridge for Puck: sea salt. "The mineral flavors can complement the minerality of a wine."
Interviewed one recent evening at Spago, Puck said he first noticed how much a wine can change
with food when he was an apprentice cook in Burgundy. "I had a chance to drink a lot of great
white wine there," he said. "I would taste a Puligny-Montrachet with sole Duglr, and [the
wine] was much more amazing than it was by itself. I understood that all the white wine in the
sauce gave it the backbone to stand up to the wine."
In making pairings, Puck prefers to use the food to show off the wine, and not to plump up a
chef's ego with an overly complex dish. Puck couches it in terms his Hollywood clientele would
understand. "You might not win the best actor Oscar, but a best supporting Oscar is not bad," he
says. "So I always think of what food can complement the wine, in the same way that a sauce can
complement the meat."
Puck's ideas always play off of a classical dish. "We always do that, then give it a twist. That's
how we got the pizza at Spago, using nontraditional ingredients. At Chinois we added our twist
to Asian food. Once you start with a good foundation, it's easy to put your own stamp on it."
Even if he doesn't articulate specific rules, Puck thinks about textures and flavors that reflect
similar characteristics in both the wine and food. "You have to drink a lot of wine, taste a lot,
really look at what qualities are in there," he says. "I just try to complement the wine in an
exciting way. I want you to taste the wine like you have never had it like that before."
You can tip the odds in your favor by making positive connections between the food and wine.
Two recent books explore in greater depth than ever a flavor-centered approach to make this
happen. Both aim to identify the key characteristics in wine and food that can forge a link.
"A dish is basically like a barrel of monkeys," says Evan Goldstein, author of Daring Pairings
(University of California Press). "You have to identify the alpha male, something that sticks out.
That's what makes the match." His book lists several "magic" ingredients that can build bridges
between the food and specific wines.
He notes, for example, that the brightness of fresh cheese, such as chvre or queso blanco, can
make salads more amenable to tart white wines, even if the salad includes a vinegar-based
dressing (considered a no-no with wine by some purists). Cured meats such as prosciutto can
bring out the fruity charm of a ros, and the earthiness of mushrooms can do well with earthier
wines. And, Goldstein notes, herbs show as much of an affinity for the herbal flavors in
Carmenre and Cabernet Franc as they do with those same flavors in Cabernet Sauvignon and
Merlot.
"Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet are not one-size-fits-all T-shirts, not for the way we eat
today," says Goldstein, who happily embraces the wide range of varietals and growing regions
finding their way into retail shops and eclectic wine lists. His book addresses what to eat with
wines made from three dozen grape varieties, from Aglianico to Xinomavro.
The basic principles, he argues, remain the same, whether you're dealing with Merlot or Menca.
Each wine has a structure that tends toward refinement or power, acid or sweetness, tannin or
softness, and a specific flavor profile that creates its personality. If you know those things about
a wine, you can produce a winning match by linking them with the dominant character of a dish.
Qubec-based sommelier Franois Chartier thinks he can explain why this works so well. He
combed the scientific literature to identify the principal aromatic chemicals in various wines, and
those of plants, meats and other foods. In his book Taste Buds and Molecules (English-language
edition published in Canada by McClelland Stewart), recently translated from the original in
French, he explains how the same aromatic chemicals on both sides of the equation can produce
a great pairing.
Chartier uses this research to venture into unexpected matches. On a visit to San Francisco
earlier this year, he demonstrated why several lamb dishes actually do better with white wines
than with red, even though lamb would seem like a quintessential match for red wine.
He also discovered that compounds called lactones not only play a key role in the characteristic
flavors of foods such as apricots and coconuts, they are also present in the aromatics of new oak
barrels used for wine. Although conventional wisdom maintains that oaky wines are not good
with food, Chartier suggests that lactones can build bridges with oaky wines. To test that theory,
I cooked a pork chop, some chicken thighs and several scallops seasoned with nothing but salt
and pepper while Chartier made a simple sauce from lactone-rich coconut milk.
We then tasted them all with a California Chardonnay that showed significant oak character,
Talbott Santa Lucia Highlands Logan 2007. By itself, the wine was supple, even silky, featuring
exotic spice and toasty notes around a core of pear and apricot fruit. With unsauced scallops, the
wine picked up a bitter edge, but the coconut sauce softened the flavors and its fruit emerged
more clearly. Although the plain pork and the plain chicken turned the Chardonnay a bit tangy,
the wine returned to its old self when the meats were sauced.
