Pairing Wine and Food

For all you wine geniuses out there, there a new book to consult about matching food with wine, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Wine and Food Pairing. I asked Jeannette Hurt, one of the co-authors of the book (the other is Jaclyn Stuart) what she learned while researching the book that surprised her about wine and food pairing. "One of the best ways to pair is to try to match aromas of wine with flavors of food. Another thing I learned is that if you're not sure of a wine's aromas or if you are a newbie with aromas, one of the best ways to familiarize yourself with aromas is to head to a store like Trader Joe's and buy a bunch of foods that match wine aromas - dried cherries, fresh peaches, vanilla, herbs, etc. - and then to sniff the actual foods and then stick your nose in the wines. That's a much better way to gain sensory reference to aromas, and having that, it's much easier to pair wines. For example, some sauvignon blancs are known to have gooseberry aromas, but if you don't know what a gooseberry smells or tastes like, how can you pick out that aroma in a wine?"

Actually, the gooseberry comparison has always struck me as arcane -- how many people know what a gooseberry tastes like? Maybe they're more common in certain parts of the country, but I'd never seen or tasted a gooseberry until I purposely sought them out after reading descriptions by other wine writers (especially British ones) about the gooseberry component in Sauvignon Blanc.  I still think grapefruit and tart citrus such as lime describes most Sauvignon Blanc better because people are familiar with those tastes and smells.

Some of my favorite pairings: oysters and crab with Sancerre or Muscadet; Cabernet with steak; and Champagne or sparkling wine with French Fries or potato chips.