Going one step further, we opened a red wine, Fielding Hills Merlot Wahluke Slope 2006, from
Washington. The rich, oak-inflected red wine reacted to the plain chicken and pork exactly as the
Chardonnay had, turning tangy. The unsauced scallop made the wine slightly sour and its tannins
came on strong, as you might expect from a red wine with seafood. But the coconut sauce
changed the equation, and the Merlot returned to form.
In addition to apricots and coconuts, Chartier cites cloves, mushrooms, nuts and firm aged
cheeses such as Parmigiano-Reggiano as ingredients that have enough lactones to tame an oaky
wine. But nothing works quite so well as a cooking method involving direct, dry heat: grilling,
smoking, wood-roasting or sauting in a pan hot enough to create rich browning, a process that
yields rich lactones. The charred flavors echo those a wine derives from aging in oak.
The bottom line is, for oaky wines, keep in mind char-grilled or well-browned food, or recipes
that feature clove, nut, apricot or coconut flavors.
One reason all these matches work is what I call the cancellation effect. Similar flavors in the
food and the wine can fight each other to a draw and let other aspects of the wine come out more
strongly. When earthy flavors in a wine meet the mushroom flavors in a sauce, it's like a guard
putting the stop on a rushing linebacker to clear the way for the running back in football. And
voil, the fruit character of the wine gains more prominence. This also works in reverse. A fruity
wine can respond to the fruit flavors in a sauce to bring out the more savory aspects of the wine.
Aged wines present a different set of textures and flavors. As wine matures, it tends to dial back
the fruit character and raise the volume on earthy, savory notes. Tannins soften. Older wines
become increasingly complex. Aiming for delicacy and refinement in the food can show off the
wine. So while a young Cab might be great with a simply grilled steak, an old Bordeaux can
really take off with short ribs or lamb braised for hours in an aromatic stock.
Part of the reason for that is umami, the fifth taste after sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Umami
develops in long-cooked meats and is naturally present in foods such as mushrooms, tomatoes
and oysters. That taste can amp up the tannins in a young red, which explains why an old
Bordeaux with its softened tannins works so much better with braised dishes than does a young
red with harder tannins.
If all of this seems overwhelming, don't worry. Fortunately, several key ideas cut through the
complications. Successful wine and food matches follow a few basic principles. These are mine:
MATCH THE PALATE WEIGHTS OF THE WINE AND FOOD
Fundamentally, any good pairing seeks to balance the lightness or heaviness of the food and the
wine. Instinctively, most of us know that a full-flavored red would overwhelm a delicate poached
fish, much like a loud commercial following a quiet moment in a TV movie. A fragile white such
as Soave might get lost among the powerful olive, tomato and hot pepper flavors of a chicken
cacciatore, like an acoustic guitar in an electric rock band. It makes more sense to drink that
Soave with the fish, and a red-maybe a Chianti-with that chicken.
MATCH THE WINE TO THE MOST PROMINENT ELEMENT IN THE DISH
This is the most critical aspect for fine-tuning wine-and-food pairings. Identify the dominant
character; more often it is the sauce, seasonings or cooking method rather than the main
ingredient.
Simply cooked, simply seasoned food such as poached or sauted chicken thighs, duck breasts,
beef steaks, lamb chops or pork cutlets seasoned only with salt and pepper can all go nicely with
a single (just not overly oaky) wine. Veal Marsala, however, with its browned surface and sauce
of dark wine and mushrooms, calls for a very different wine than would blanquette de veau,
poached in a creamy sauce lightened with lemon. Both use veal, but the caramelized, earthy
flavors of the Marsala preparation tilt it toward a soft, supple red, while the simplicity and citrusy
flavors of the blanquette easily prefer a fresh white wine.
STRUCTURE AND TEXTURE MATTER
Elements in the food can accentuate or diminish the acidity and sweetness of a wine, and the
bitterness of its tannins. High levels of acidic ingredients, such as lemon or vinegar, for example,
benefit high-acid wines by making them feel softer and rounder in comparison. On the other
hand, tart food can turn balanced wines flabby. Sweetness on the plate can make a dry wine taste
sour, but pairs well with a bit of sweetness in the wine. Saltiness can amp up the bitterness of a
wine's tannins, but oiliness or creaminess can soften them.
LOOK FOR FLAVOR LINKS
This is where food-and-wine pairing can be endless fun. The aromatics of wine often remind us
of foods such as fruits, herbs, spices and butter. You can create a good match by echoing flavors.
Find one or more characteristics from the wine in the companion dish, or choose a dish that you
know tastes good with that particular flavor in the wine. Scientific research, as Chartier
demonstrated, validates exactly this phenomenon.
For those bitten by the food-pairing bug, finding a great match makes it worth studying these
guidelines. For others, it all seems like so much pretension. So let's get some perspective.
First of all, like everything else about wine, opinions are seldom unanimous. I might reach for a
Syrah with my medium-rare, nicely charred steak while you prefer Pinot Noir. With most
cheeses, the wine world has finally discovered the superior compatibility of white wines or,
better yet, sweet wines, over reds. For some of us, roast chicken demands a simple red, while
others go for rich white wines. And that tangy match of goat cheese and Sauvignon Blanc,
perfect for my palate, can flare up the taste buds too intensely for others.
It's not a matter of right or wrong, but what works for each of us, with our own tolerances and
preferences. It's especially important to know what kinds of wines you like and stay in your
comfort zone, just as you would when choosing your food. Kidney, liver and other offal make
some of us salivate, while others wrinkle their noses. Raw garlic and onion, yes or no? Do you
avoid chile peppers?
So it is with wine. Do you prefer tart wines or a soft balance? Does sweetness make you smile,
or wince? Plush and lush, or fragile and elegant? What's your tolerance for tannin, alcohol and
oak character in wine? Is it the fruit end or the savory end of the flavor spectrum that perks you
up? Do gamy or vinegary flavors in a wine take it out of the running for you?
Knowing your preferences will prevent you from drinking something you don't like in hopes that
the food match will improve the wine. That's one of the biggest mistakes in the pairing game,
because most of us drink only a small portion of a glass of wine with the food while taking many
sips before and after consuming the dish it's paired with. Therefore, opt for a wine you'll like
even if the match falls short. At worst, you might need a sip of water or bite of bread between the
dish and the glass, but you will still enjoy the wine-and the food.
To increase the odds of a good match, avoid some known pitfalls. Dry wines can taste awful with
sweet food. Go easy on the salt with high-alcohol wines, as salt can accentuate the heat. Very
spicy flavors tend to like fruity or lightly sweet wines and react badly with tannins in wine. Use
big, oaky wines for hearty, not delicate, dishes. And avoid amping up the tannins in a young red
by instead choosing softer or older wines for dishes with umami, that extra taste in mushrooms,
tomatoes, oysters and long-cooked meats.
But most of all, follow Wolfgang Puck's approach. First, decide whether you want to choose the
wine for the food, or the food for the wine. If it's a great wine, tread carefully with the food and
don't let it overwhelm the wine. If it's a great dish, lean toward wines that don't have strong
personalities that would clash with the wine. Follow your instincts, and learn from experience.
And most of all, have fun.
TRICKY MATCHES
Artichokes
Chemical compounds in this vegetable make anything taste sweet, including most wines. So
choose a tart wine: The artichoke should make it rounder and softer. As with most "problem
foods," other ingredients in the dish can mitigate the effect as well.
Garlic
Raw garlic gets its reek from sulfur compounds that are not friendly to wine. Cooking mellows
garlic, and it then presents no problem for wine. Pure cooked garlic, baked or roasted, does best
with light, fruity whites or ross. Sauces that rely on earthy garlic and onion flavors prefer earthy
wines.
MEMORABLE MATCHES
JOL ROBUCHON
Jol Robuchon
More than 20 years after the fact, I still vividly remember the unexpected harmony between a
Chteau d'Yquem 1945 and a Vacherin. Guy Savoy and I were sitting by the fireplace with Fredy
Girardet at his chalet in Gstaad. An unforgettable moment. A magical match. The wine, from a
superb vintage (my own birth year), retained an exceptional freshness for its age, sumptuous,
delicious, unique. The cheese, unctuous, offered an intense sweetness perfectly balanced by the
slight herbal note of the spruce fronds in which it was wrapped. The best bottles of wine truly
begin to exist at the moment when they are emptied among friends.

RAJAT PARR
Michael Mina Group
We were at a restaurant called Taubenkobel, in Burgenland, Austria. There was this one dish-
yellow bell pepper soup with a quenelle of elderflower sorbet. They served us a 1977 Sauvignon
Blanc Auslese from Wenzel. It blew us away, rocketed to the top of my memorable matches.
The wine was earthy but sweet, with passion fruit aromatics and botrytis and mineral. This is an
example of how earth and fruit can balance in the dish and the wine. On its own, the wine was
just OK. Not much concentration or density, but fine. But it pulled aromas out of the pepper, and
underlined the floral sorbet.
TRICKY MATCHES
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are seen as enemies to wine, mainly because they're sweet. They are botanically a
fruit, after all. Sweetness in food can make dry wines taste sour. Combining tomatoes with
mozzarella in a Caprese salad or simply dressing them with a peppery olive oil can open the door
to light, fruity white wines. Cooked tomato-based sauces seem to like rustic reds.
Asparagus
Asparagus contains aromatics that can clash with wines, but crisp, lighter whites, especially
those with some herbal or vegetal elements, can taste great with it. Grilled, sauted or roasted,
asparagus can match agreeably with most fruit-forward wines.
Champagne & Food
It's a crying shame that sparkling wine is reserved for special occasions. Bubbly wines are
generally very food-friendly. First of all, there is enormous variety to match a range of foods.
And the wines are generally high in acid and low in alcohol, which means the palate is
stimulated and refreshed without being worn out.
Texture is key here. You can have a really creamy dish-sour cream on latkes (with or without
caviar), softly scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, even carbonara-and the wine will cleanse
any heaviness off of your palate. As for flavor, it runs the gamut. With slightly spicy foods-crab
claws and cocktail sauce-find wine with a little fruit or sweetness; for delicate flavors find a
lighter-style sparkler; and for robust dishes look to ros, blancs de noir or vintage Champagne.
Treat sparkling wines as festive, but also versatile.
MEMORABLE MATCHES
JOHN RAGAN
Eleven Madison Park
Daniel Humm, our chef, made this one dish-lobster poached in butter and orange, with citrus
sabayon and a granola with curry. First I tried Riesling and Muscat, but they weren't right. This
is a dish that teaches you that you have to taste, and give up preconceived notions.
It's not a typical Chardonnay dish because of the citrus and curry. Then I tried a Vir-Cless by
Jean Thvenet at Domaine Bongran. He picks very late, so it has this botrytis nose and ginger
and honey that work with the spice and citrus, but he ferments it dry, and it has enough body to
stand up to the lobster.
TRICKY MATCHES
Anchovies
Anchovies packed in salt or oil deliver loads of salty, fishy flavor. Salt emphasizes alcohol and
oak; strong fishiness clashes with tannin. So avoid alcoholic, oaky or tannic wines. Refreshing
whites do well with anchovies, as do fruit-forward reds.
Heat
Most cuisines that favor spicy flavor balance it with sweetness. Not surprisingly, slightly sweet,
low-alcohol white wines just love spicy dishes.
Liberal use of dry spices, including dry chiles, can emphasize the bitterness of tannin, but fresh
chiles don't seem to agitate tannic reds at all.
MEMORABLE MATCHES
Kevin Vogt
Delmonico Steakhouse
Some of the best matches depend on environment and situation. I had this fantastic moment with
some sommelier friends in Marseille, sitting outside at a restaurant that served all this crazy fish
and shellfish that we never see here. Couple of bottles of ros, south of France, friends-that's a
nice moment.
Sometimes the wine and food make the match. I had a Giacosa Barolo with one of chef Emeril's
steaks the other day. The wine on its own is a great thing; the steak too. Together, it's magical.
Other times they can balance each other. I had this Alsatian Pinot Gris with a seared scallop dish.
The scallops are real rich, and Pinot Gris can be too much, but they balanced each other. It's like
a tennis match, back and forth between the wine and the food. Weighty food, refreshing wine.
Wine & Cheese
There are two basic facts to know: First, white wine will work with cheese far more than red.
There are notable exceptions, but straight odds lead to white wine. Second, the traditional cheese
plate mixes styles and textures. Usually at least a couple of these will clash with any single wine
you might pour. So select the wine first, then fill in the cheeses that will work with it. Wines
made from Chardonnay can be fantastic with cheese, because they tend to be creamy and full-
bodied enough for a gooey triple cream, but also have enough flavor to go with a tart Alpine
cheese or an aged goat's milk cheese.
Sweet whites can be great too, especially with washed-rind cheeses or creamy blues. Sauternes is
the classic, and for good reason; again there is a textural match, and the wine acts as a dollop of
the fruity jam that cheese loves. If you want red, try a Port. Stilton is the go-to with Port, but any
strong blue will work. Port can also be good with complex cheeses like aged cheddars.
MEMORABLE MATCHES
PIERO SELVAGGIO
Valentino Group
I am a big proponent of red wine with everything. There is so much variety, from light and
delicate to the crescendo of medium and then big.
Aged wines are especially interesting. The softness of the tannins, plush fruit, terroir and true
pleasure will dance better with the food.
I remember last December I had risotto with white truffles and a 1952 Bartolo Mascarello. It was
turning amber and was a little tired, but still giving the terroir, structure and fruit complexity that
you expect from one of the big monsters. As you're drinking old Barolo and eating one of the
great foods of Piedmont, you are getting two of Mother Earth's greatest gifts: white truffles and
wine.